Japanese Firms Give Record Amount to Area Schools : Education: More than 200 companies contribute $120,000 in cash and equipment to express their appreciation of ‘support and dedication.’

Mindful that California schools are making do with less, Japanese corporations have donated more than $120,000 in cash and equipment to 47 South Bay schools to thank them for educating their children.

The amount is a record for the Japan Business Assn., whose Torrance branch has distributed checks and gifts to area schools for seven years. At a reception Tuesday for local educators, the nonprofit group handed out the contributions to schools attended by the children of Japanese nationals.

More than 200 Japanese companies with offices in the South Bay contributed to this year’s education fund.

“We’d like to say thank you to teachers and schools because we owe them a lot,” said Shoichi Yamada, the group’s education committee chairman and president of Pioneer Electronics (USA) in Torrance. “We appreciate their support and dedication.”

Since its inception in 1986, the program has generated more than $600,000 in contributions for South Bay schools, including cash and equipment such as computers, laser discs and office supplies. The association also has chapters in downtown Los Angeles and in Orange County. Member businesses have parent companies in Japan.

Edward Richardson, superintendent of the Torrance Unified School District, praised the association for its generosity, which is a benefit to all students.

“We cannot, with the limited funds we receive from California and the very limited funds we receive from the federal government, provide all that we want for our children,” Richardson said. The association “has stepped in . . . to help our children and pass on something for the future.”

Cash donations are meted out according to how many Japanese children of group members are enrolled at each school. Palos Verdes Peninsula High School again topped the list this year with more than 100 students.

Yamada, whose son attended school in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District during the 1980s, said the idea for the program came about partly as a means to help area schools cope with an influx of Japanese schoolchildren.

The students and teachers, he said, struggled to overcome language barriers.