William and Mary Japanese Culture Association

Hi all, hope you've been enjoying your summer so far!
On Sunday, July 3, at 8pm EST, JCA will be holding a meeting to discuss the current state of JCA and how we will change and better represent the Japanese culture on campus going forward. This meeting is open to anybody in the W&M community, including JCA alumni. If you are interested in attending, please fill out this form so that we can send you the Zoom link to the meeting.
Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you there!

JCA Summer Meeting 1 Registration The first JCA Summer Meeting will take place on July 3rd at 8:00 PM. This form is strictly confidential between you and the W&M JCA Executive Board. The information provided in this form will only be used to give you the Zoom link for the meeting as well as to contact you about any possible question...

As some of you may know/may be involved in, there are plans to create a separate Japanese American student organization at W&M in response to how W&M JCA’s presentation of Japanese culture has alienated Japanese/Nikkei/Okinawan students. W&M JCA apologizes deeply for alienating students of Japanese/Okinawan descent at JCA meetings and events. It is not our place as a non-representative multicultural organization to speak over the concerns of Japanese/Nikkei/Okinawan W&M students. During our last executive board meeting, we spoke with Japanese American students about how JCA’s representation of Japanese culture and its overall reputation has alienated them from joining, as of writing, the sole general Japanese cultural student organization at the College open to all W&M students. JCA must present all facets of Japanese culture—the mainland and diaspora—as one of few avenues of Japanese culture W&M students can directly engage in at a predominantly white institution located in an area with a small Japanese American population.

With this in mind, we are holding summer meetings to revise our constitution to be more inclusive of Japanese/Nikkei/Okinawan W&M students and to brainstorm ideas for cultural presentations/events centering the Japanese/Okinawan diaspora. While the forthcoming student organization is formally disaffiliated from JCA, JCA will still promote events hosted by them open to all W&M students because they are informative sources of Japanese/Nikkei/Okinawan culture. We highly encourage everyone to attend these events to obtain a greater understanding of Japanese/Okinawan diaspora culture.

We will be holding constitutional review and emergency elections during the beginning of the fall semester to implement structural changes ASAP so that JCA is a welcoming environment for Japanese/Nikkei/Okinawan students. If you are of Japanese/Okinawan descent and are interested in attending any of these meetings and/or becoming involved in the JCA executive board, please let us know by email at [email protected] or by messaging us through this page.

We have also created a form for anyone to address any questions/concerns/grievances related to JCA: https://forms.gle/bpDeygPYQEshgQDE6

This form is permanently open and 100% confidential between you and the JCA executive board.

A Japanese W&M student founded W&M JCA almost thirty years ago to spread and foster an appreciation for Japanese culture at the College. Going forward, we must heed this philosophy and work to holistically celebrate Japanese mainland and diaspora culture.

- W&M JCA Executive Board

JCA Feedback Form The form will be used to submit any feedback/concerns/grievances for the W&M Japanese Cultural Association. This form is anonymous unless if you provide contact information. We will not share any contact information inputted into this form. Information listed in this form is confidential between you...

Thank You to everyone who helped and/or participated in 2021 Aki Matsuri