The Japanese Government Wednesday decorated David F. Cavers, Fessendon Professor of Law, for his contributions to Japan's culture, education, and social welfare. He was one of 57 Americans honored in absentia as part of Japan's centennial commemoration of the Meiji Restoration.
Cavers went to Japan in 1953 to help start the Japanese-American Program for Cooperation in Legal Studies, which sponsored the exchange of Japanese and American law students and professors.
Under his direction, the program evolved in 1961 into the Japanese-American Society for Legal Studies. This organization publishes two journals: one printed in Japan about American law, and the other printed in the U.S. dealing with Japanese law.