The Nippon Foundation

The Nippon Foundation (日本財団, Nipponzaidan) of Tokyo, Japan, is a private, non-profit grant-making organization. It was established in 1962 by Ryoichi Sasakawa. The foundation's mission is to direct Japanese motorboat racing revenue into philanthropic activities, and it uses this money to pursue global maritime development and provide assistance for humanitarian work, both at home and abroad. The humanitarian field focuses on social welfare, public health, and education. The foundation has also been criticized for promoting Japanese historical revisionism, particularly in whitewashing Japanese war crimes committed in World War II. In 2001, the Peruvian Congress determined that the foundation financed forced sterilizations in that country (1990-1999). Since 2003, the foundation has promoted sign language to allow deaf people to participate in society; in this way, they have created scholarships for deaf people at Gallaudet University and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) of the USA. The current chairman is Yohei Sasakawa, World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Special Envoy of the Government of Japan for National Reconciliation in Myanmar, and the son of the foundation's founder, Ryoichi Sasakawa.