U.S.-Japan Council of the Japanese American National Museum, who had been working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to introduce Japanese American leaders to Japan through the Japanese American Leadership Delegation. Hirano Inouye is now the President of USJC. In 2012, the U.S.-Japan Council (Japan) was created to support the administration of the TOMODACHI Initiative. In 2013, U.S.-Japan Council (Japan) became a Public Interest Corporation ("Koeki Zaidan Hojin"). President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe praised the work of the U.S.-Japan Council in supporting the U.S.-Japan relationship in a Joint Statement issued during their April 2014 Summit. The Joint Statement particularly
Japan–Russia relations leaders decided to sign off on joint projects in five areas — aquaculture, greenhouse farming, tourism, wind power and waste reduction. At the 2018 Thirteenth East Asia Summit in Singapore, Shinzo Abe followed up on a proposal from Vladimir Putin to sign a peace treaty without preconditions by the end of the year. He said that the leaders would seek a peace treaty to the terms of the 1956 Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration. The declaration gave Japan the Habomai islet group and Shikotan while the Soviet Union claimed the remaining islands, but the United States did not allow the 1956 treaty.