The East Coast Japan America League (ECJAL) is an annual conference in the United States that brings together Japanese associations and students from universities in New England and the Mid-Atlantic Region with academia and industry professionals to discuss different topics pertaining to Japan's influences in America. ECJAL was founded in 1992 at Brown University by the Japanese Culture Club. Each year, an ECJAL conference is organized by a different university in the East Coast in order for Japanese and Japanese-American students of different schools to network and share experiences. Every year the host university devises a theme for each ECJAL conference. Speakers Keynote speakers and panel sessions are aimed at introducing the main theme of each conference and discussing its main purposes and issues with conference participants. Past Notable Speakers: Peter Westbrook Six-time member of the US Olympic Team, winner of the bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics Christine Yano Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii Steve Rabson Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies at Brown University Past host schools * 2002 Columbia University * 2003 Dartmouth College * 2004 Yale University * 2005 University of Pennsylvania * 2006 Brown University * 2007 Tufts University * 2011 Columbia University * 2013 Cornell University * 2014 Carnegie Mellon University