The University of Southern California has announced a $6.6 million gift from the Shinnyo-en Buddhist order in support of its Center for Japanese Religions and Culture.

The gift will be used to advance the center's mission to support the study of Japan's culture, history, and contemporary relevance through translational research projects. Established in 2011, the center currently supports projects that examine how Japan's aging society affects labor, taxation, pension, and healthcare issues in the country; the country's role on the global stage in the twenty-first century; and the history of multiethnic Japanese populations and current representations of mixed-ethnicity Japanese identity. The center will be renamed the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture in honor of the order's current leader, and the gift will count toward the Campaign for the University of Southern California, which aims to raise at least $6 billion in private support for the university.

"The USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture carries a deep-seated mission to use the teaching of religion and culture to actively engage our students," said Steve Kay, dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "But it is because of philanthropic gestures such as this that USC can be a leader among American universities in contributing to the strengthened partnership with Japan that I know we all envision for the future."

"With this generous gift, the center will continue to deepen the understanding between the peoples of Japan and America by promoting study of Japan, study in Japan, and study with Japan," said Duncan Williams, the center's founding director and chair of USC Dornsife's School of Religion. "And, in its work, the center hopes to bring to the world the wisdom and the compassion that Her Holiness teaches....We look forward to building upon our research and developing more events with high levels of impact, not only in academia, but for the general public and with government policy makers."