JAFA USA connects the African Diaspora and Japan through friendship, cultural exchange, education, history, youth engagement, and opportunities for communities to learn and grow together.
Three groups—Black Americans, Japanese Americans, and Japanese people—came together through their love of baseball and created their own opportunities despite systemic barriers. Beginning with an invitation from Japan, the 1927 Goodwill Tour gave meaning to e pluribus unum (“out of many, one”) and changed communities and lives for good.
The Building Bridges Across the Pacific Centennial Event celebrates the people who dreamed beyond the limits placed on them, joining three voices into one vision.
From 1927 to 2027
In 1927, the Negro Leagues Philadelphia Royal Giants traveled to Japan on a pioneering goodwill baseball tour at a time when the United States remained deeply divided by segregation.
The players crossed the Pacific as unofficial ambassadors of friendship. Their journey demonstrated how sport could create connections across racial, cultural, and national boundaries.
One hundred years later, JAFA USA is carrying that spirit forward.
The 2027 Centennial Royal Giants Japan Tour will honor the history of the original tour while creating new opportunities for baseball, education, music, cultural exchange, historical preservation, youth engagement, and collaboration between the United States and Japan.
1927 → 2027
One historic journey.
One hundred years of connection.
A new generation building bridges across the Pacific.
A Centennial of Friendship
The 2027 Centennial is designed as more than a commemoration. It is an opportunity to bring students, athletes, educators, historians, artists, families, and communities together through shared experiences across the Pacific.
The Centennial Tour will center on baseball while expanding into education, history, music, art, documentary storytelling, and cultural exchange.
DOCUMENTARY & HISTORICAL LEGACY
Sam Pollard
Director
Adrian Burrell
Co-Director
Aya Futami
Co-Producer
The Centennial is connected to the documentary Black Gentle Giants, which will preserve the history of the Royal Giants and document a new generation of friendship across the Pacific.
The project also seeks to reconnect descendants of Royal Giants players, Japanese hosts, Japanese American communities, historians, educators, and baseball organizations connected to the original tour
U.S. Collegiate All-Stars × Japan Collegiate All-Stars
A major highlight of the Centennial will be a series of Goodwill All-Star Baseball Games in Japan.
The games will celebrate athletic competition, sportsmanship, cultural exchange, and the shared history of baseball that connects the United States and Japan.
Participating U.S. colleges and universities may nominate one or two outstanding student-athletes for consideration for the Centennial Collegiate All-Star Team.
The final roster will seek to represent a diverse cross-section of American higher education while honoring the history and legacy of the Negro Leagues.
A bilingual Centennial exhibition is planned to help preserve and share the history of the Royal Giants and the communities connected to the original tour.
The proposed exhibition will bring together photographs, family materials, historical resources, Japanese and African American artistic responses, and educational activities for young visitors.
The exhibition is currently proposed for the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Tokyo Dome during the August Centennial program.
Dates, venues, and program details remain subject to confirmation.
The Centennial will bring together athletic competition with music, school spirit, and cultural exchange.
Every participating institution may nominate student-athletes for All-Star consideration.
In addition, JAFA USA will seek one college or university to send its marching band and cheerleading team to Japan as the Official Musical and Spirit Ambassador of the Centennial.
Perform at Centennial baseball games and public events
Participate in joint programs with collegiate bands and cheer organizations in Japan
Represent its university as cultural ambassadors
Contribute to documentary and educational programming
Celebrate friendship through music, performance, and school spirit
A Soulful Experience Across the Pacific
The Centennial can carry a Soulful Experience Across the Pacific throughout the program — bringing together food, music, art, history, education, and storytelling created with African Diaspora and Japanese participants.
These experiences are intended to help people connect with the history not only through the baseball field, but through the people, families, communities, artists, students, musicians, educators, and cultural traditions connected to the story.
Planned and proposed experiences may include:
Historical and artistic exhibitions
African American and Japanese food experiences
Live music and cultural performances
Student presentations
Family histories and oral histories
Collaborative artistic projects
Community gatherings
Educational programs for young people
Interactions between students, artists, musicians, athletes, and community members
Explore the proposed 2027 Centennial schedule in Japan, including symposiums, exhibitions, cultural programs, baseball games, youth clinics, and community gatherings.
Important: The schedule is tentative. Dates, venues, performers, participating teams, and other program details remain subject to confirmation.
Link: Tentative 2027 Royal Giants Centennial Schedule.
Baseball provides the starting point, but the Centennial reaches far beyond the game.
The 2027 program is designed to connect:
Baseball + Education + History + Music + Art + Film + Youth + Community
Universities and organizations can participate through academic programs, international exchange, historical research, documentary work, archives, museums, student activities, music, athletics, and cultural programming.
Together, these experiences can help preserve overlooked histories while creating new relationships that continue well beyond the 2027 Centennial.
One Hundred Years of Friendship
The 1927 Royal Giants tour created a remarkable connection across the Pacific.
The 2027 Centennial provides an opportunity to remember that history, learn from it, and build upon it.
From the players and communities connected to the original tour to today’s students, athletes, educators, artists, families, and institutions, the Centennial invites a new generation to become part of the story.
Honor the history.
Celebrate the connection.
Build the next century of friendship.
2027 CENTENNIAL EVENTS
The 2027 Centennial will bring together a series of proposed educational, cultural, historical, and athletic experiences in Japan.
The current tentative program includes:
Centennial opening ceremony and symposium
Regional history symposiums
Documentary and historical programs
A bilingual Centennial exhibition
Goodwill collegiate baseball games
Youth baseball clinics
Family and community programs
Music and student performances
Art and historical displays
Closing symposium and celebration
View the current proposed schedule and follow the development of the Centennial program.
Schedule note: Dates, venues, performers, teams, and other details are proposals and remain subject to confirmation.
Founded in Tokyo in 1981, the Japan Afro-American Friendship Association (JAFA USA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening friendship, educational exchange, and cultural understanding between the United States and Japan.
Through cultural exchange, education, youth programs, travel, history, and global partnerships, JAFA USA works to create opportunities for people and communities to connect across the Pacific.
The 2027 Centennial continues that mission by honoring the legacy of the 1927 Royal Giants tour while creating new opportunities for collaboration between the United States and Japan.