March First Monday Forum: Japan’s Gift of 250 Cherry Trees to Celebrate America's 250th Birthday—Grassroots Exchanges and Public Diplomacy

Join us on March 2 to celebrate Washington's iconic cherry trees and U.S.-Japanese bilateral relations. The principal speaker is Masatsugu Odaira, Minister for Public Affairs at the Japanese Embassy and Director of the Japan Information & Culture Center (JICC).

The event will take place at noon at GWU's Lindner Family Commons (1957 E Street, NW, Room 602, Washington, D.C. 20052) and will also be available via Zoom. For those who arrive before 11:40 a.m., a light lunch will be provided.

To register to attend in-person, click here.
To register to watch the Forum via Zoom, click here.

The March 2 program is cosponsored by PDCA, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, GWU Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication, Embassy of Japan, Japan Information & Culture Center, and USC Center on Public Diplomacy.
 

Mr. Masatsugu Odaira, Minister of Public Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in the United States of America, assumed his present position in September 2025.

Minister Odaira joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1998 after graduating from Tokyo University’s Faculty of Law, and has since served mainly in the areas of China affairs and International Law. He most recently served as Director of the First China and Mongolia Division (2024-25) and as Director of the International Legal Affairs Division (2021-24).

He has also worked in Japan-US affairs, in both economic and security matters, serving in the North American Affairs Bureau (2008-10, 2012-13). Additionally, while serving as Deputy Director in the National Security Secretariat (2014), he worked on legal issues in Japanese security policy regarding the Japanese Constitution in the context of the Right of Self-Defense.

He has served as Executive Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs (2010-12) and to the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs (2018-21). He has also served abroad in China as Counsellor (Political Section) of the Embassy of Japan in the People’s Republic of China (2014-17).