Please join us to promote traditional Japanese culture and facilitate understanding the people in Japan.

 

You can help our missions by sending your donation to Cultural News.

 

Is Cultural News published by the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles?

 

Is Cultural News a publication of a big non-profit organization?

 

By responding to the above frequent questions about Cultural News, the answers are absolutely no.

 

Cultural News was started in 1998 by Shige Higashi with a help of his friend. From 1999 to 2001, Cultural News was published once every two months while Shige worked as a translator in a Japanese travel company.

 

After 9/11 took place in 2001, Shige lost his job because Japanese travel industry was totally devastated. But his friends raised $8,000 to support Shige’s effort of promoting Japanese culture in Los Angeles.

 

Since January 2002, Cultural News has been published every month continuously until this moment. Even though Cultural News, Inc. was incorporated by Shige with the capital of $8,000 in June 2002, Cultural News is basically Shige’s “one man show.”

 

Shige is publisher, editor, advertisement sales, deliver boy, accountant, bookkeeper and etc.

 

Page layout and some editorial works are outside works but paid very little.

 

Publishing Cultural News is an effort of individuals, not a government program or a service of big businesses.

 

With generous supports from Japanese American community in Los Angeles and from Japan, Cultural News could survive so far.

 

Annual budget of Cultural News, Inc is roughly $60,000. Subscription, advertisement sales, and Shige’s efforts of coordinating Japanese cultural events and interpreter/translator services, cover approximately $40,000. To keep publishing Cultural News, we need to raise $20,000 a year.

 

Please send any amount of your generosity to:

Cultural News, Inc.

P.O. Box 48678

Los Angeles, CA 90048

(Make your check payable to: Cultural News, Inc.)

(Note: Cultural News, Inc. is not a non-profit organization. Your donation is not tax deductible)

 

Shige Higashi, Publisher of Cultural News

 

Japanese art and culture had developed to its peak during the Edo period (17th – 19th centuries) due to the self-isolation policy by the Tokugawa Shogunate. Especially Japanese paintings are recognized as the world class by art enthusiasts in the Western world.   

 

But traditional Japanese art and culture are endangered species. By the effects of the modernization, artisans and their customers, and performers and their audiences, are disappearing so fast.

 

By publishing Cultural News, we are trying to promote traditional Japanese culture and build bridges between the people of Japan and the people of the world.

 

Please help us to pursue these missions by sending your donation to Cultural News. 

Inquiry about donations, email higashi@culturalnews.com or call (213) 819-4100.