My friend Seitaro in Tokyo, who studied nuclear physics in college, faults the Japanese government for stoking panic over the breakdowns at the Fukushima reactors Friday and Saturday by failing to adequately explain what was going on.

FORBES: For An Accessible Explanation Of Japan's Nuclear Crisis, Watch 'The West Wing'

One of my closest friends has a son who studied both computer science and Japanese in college and also spent two summers in Tokyo, first taking language classes and then working as an intern at a technology company.

FORBES: Magazine Article

According to the Japanese Ministry of Education and Science, the number of Japanese studying in college and university programs abroad began rising after 1986 and peaked in 2004 at 82, 942.

FORBES: Academic Isolation, An Old Problem Getting Worse

Hiromi and Sonicbloom : The all-night marathon opened live from Boston, with energetic Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara and her band Sonicbloom at the Berklee College of Music Performance Center.

NPR: Toast Of The Nation Swings Into 2009

In 1976, Miyamoto, then age twenty-four, was a recent art-college graduate, with a degree in industrial design and an enduring fascination with the Japanese comic strips called manga.

NEWYORKER: Master of Play

The son of a grocer, he was attending Queens College -- "the only one I could afford" -- when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

FORBES: A well-rounded life

Grameen has been instrumental in starting a nursing college in collaboration with Glasgow Caledonian University, and courses in auto-mechanics in conjunction with the Japanese company Autobach.

BBC: What future awaits Bangladeshi youth?