During the conversation some questions – the meaning of cultural diplomacy, strategies the institution follows, the challenges it faces, the projects and collaborations it has on their agenda and its connection to Japan and Germany – served as guidelines to get a better understanding of the initiatives of the Center and its position in the cultural and diplomatic sphere.

The Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) occupies a distinctive position within Germany’s cultural and diplomatic landscape. As Dr. Julia Münch explains, the Center is a non-profit foundation dedicated to fostering Japanese–German and international exchange across multiple spheres, including politics, business, science, culture, and civil society. What makes the institution particularly unique is its origin and structure: it was founded jointly by the Japanese and German governments and continues to be bilaterally funded and organized by both states.

This bilateral foundation model places the JDZB in close relationship with governmental actors and the Embassies of both Japan and Germany, while still preserving its institutional independence. According to Dr. Münch, this balance is intentional. The Center collaborates closely with official institutions and actively seeks synergies, yet it operates autonomously in its programming and mission. The JDZB exists precisely because both governments wanted to create a platform that could go beyond official diplomacy — one designed specifically for people-to-people exchange and intellectual dialogue.

Dr. Münch situates the Center’s origins in the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War. At that time, Japan, Europe, and the United States were closely aligned within formats such as the G7, and political and economic cooperation was already well developed. What policymakers felt was missing, however, was a comparable level of exchange at the civil society level between Europe and Japan.

The Japanese-German Center Berlin was thus conceived as a tool to enhance dialogue, particularly between Japan and Germany, but with a broader international outlook. Since its founding, the Center has pursued this mission by organizing a wide range of activities: conferences, symposia, workshops, networking events, and cultural programs. These formats are designed not only to facilitate rational and intellectual exchange, but also to reach people emotionally — a dimension Dr. Münch considers essential.

For more than 25 years, the JDZB has also operated exchange programs and offers Japanese language courses, further expanding its educational role. In recent years, the Center has increasingly positioned itself as a hub for European–Japanese exchange, opening its venue to third parties and acting as a cooperating space for other organizations active in the Japanese–German context.

One of their key roles is to facilitate exchange between experts, practitioners, scientists, and everyone. They try to identify interesting topics, like cultural heritage, and bring people together on different aspects of that. When asked about cultural diplomacy, Dr. Münch stresses an important distinction: the Japanese-German Center Berlin is not a cultural institute in the traditional sense, and cultural diplomacy is not its primary mandate. Nevertheless, she emphasizes that the Center contributes significantly to cultural diplomacy through its work.

Rather than focusing on representation or one-directional cultural explanation, the JDZB prioritizes mutual learning. Its approach is to bring people into close, interactive dialogue, engaging them on a deep level instead of relying on top-down lectures or presentations about “the other culture.” This dialogical method, Dr. Münch argues, is far more effective in fostering curiosity, engagement, and genuine understanding.

By encouraging Germans to get to know Japan — and Japanese participants to engage deeply with Germany — through direct interaction, the Center creates spaces where cultural diplomacy happens organically. The JDZB also works closely with established cultural institutions such as the Japan Foundation and the Goethe-Institut. This cooperation is embedded even at the organizational level: the Deputy Secretary General of the Center has been sent from the Japan Foundation and simultaneously serves as its liaison director in Berlin, effectively wearing “two hats” and strengthening institutional ties.

In terms of content, the Japanese-German Center Berlin does not focus primarily on historical presentation. While history is acknowledged as essential for learning, the Center’s programming is future-oriented. Dr. Münch explains that the JDZB typically selects topics of mutual relevance, often connected to global megatrends that affect both Japanese and German societies.

By bringing experts from both countries together to address these shared challenges, participants learn not only from each other’s expertise but also about each other’s cultural perspectives. Cultural understanding emerges naturally from these exchanges. To complement intellectual dialogue, the Center also incorporates emotional and sensory dimensions — through joint art projects, music, food, and collective experiences such as singing together — creating moments of shared humanity that deepen mutual connection.

Collaboration is central to the Center’s work. Dr. Münch notes that hardly any project is organized independently. In the last year alone, the JDZB organized more than 150 projects, including courses and a variety of event formats. For each initiative, the Center actively seeks partners, which may include museums, universities, companies, think tanks, research institutes, and other cultural organizations in Germany and abroad.

The JDZB maintains strong local and international networks. It is a permanent guest of EUNIC Berlin, the network of European cultural institutions, and a member of “Kulturkorso”, a regional network of museums and cultural institutions in southwest Berlin. These affiliations allow the Center to co-host exhibitions, events, and exchange programs, expanding its reach beyond explicitly Japanese-German themes.

Internationally, cooperation with partners in Japan is equally strong. A notable example is the Center’s close collaboration with the Goethe-Institut in Tokyo, enabled by a shared immersive video conferencing infrastructure. Using advanced technology — including high-speed computing systems — the Center can host near-real-time, high-quality exchanges between artists and scholars in Japan and Germany. Planned projects include experimental jazz performances staged simultaneously in both countries, allowing performers and audiences to engage in genuine transnational dialogue.

Dr. Münch also highlights the Center’s commitment to innovation and digital outreach. While the JDZB’s physical venue in Berlin-Dahlem is highly valued, it has natural limitations: capacity is capped at around 200 people. By complementing in-person activities with digital formats and social media, the Center aims to expand its reach — particularly among younger audiences — without replacing personal interaction. This hybrid approach, Dr. Münch explains, is intended to increase access, visibility, and ultimately cultural understanding, reinforcing the JDZB’s mission in a changing media environment.

Dr. Julia Münch emphasized that they are in a very fortunate position due to the mutual interest between the two countries, which continues to increase. For example, the traditional Japanese craftsmanship is very well received in Europe. In the light of current geopolitical developments, the partnership between Germany and Japan is very strong and valued, there are many forward relations.

She named rising costs as one of the major challenges. However, she added that efficiency increases with today’s technological opportunities. The Secretary General said that another ongoing challenge is to reach younger people in an increasingly digital and fast-paced cultural landscape. Although people are more easily reachable on social media, it is especially difficult to target younger people and arise interest.

The Japanese-German Center has a broad portfolio and different formats to reach different target groups, their most important being the decision makers in order for them to know about the cooperation possibilities between Japan and Germany. Obviously, it is desirable to reach decision-makers at a very early stage, that’s why they focus on exchange programs, where they won't reach so many people, but the ones they target can be focused on more intensively. The center also tries to broaden their alumni network via forming an alumni club.

Currently, they run five programs: for young volunteers, for young professionals, for youth and welfare specialists, so people already working are funded by the youth ministries of both countries. The fourth is a young leaders forum, which they finance from the industry and, last but not least, the so-called JEX program, which is a junior experts program for young scientists funded by the German Federal Research Ministry and the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

The institute always looks for more ways to reach out to younger generation, for example they have many corporations with schools in Berlin. Sometimes they invite kids to the JDZB, for instance on Japanese Kid’s Day, the Japanese Ambassador visited and explained the differences between Germany and Japan.

Dr. Münch noted that the center does not prioritizes special aspects of Japanese culture, but tries to balance multiple topics. However, there are some topics that resonate strongly with current global issues, such as sustainability, demographic change, the culture of knowledge and knowledge transfer, which also has some cultural aspects in it. She highlighted the relationship between tradition and innovation is especially important for her, because it is very well lived in Japan. People are very future-oriented and open to innovation, but at the same time, they respect traditions and are keen on learning from each other and from their teachers or masters.

The institute just celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2025 and has high ambitions for the future. The Secretary General emphasized that JDZB achieved a lot in the past decades and has a lot planned for the upcoming years, even expanding its activities, beginning with broadening their horizons, also including digital space.

They try to act as a platform for all actors in the Japanese-European context and increase multilateral approaches. However, organizing events will remain one of their main activities. One popular format is Open Mondays, every first Monday of the month the center hosts movie nights, musical performances and exchanges. It offers a cooperation space, networking salons and symposia focusing on topics like democracy, global responsibility and digital transformation. They also plan workshops and support others carrying out workshops at the JDZB, for example in the fields of theater, opera, craft and cooking. Another objective for the organization is creating exhibitions, bringing artists from both countries into dialogue.

Reflecting on the significance of the Japanese-German Center Berlin, Dr. Julia Münch brought up a speech of their founding father Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone who highlighted that the center would be a very special institution, because it could help to cope with the responsibility after the Second World War by showcasing that Japan and Germany could somehow contribute to the international community.

She spoke about how nowadays autocratic countries are again on the rise, so it would be crucial to combine forces and stand up for democracy. For this reason, the Japanese-German Center is more needed than ever, and its not only a job, rather a mission.

This year the center lived many interesting events, including high-ranking speakers from both governments who all encouraged them to do even more and grow. The team is motivated and enthusiastic about fulfilling their mission to make strong connections on all levels of civic society between Europe and Japan and extend their ties with other European countries and other democratic countries.

The ICD team would like to thank Dr. Julia Münch and the Japanese-German Center Berlin for their hospitality and the possibility of conducting an insightful interview with the Secretary General.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JukhhFxTxwo