closest neighbors, China and South Korea. Other organizations In addition to its UN activities and its participation in Asian regional groupings, such as the Colombo Plan and the Asian Development Bank, Japan is also involved, beginning in the 1950s, in worldwide economic groupings largely made up of, or dominated by, the industrialized countries of Western Europe and North America. In 1952, Japan became a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and of the World Bank, where it played an increasingly important role. In 1955, it joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In 1966, Japan was admitted to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which brought it into what was essentially a club of leading industrialized countries. Japan has participated actively since 1975 in the annual summit meetings of the seven largest capitalist countries, the Group of Seven, or G8, since Russia joined after the end of the Cold War. See also United Nations University in Tokyo Aiichiro Fujiyama headed Japan's first delegation to the United Nations in 1957 as Japan's foreign minister (1957–60) Japanese Peace Bell References External links Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (Website) Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (Facebook) Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan - Japan and the United Nations - Japan.