Nippon Foundation

Nippon Foundation

The Nippon Foundation (日本財団, Nipponzaidan?) (Tokyo, Japan) is a private, non-profit grant-making organization. It was established in 1962 by Ryoichi Sasakawa, the late statesman and businessman who, following World War II, was accused and imprisoned, albeit not convicted, of class A war crimes. The foundation’s mission is to direct Japanese motorboat racing revenue into philanthropic activities, and it uses these monies to pursue global maritime development and assistance for humanitarian work, both at home and abroad. In the humanitarian field, it focuses on such fields as social welfare, public health, and education.

Despite its funding of many public health and welfare programs, the foundation has been criticized, primarily by scholars and journalists on the left, as an organization with right-wing, nationalist motives. The current chairman is Yohei Sasakawa, World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination.