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Crossing Cultural Divides: The Min-On Concert Association Turns 40

In the 34 years that Hiroyasu Kobayashi has worked at the Min-On ("People's Music") Concert Association, of which he is currently president, he has witnessed its evolution from a handful of staffers working out of a prefabricated hut to Japan's largest private cultural exchange institution which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Founded by Daisaku Ikeda, then president of the Soka Gakkai, to deepen mutual understanding and friendship through global cultural exchange, Min-On has sought to promote musical performances from around the world to a largely indifferent Japanese public and to make such music widely accessible, starting at a time when tickets for concerts were generally all but unaffordable for most citizens.

A Wide Range of Genres

Since the association's founding, hundreds of musicians and performing artists from 90 countries have toured Japan under its auspices, while dozens more soloists and groups from Japan have performed in 17 overseas countries to date. Its "A Musical Voyage Along the Silk Road," a 10-part series featuring performers from Iraq, India, China, the former Soviet Union, Mongolia, Turkey, Egypt and Syria, for example, began in 1979 and ended 18 years later. The series was an ambitious undertaking, given that less than one percent of Japanese express an interest in folk music and dance.

Min-On also brought the Teatro alla Scala from Milan in 1981, the first world-class, full-cast opera from Europe ever to perform in Japan. In 1999, following successful tours by dancers and musicians from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, it kicked off the ongoing "A Musical Voyage Across Africa" series with a 25-concert tour by an Ethiopian dance troupe. The series continued with groups from Zambia in 2001 and from Morocco in September 2003.

Min-On has enabled audiences to experience a vast gamut of musical genres, from jazz and musicals to opera and indigenous folk music and dance. The association was also a Japanese pioneer in world music recordings, when it began making studio recordings of artists during their Japan tours.

In addition to its cultural exchange concerts, Min-On also sponsors music competitions for young conductors from around the world. It has also treated some 1.2 million Japanese schoolchildren to free performances by the artists it has invited over the past 30 years, while its music library, open to the public, houses one of the most extensive collections in Japan.

"No other organization in Japan has engaged in as far-ranging music promotion activities as Min-On," says Kazushi Ishida, music critic and chair of a national composers' association. "Indeed, it may not have an equal in the entire world."

Unique Mandate

What gives Min-On its distinct identity? Kobayashi cites its philosophical underpinnings, proposed by Daisaku Ikeda, who established the association to promote peace through cultural exchange on October 18, 1963. As Mr. Ikeda has written: "Music speaks directly to the heart. This response, this echo within the heart, is proof that human hearts can transcend the barriers of time and space and nationality. Exchanges in the field of culture can play an important role in enabling people to overcome mistrust and prejudice and build peace. If you have friends living in another country, you would be unlikely to support the idea of going to war with them. People-to-people ties can act as a brake at a time when political or economic tensions build up."

The written response of a high school girl after an exchange meeting between members of the Ethiopian national dance troupe and school students in Ehime Prefecture illustrates what Min-On aims for: "I admit that I knew next to nothing about Ethiopia until today. But from now on, I'll be following the news closely to see what happens in that country. If it's good news, I'll be happy for them. But if it's not--if they suffer from famine or war, for example--then their pain will become my own."

Kobayashi is proud of Min-On's attempts to raise audiences' interest in people other than themselves. "I feel desensitization to the situation and needs of others is really the key danger facing us today."

Another unique characteristic of Min-On is its fund-raising model. Unlike most other foundations in Japan and elsewhere that rely heavily on public grants or corporate donors, Min-On depends entirely on a membership of some 1.2 million individuals, nationwide who pay ¥500 (approx. US$5) a year to become "contributing members."

Surest Path to Peace

From the responses that Min-On gets through the questionnaires it distributes, it is clear that Japanese audiences are generally moved and impressed by their exposure to different cultures. For groups from developing countries, too, it is a source of pride to be able to demonstrate the richness and beauty of their culture, rather than always being seen as a disadvantaged people. "Cultural exchange of this kind is so precious as it is based on mutual respect and appreciation," says Yukio Yamaguchi, director of public relations for Min-On. "It creates a vital awareness that no one culture is superior or inferior to another. It dissuades us from our parochialism and prejudice about people in other countries and their cultures."

Min-On plans to continue widening the scope of its activities, confident that its role is an important one in today's world. "Cultural exchange is a gradual, unsung process that may appear circuitous, but it is actually the surest path to mutual understanding and peace," concludes Kobayashi. "We've seen for ourselves what this process can achieve, and it has never failed to inspire and sustain us in our task."

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