The University of California, Los Angeles has announced a $25 million gift from Tadashi Yanai, chair, president, and CEO of Japan-based Fast Retailing and founder of casual wear company Uniqlo.

The largest gift from an individual in the history of the humanities division of UCLA College will endow the Tadashi Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities. In 2014, Yanai gave $2.5 million to create the initiative, a collaboration between UCLA and Waseda University, one of Japan's most prestigious universities. The program supports academic and cultural programming as well as student and faculty exchanges between the two universities.

The initiative is housed in the UCLA College Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and is directed by Michael Emmerich. The latest gift from Yanai will establish an endowed chair in Japanese literature and fund conferences, public lectures, faculty research, cultural performances, and community outreach. The gift also will trigger matching funds from the university's Humanities Centennial Match and UCLA Centennial Scholars Match campaigns.

"It has been inspiring to see all of the creative, innovative programming — both academic and cultural — that this project has realized over the past five years," said Yanai. "Now that we are making it permanent, I'm excited to see how it will continue to transform the Japanese humanities in a global context. At the same time, I hope this gift will give others a chance to remember how crucial the humanities are, and, in their own way, to recommit."