This year's Japan Foundation Awards are going to Ikuo Hirayama, a prominent painter, and William Beasley, a British historian specializing in the history of the Far East.
The Japan Foundation, affiliated with the Foreign Ministry, made the announcement Thursday.
The awards are granted each year to individuals or organizations who make a distinctive contribution to cultural exchange between Japan and other countries.
Beasley, author of the 1963 book "Modern History of Japan," was given the award for promoting Japanese studies overseas. Hirayama was named for his efforts to preserve endangered cultural assets and ruins in east Asia.
The foundation awarded its Special Prizes to Kosta Balabanov, president of the Society for Macedonian-Japanese Friendship and Cooperation; Naoyuki Miura, president of Music From Japan; and the Berliner Festpiele, an organizing body of the Berlin International Film Festival.