President's Message

Greetings from Japan! I would like to take this opportunity to introduce JUCA or Japan-U.S. Communication Association, an organization affiliated with NCA. It was founded at the NCA’s annual convention in New Orleans in 2002 to serve some 30 members as a platform to exchange views, research methodologies, findings, innovative ideas for teaching and training, related to communication issues involving Japan and the U.S.

Japan was not well represented in the NCA as a country with a good number of NCA members, nor as a topic of academic interest before the foundation of JUCA. Though a number of Japanese researchers who have once studied and/or taught in the U.S. have a diversity of research interests, the diversity ironically kept them from forming a group. A group of interested researchers/teachers decided to take the initiative to form JUCA as an NCA affiliate to facilitate communication and collaboration among the NCA members across the academic divisions such as rhetoric, interpersonal, and intercultural communication.

The political, economic, and cultural relationships among countries on the Pacific rim, including Japan and the U.S. have become increasingly unpredictable and challenging in recent years. JUCA has potential faculty to discover, define, and discuss what may appear to be quite difficult international issues from various communication perspectives, thus serving many academic as well as practical purposes. Interest in non-Western perspectives on the communication discipline has also been growing. Collaboration among scholars, teachers, and practitioners involved in interpersonal, organizational, intercultural, health, media, etc. can contribute so much to better understanding of the fundamental, yet important philosophical issues that underlie the human social practices, called “communication.”

Why not join us? All you need to do is to submit your application form, available at the JUCA business meeting during the NCA annual conferences. The membership is free of charge. JUCA is also known for its socials that take place during the NCA annual conventions!