It was a warm summer afternoon at Japan Society’s headquarters near the United Nations in midtown Manhattan and the president of the nonprofit organization had a question.

“Our mission is to connect American and Japanese people(s), cultures, and societies,” said Joshua Walker, president of Japan Society. 

He paused. 

“How do you do that when you can’t travel?”

Walker sat in his office, a bright and spacious room with 50-year-old wood furniture designed by George Nakashima.

Paintings and prints covered the walls, and there was a round window overlooking a small pond and a bonsai tree in the lobby below. He wore a suit and tie with a small red Japan Society pin on his lapel.

Walker is the 20th president and youngest in the society’s 115-year history. He grew up in Sapporo, the son of American missionaries, and moved to the United States when he was 18.

He took the helm of Japan Society--which connects the United States and Japan through exhibitions, shows and lectures across the arts, culture, politics, and economics--in December 2019, at age 38.

Since taking over, Walker has steered the society through the COVID-19 era--through travel restrictions between Japan and the United States, which have made work difficult and complex.

“COVID has forced us to really consider the core of who we are,” Walker said. 

The pandemic also meant in-person events at the headquarters were untenable for many months, and border controls and quarantine requirements in Japan have made events in New York with politicians or entertainers from Japan difficult to hold.

But amid this era of restrictions, Japan Society’s mission has taken on newfound importance and urgency--and the institution has adapted and changed.

Its staff shifted to remote work during the peak of the pandemic: talks, performances and other events also moved online, allowing speakers and guests in Japan and the United States to communicate through Zoom and reach a younger generation.

In recent months, the society has also returned to some in-person events, including a recent performance and exhibition of works by the artist Kazuko Miyamoto.

“We have to figure out new ways of attracting audiences, new ways of expressing the abundance of Japan to an American audience--and helping people understand that U.S.-Japan relations are not just about our two countries,” Walker said. "I think U.S.-Japan is totally global.”

But many of Japan’s border restrictions are still in place, limiting exchanges between the two countries, preventing foreign travelers from visiting and hurting Japan’s place in the world. Walker has vocalized the need for the country to ease access.

“I think Zoom and other things like that are very effective at keeping relations and exchanging information, but they’re not deepening our relationship and deepening our experience in many ways,” he said. "If you’re trying to learn Japanese and you want to visit Japan, how are you going to have that experience?”

JAPAN’S GLOBAL ROLE

Walker returned to Japan for the first time in two and a half years in May. It was the longest he had been away from his “heartland,” where his parents still reside.

He arrived during U.S. President Joe Biden’s first trip to the capital as president, with American and Japanese flags flying together on the streets of Tokyo's Nagatacho. The prime minister of India and the recently elected prime minister of Australia were also in Tokyo at the time for the Quad Leaders’ Summit.

To Walker, it felt normal, celebratory and global.

“Tokyo was the right venue to have this coming-out party,” he said. Though, as he added, “it did not feel like Japan was fully back. It felt to me like Japan was in a process of recovery.”

But he also left with a clear idea of Japan’s role in the future.

“Japan needs to be reminded of its global role. It needs to be reminded why this relationship (between the United States and Japan) is so critical,” he said. “And I think, in particular, there's a role for New York in that.”

New York, much like Tokyo, is a global financial capital. It is “a global stage,” said Walker, and the city where many Japanese companies have their global headquarters.

And in New York, as across the United States, Japanese culture is ubiquitous: Japanese food, clothing, anime, video games, film, and other pieces of culture are part of the daily lives for many.

“I think the Japanese culture has really broken through in New York," he said.

Walker sees Japan Society as helping to shape this connection to Japan across the United States. For many, the society is a “trusted guide," a place to study language or watch a Japanese movie or show and to learn about Japan beyond the superficial.

Through it all, though, Walker wants to preserve the best of the storied organization, the oldest of its kind, devoted to the United States and Japan.

He said sharing Japanese culture with Americans requires people to be present and on-site at the New York headquarters, much like learning about Japan compels a visit to the country.

“When you look over there," he said, motioning to a yellow painting with black dots on a wall in his office, “you see Yayoi Kusama's early painting she did as a fellow of Japan Society."

He pointed to the side of his desk, where sits a framed print by Shiko Munakata, who gave it to the society decades earlier.

Walker then looked to a shelf behind him to a board with the kanji for Reiwa, gifted to him when he became society president by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who later became prime minister. 

“These are all artifacts of moments in time, but they all point to the enduring legacy and importance of our mission," Walker said. “I would argue that our mission has never been more critical than today."