The Abe Fellows Network (AFN) represents the 446 alumni of the Abe Fellowship Program (1991-2022), a bilateral research fellowship founded through the efforts of Shintaro Abe, former Japanese minister of foreign affairs. For over 30 years, the Abe Fellowship Program supported exceptional scholars and practitioners from the United States and Japan in their contributions to global knowledge by facilitating opportunities for policy-relevant, comparative and transnational research on topics of global importance. The Japan Foundation and the Social Science Research Council remain committed to continued support for the Abe Fellows Network of researchers, practitioners, and journalists.

Through the collaborative grants, the SSRC-JFNY Japan Global Workshop, and the Abe Fellows Global Forum, programming for the AFN is designed to engage Abe Fellows in the development of new collaborative opportunities, foster innovative research, and offer support to and connection with a younger generation of researchers, policy practitioners, and journalists whose work includes Japan. International collaboration, centered around research, training, and dissemination, allows the Abe Fellows Network to provide an avenue to effectively address global issues and develop policy solutions.