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Yoshiyama Program


2008 Recipients
Past Recipients
Public Service Announcement Project

The Nomination Period is now CLOSED.


 The Hitachi Foundation presents the Yoshiyama Award For Exemplary Service To The Community each year to ten high school seniors from around the United States on the basis of their community service activities

The Hitachi Foundation announces major evolution for Yoshiyama Awards program.

Twenty-one years of experience honoring high school seniors for what they have done in their communities has proven to us that young people are remarkably creative and capable of initiating sustainable change. So we are planning to move beyond honoring young people for the changes they have made and, instead, invest directly in the changes they are making, now and into the future.

The Hitachi Foundation is focused on discovering and expanding business practices that create tangible opportunities for people to move out of poverty. Over the years the Yoshiyama Awards have highlighted the inventiveness of young people in addressing complex community challenges. The next phase for this program will invest in these young social entrepreneurs and learn from their endeavors. This change will further our objective of identifying, supporting, and learning from innovative approaches to addressing poverty. The new Yoshiyama Program will invest in young people who direct their creativity, commitment, and idealism into social ventures that help people who are economically stuck in place or losing ground.

Over the course of the next several months we will be working on the many steps necessary to implement this transition. Thus, in 2009, we will temporarily suspend the Yoshiyama awards.

Please continue to check this page for updates on the evolution of this prestigious program, and for announcements launching the new Yoshiyama Awards in 2010.

We are grateful to late Mr. Hirokichi Yoshiyama, former president and chairman of Hitachi, Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, for making this Award possible. The Foundation initiated the Award program in 1988 with funds donated by Mr. Yoshiyama upon his retirement.

Article: "Recharging to Change the World.

Announcement of the 2008 Yoshiyama Award recipients.

Two Business Students Selected for First Yoshiyama Business in Society Fellowship.

"Get out and Live - Volunteer" - listen to the 2006 Radio PSAs created and produced by the 2004 and 2005 Yoshiyama Award recipients.

15th Anniversary Essay

10th Anniversary Essay

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 photo of 2007 and 2008 recipients
Photo of Mr. Yoshiyama

Hirokichi Yoshiyama
(1911-2007)
Former Chairman Emeritus, Hitachi, Ltd.


The world is plagued by problems: drugs, violence, discrimination, poverty, and environmental destruction. The more serious these issues become, the harder many of us try to ignore them...

I believe that each of us must take the initiative in addressing society's problems as if they were our own individual concerns.

If we do, we can surmount today's difficulties and create a brighter world for people everywhere.

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