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January - December 2018
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LifestyleSpecial Events@JapanSocietyLondon

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The Japan Society

The Japan Society, 13/14 Cornwall Terrace, London NW1 4QP

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Japan Society Book Club: An Artist of the Floating World by
Kazuo IshiguroMonday 8 January 2017		7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

An Artist of the Floating World is the second
novel by the 2017 Nobel Prize-winning
author Kazuo Ishiguro. The novel is set in
Japan after the end of the Second World War
and is narrated by Masuji Ono, a respectedartist who is now retired. Struggling throughthe rapidly changing environment of the
post-war society, the mature painter looks
back on his life reflecting on his past actions
and artistic work in support of the imperialist
movement that led Japan into the war.
Kazuo Ishiguro is the 2017 winner of theNobel Prize in Literature. He was born in
Nagasaki in 1954 and moved to Englandwith his family in 1960. He has received four
Man Booker Prize nominations and won the1989 award for his novel The Remains of

the Day. His work has been translated into
more than 40 languages and adapted into
highly acclaimed films. Ishiguro’s other work
includes A Pale View of the Hills, Never Let
Me Go, and The Buried Giant.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Grass Poets: Japanese Baskets, 1845-1953 – with Joe Earle
Monday 15 January 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

For thousands of years, Japanese farmers
and artisans have plaited tropical woody
grasses of the bamboo family into practicalcontainers, but it is surprising to discover thatbasketry as a self-conscious art form is little
more than 150 years old.

bamboo, in particular through his use of theara-ami (‘rough weaving’). His innovations
helped pave the way for the extraordinary
and varied achievements of Iizuka Rōkansai(1890–1958), widely regarded as the greatestof all bamboo artists.

Based on the recent research andknowledge gained through cataloguing amajor European collection, this lecture will
explore Japanese bamboo art’s origins insencha, a supposedly Chinese manner of
tea-drinking with Chinese-style utensils that
became popular during the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries.

Joe Earle was Director of Japan Society
Gallery in New York until 2012 and has heldleadership positions in Asian art departments
at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Overthe past 37 years he has curated, organized, or
written catalogues for numerous exhibitionsof contemporary Japanese art, craft, anddesign, including “Contemporary Clay:Japanese Ceramics for the New Century”(Boston and New York, 2005 and 2006), “NewBamboo” (New York, 2008), “Serizawa: Masterof Japanese Textile Design,” (New York,
2009), “Bye Bye Kitty!!!: Between Heaven andHell in Contemporary Japanese Art” (NewYork, 2011), “Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile
Pioneers” (New York, 2011), “New Forms, New
Voices: Japanese Ceramics from the GitterYelen Collection” (New Orleans, 2017). He
is now based in London, and has recently
completed a catalogue of 323 works ofJapanese bamboo art in the Naej Collection.

Joe Earle will illustrate his talk with a wealthof previously unpublished works from twoof Japan’s greatest bamboo dynasties, theHayakawa Shōkosai line in Kansai and the
Iizuka line in Kanto. Hayakawa Shōkosai I(1815–1897), the first basket-weaver to sign
his work, started by making almost direct
copies of Chinese baskets but graduallydeveloped a distinctively Japanese idiom.
His younger son, the little-known Hayakawa
Shōkosai III (1864–1922), played a critical rolein broadening the expressive potential of

Meiji at 150: Meiji Japan and Victorian Britain in dialogue
Saturday 27 January 201810am to 5.30pm (Doors open at 9.30am)

The Art Workers’ Guild
6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury
London WC1N 3AT£65 including buffet lunch and tea/coffee
Booking essential - Booking deadline: Wednesday 24 January 2018
Please note that tickets are booked directly with the Victorian Society.
Please visit our website or phone the Japan Society for a booking form.
On the sesquicentennial anniversary of the
Meiji Restoration in 1968, the Victorian Society
and the Japan Society are coming together todiscuss how life in both Japan and the Westchanged during the Emperor Meiji’s reign whichcoincided, almost exactly, with the second
half of Queen Victoria’s reign and Edward VII’s
subsequent monarchy.
Martin Dusinberre, Professor of Global History
at the University of Zurich, will start the day withan overview of Meiji Japan, bringing together aStrong painting, an Armstrong ship and showsof strength in the late-nineteenth century world.
The first panel will focus on diplomacy. Sir David
Warren, former Ambassador to Japan and
Chairman of the Japan Society, will introduce
the scholar, diplomat and Japanologist, Sir
Ernest Satow. Satow’s language skills madehim indispensable to the first British Minister
Plenipotentiary, Sir Harry Parkes, on whom, as
well as the Japanese Ministers to the Court of St
James, Dr Andrew Cobbing of the University of
Nottingham will be speaking.
In the second panel, Dr Angus Lockyer of SOAS
and Dr Ayako Hotta-Lister, an independentscholar, will investigate the international
exhibitions which so facilitated Japan’s

exposure to the West, culminating in the 1910
Japan-British Exhibition in London.
The consequent fashion for Japonisme which
emerged in the later 19th century was verymuch a result of these exhibitions. In the third
session, dedicated to visual arts, Professor
Toshio Watanabe of the University of the Arts,
London, will consider Japonisme in Britain while
Dr Monika Hinkel of SOAS will explore the workof woodblock print artists in early Meiji Japan.
In Japan, the house and garden cannot be
separated either physically or conceptually.
Both Britain and Japan are island countries andquite wet ones at that. Thus the presentation on
Japanese-style gardens in Britain and Ireland by
Dr Jill Raggett of Writtle University College shouldcome as no surprise, although the examples of
Meiji-era houses and gardens in Japan, shownby Professor Neil Jackson of the University ofLiverpool, might raise some eyebrows.
The Study Day will end with Natasha Pulley,
the author of the international best-seller
and award-winning novel, The Watchmakerof Filigree Street (Bloomsbury, 2015), talking
about writing historical fiction set in Victorian
London and Meiji Japan and, possibly, about aclockwork octopus.
Co-organised by:

Afternoon Tea and Film Screening with Screenwriter Kosuke
Mukai
Friday 2 February 2018
3:00 pm – Afternoon Tea at Cinnamon Soho, 5 Kingly Street,
London,W1B 5PF
6:15 pm – Screening of Gukoroku at Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH£29 per head for afternoon tea and film screening
Priority for Japan Society members
Booking deadline: Wednesday 24 January 2018
The Japan Society is pleased to offer a selectgroup of members the opportunity to meetand discuss screenwriting and film making
with Kosuke Mukai over an Indian style hightea. Award-winning screenwriter Kosuke
Mukai will be in London for the screening ofGukoroku – Traces of Sin (2016), which opens
the Japan Foundation’s 2018 touring film
programme (Un)true Colours.

(v), Hyderabadi caramelised onions andmint samosa (v), Tandoori chicken andchutney sandwich Bhangra lamb slider.
– Malabar Plum Cake Bitter chocolate tartlets,
dates and ginger.
* A vegetarian option is also available. Please
inform us of any food allergies when booking.

Afternoon Tea Menu*:

Kosuke Mukai is a Japanese screenwriter,
cinematographer and editor. He is a longtime collaborator with director Nobuhiro
Yamashita in acclaimed films such as Linda
Linda Linda (2005) and Tamako in Moratorium(2013). Mukai has also worked with Japanese
directors Yuki Tanada and Toshiaki Toyoda
and participated as screenwriter in the TV
series Midnight Diner (2009-present). In
2007, he was awarded the Ryuzo Kikushima
Award by the Writers’ Association of Japanand in 2016, he was also the winner of theBest Screenplay Award at the 71 annual
Mainichi Film Concours, one of Japan’s mostprestigious film awards.

– A pot of tea for two from a selection of thefinest Jing Teas Green | Assam | Earl Grey | Silver
Needle Indian Masala Chai freshly brewed
in-house using ginger and cardamom.
– Bombay potato bonda and green chutney

Cancellation policy: a full refund will be given
where notice of cancellation is received by
Tuesday 24 January. In other cases, refunds
will be given at the discretion of the Japan
Society and event partners.

Based on a novel by acclaimed crime writer,
Tokuro Nukui, Gukoroku is the debut featureof up and coming film maker, Kei Ishikawa.
This informal session will provide the perfectopportunity to discuss the often overlooked
screenwriter’s art with Kosuke Mukai, the man
who helped translate the written page to thescreen. Mukai will share thoughts from his
experience working with different directors
and within different genres, and there will beplenty of time for questions before we moveto the ICA to watch the film.

In association with:

Japanese Conversation GroupL

Tuesday 6 February 20176.30pmThe Brewmaster
37 Cranbourn Street
London WC2H 7AD
Standard Admission ￡5.50(£1 Discount for: Japan Society members/Students/Regulars)

The Japanese Conversation Group provides
a friendly and informal atmosphere forJapanese speakers of all nationalities to cometogether and speak Japanese. Meetings areheld on the first Tuesday of every month.
They begin at 6.30pm with a pay-as-you-gobar, and finish around 11.00pm.
You will receive all discounts for which you
qualify. The Regular Attendee Discountwill apply if you attended at least 50% of
meetings during the previous calendar
year, or once you attend six meetings in thecurrent year.
Please visit the Japanese Conversation Groupwebsite http://jcg.org.uk for further details
on their programme, which may be subject
to change.

Life is Sweet – Japanese inspired desserts by Suzue Aoyama
Thursday 8 February 2018

5:30 pm for 6.00pm

K2 Building (main entrance on Keyworth Street, SE1 6NG)
The National Bakery School
London South Bank University
London, SE1 0AA£25 per head
Priority for Japan Society members

We are delighted to welcome pastry
chef Suzue Aoyama for a very special
demonstration and tasting of her wonderfuldesserts inspired by Japan.
Award-winning Suzue Aoyama has createdafternoon teas at world-renowned London
hotels, Claridges and The Savoy. During
her time in the UK, she has seen Japanese
ingredients such as sansho pepper andmiso become more easily available andhas watched as connoisseurs have begun
to experiment with uses beyond Japanesecuisine. It was a natural step for her, therefore,
to take her skills in creating traditional pastries
for the archetypal ‘English Afternoon Tea’and begin to look for ways to infuse themwith the flavours of her home, Japan. This has
opened up into a world of creative patisseriemaking firmly rooted in the classics.
At this event, you will have the opportunity
to taste a selection of luxurious sweets andbaked goods reinvented with Japanese
flavours and, at the same time, watch aprofessional at work. While demonstrating
patisserie skills and techniques, Suzue
will speak about her passion and answer

questions. Learn about the art of combining
flavours and pick up hints to inform your own
baking. This event will doubtless appeal to thekeen cooks among Japan Society members,
but could also be a special Christmas or
Valentine’s gift. Please let us know if you
would like a gift certificate for a loved one.
We are extremely grateful to the National
Bakery School at London South Bank University
for generously hosting this event and to King’sFine Foods for its support.
Suzue Aoyama is a Pastry Chef and Foodconsultant. Brought up in Osaka, Japan,Suzue
moved to UK in 1995 to study culinary art at Le
Cordon Bleu. After obtaining Le Grand Diploma
at Le Condon Bleu, she started her career atClaridges. In 1999 she became a Pastry Chef at
The Savoy, in charge of tea pastry. In 2000, she
won Gold award in afternoon tea pastry, salon
culinaire, London – the first Japanese to do
so. In 2004, she opened the boutique William
Curley in Richmond with her former partner.
The William Curley brand was awarded theBest British Chocolatier for 5 years from 2007
by The Academy of Chocolate. Since 2016 she
has set up own workshop business.

In association with:

Japan Society Book Club: Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa
Monday 12 February 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

The story of Slow Boat, Hideo Furukawa’s
latest novella to be translated in English,
is a self-reflective journey through theprotagonist’s experiences of Tokyo andthe three girlfriends that characterise thisjourney. The story straddles the real and theimagined, dipping in and out of the narrator’smemories, musings and dreams to createa magical realism that would not be out ofplace in a Haruki Murakami novel.
Hideo Furukawa was born in 1966. After
working as an editor, freelance writer, andstage director, he made his debut in 1998 at
the age of 13. In 2002, he won the Mystery
Writers of Japan Prize and the Japan Science
Fiction Award for Arabia no yoru no shuzoku( The Arabian Nightbreeds), a fantasy novel set
in 13th-century Egypt. His other major novels
include SOUNDTRACK (2003), the Mishima
Prize-winner Love (2005) and Horses, Horses,
in the End the Light Remains Pure (2011).

The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Escaping to North Korea – with Markus BellMonday 19 February 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

Why did tens of thousands of people
recently migrate from Japan to North Korea?
What was life like for these people in North
Korea? and why are an increasing number
returning to Japan? Opening with the case of
one family’s heart-breaking decision to send
their only daughter to North Korea, this talkillustrates the relationship between memory,emotions, ideology, and the shaping of
post-colonial identities in contemporary
Northeast Asia.
In this talk I draw on declassified documents
and interviews with Koreans and Japanese
who migrated to North Korea to argue that
returnees’ intimate memories of migration
to North Korea contradict and consequently
create friction with the Japanese state’s
memories of the period. Returnees from
North Korea recall how anti-minority
discrimination and the grinding poverty oflife in post war Japan acted as push factorsthat forced them to self deport. In contrast,
the Japanese state recalls its involvementin the migration movement to North Korea
as a humanitarian project to repatriate
displaced people to their homeland. I show
how returnees from North Korea are spectersfrom Japan’s past, embodying alternative
histories that challenge modern Japan as astate that has yet to adequately address its
colonial past.
Markus Bell is a social anthropologist in
the School of East Asian Studies, Universityof Sheffield. His current research uses
ethnographic
methods
toexaminecontemporary out-migration from North
Korea. Markus is currently working on a bookmanuscript based on his research in Korea
and Japan titled, ‘Patriotic Revolutionaries
and Imperial Sympathisers: Memory, Identityand Migration to North Korea’.

Lecture by Paul Madden CMG, British Ambassador to Japan
Thursday 1 March 2018(reception afterwards until 8.30pm)

6.00 for 6.30pm

Nomura International plc
One Angel Lane
London EC4R 3AB
Free.
Members of the Japan Society and their guests only.
Booking essential (deadline Monday 26 February)

We are delighted to welcome the British
Ambassador to Japan, HE Mr Paul Madden,
to address the Japan Society at the endof his first year in post. In this lecture, Paul
Madden will share his views on the political,
diplomatic and commercial situation in
Japan from his unique perspective as theUK’s representative in Tokyo.
The Society’s annual lecture by the current
British Ambassador is always relevant,thought-provoking and useful to people
from across its membership, as well as being
extremely well attended. The Ambassador
will speak for 30-40 minutes, after which there
will be time for off-the-record discussion andquestions.
There will be a reception immediately after
the lecture. The Japan Society is extremely
grateful to leading Corporate Member,
Nomura International plc, for hosting thisevent.

Paul Madden CMG became British
Ambassador to Japan in January 2017. He
was previously British High Commissioner
to Australia (2011-15) and British HighCommissioner to Singapore (2007-11). He
was Additional Director for Asia Pacific at
the FCO in 2015. As Assistant Director ofInformation at the FCO (2003-2004) he was
responsible for public diplomacy policy,
including managing the FCO funding of the
BBC World Service, the British Council and theChevening Scholarships programme. He led
the team responsible for the award-winning
UK pavilion at the Aichi Expo in Japan 2005.
He has an MA in Economic Geography
from Cambridge University, an MBA from
Durham University, studied Japanese at
London University’s School of Oriental andAfrican Studies, and is a Fellow of the Royal
Geographical Society.

Hosted by:LULove and Other Cults – Film Screening and Q&A with director Eiji
Uchida and producer Adam Torel
Friday 9 March 2018

6:00pmRoom B202 at SOAS Brunei Gallery
SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Free – booking recommended

The keenly awaited follow-up to controversial
satire Lowlife Love, Love and Other Cults(Kemonomichi) is an irreverent story thatcrackles with energy and style depicting the
lives of marginalised youth and their struggles
in contemporary Japan. Having fended forherself as a child, drifting from a negligent
mother to an oddball cult and a druggie
dropout community, when Ai meets Ryota, she
wonders: could love be the cult that heals all?
Written and directed by independent
filmmaker Eiji Uchida, the film deals with social
issues such as child neglect, teenage gangs
and the sex industry against a blackly comicbackground. This coming-of-age narrative
fizzes with rich symbolism and explosions ofcolour and secures Uchida’s place as one ofJapan’s most exciting young directors.
Japan Society is very pleased to offer
members and friends the opportunity toattend a free screening of the film in London
and to meet director Eiji Uchida and British
producer Adam Torel. Dr Marcos Centeno,
lecturer in Japanese cinema at SOAS, willconduct the post-screening Q&A session
and discussion on the film, Uchida’s career
and the state of independent filmmaking inJapan.
In association with:

Eiji Uchida was born in Rio, Brazil to a Japanesemother, and returned to Japan in his childhood.
Worked as a journalist for many major
publications before becoming a film director.
Made his debut with Gachapon in 2004
before going on to make a variety of features
including Topless (2008), The Last Days of theWorld (2011), Greatful Dead (2013), Lowlife Love(2015), Double Mints (2016) and many more.
Adam Torel is the owner of Third Window Films,
which is one of the UK’s largest distributorsof live-action Japanese cinema, which wasstarted in 2005. In 2012 he started producing
films in Japan, starting with Sion Sono’s The
Land of Hope (2012) then Yosuke Fujita’s
Fukuchan of Fukufuku Flats (2014) before twocollaborations with Eiji Uchida: Lowlife Love(2015) and Love and Other Cults (2017).
Marcos Centeno, Ph.D. teaches Japanese
Cinema and World Cinemas at SOAS, theUniversity of London, where he is theconvenor of the MA degree ‘Global Cinemas
and the Transcultural’. His research focuses on
documentary film, avant-garde, transculturality
and representation of minorities in Japanesecinema.

Japan Society Book Club: Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard
Lloyd Parry
Monday 12 March 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake
occurred off north-east Japan, about 70
kilometres east of the city of Sendai in the
Tohoku region. It was the biggest earthquake
ever known to have struck Japan, and thefourth most powerful in recorded history.
Over 18,000 people died in the tsunami that
followed an hour later, which at its peak saw
waves 120 feet high. Half a million people
became homeless. The resulting meltdown at
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor was theworld’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
Ghosts of the Tsunami is a heart-breaking andintimate account of this tragedy, told throughthe personal testimony of the survivors; andalso a meditation on its wider meaning.
Richard Lloyd Parry is Asia Editor of The
Times. He was born in 1969 and was
educated at Oxford. He has been visiting
Asia for eighteen years and since 1995 has
lived in Tokyo as a foreign correspondent,
first for the Independent and now for The
Times. He has reported from twenty-one

countries and several wars, including Iraq,
Afghanistan, Indonesia, East Timor, North
Korea, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Kosovo
and Macedonia. His work has also appearedin the London Review of Books and the New
York Times Magazine. He is the author of In
The Time of Madness (2006) an eyewitness
account of the violence that interrupted inIndonesia in the 1990s, and People Who Eat
Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman (2012).
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

H
A

Heaven’s Wind – Book launch and talk with editor and translator
Angus Turvill and Professor Jay Rubin
Thursday 15 March 2018

6:30pmOctober Gallery
24 Old Gloucester Street
London WC1N 3AL
Free – booking recommended

Taking its name from one of Japan’s best
known classical poems, Heaven’s Wind
(Amatsukaze) is the world’s first dual
language anthology of Japanese women’s
writing. Its stories are by some of thecountry’s most celebrated contemporary
authors: Kuniko Mukoda – The Otter; Natsuko
Kuroda – Ball, Kaori Ekuni – Summer Blanket;
Mitsuyo Kakuta – The Child over There; andAoko Matsuda – Planting.
With the stories presented in Japanese/
English parallel-text format, the anthology is
aimed at readers of either or both languages.
It seeks to bring people from different cultures
together in the shared experience of reading
the same stories from the same book.
The Japan Society is delighted to invite you
to a special event marking the launch of
Heaven’s Wind, with the editor and translatorof the book, Angus Turvill, and, on his first
visit to the Japan Society, Professor Jay Rubin,whose translations include some of Haruki
Murakami’s best-known works. Following
opening comments by Professor Rubin,
Angus Turvill will talk about the book’s fiveauthors and their stories, reading excerpts
and highlighting ways in which translation
affects meaning and structure. Such issues

will be expanded on in further discussion
with Professor Rubin, and with the audience.
The event will be followed by a drinks
reception. Copies of the book will beavailable to purchase on the night at a
special discounted rate.
Angus Turvill is an award-winning translatorof Japanese. His other translations include
work by anti-militarist Hisashi Inoue,
Akutagawa Prize winner Masatsugu Ono anddecluttering guru Nagisa Tatsumi. He teaches
Japanese translation at Durham University.
Jay Rubin is Emeritus Professor at Harvard
University. His translations include Haruki
Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, The Wind-up
Bird Chronicle, After the quake, and After
Dark; Natsume Soseki’s Sanshiro and The
Miner; and a volume of stories by Ryunosuke
Akutagawa (Rashomon and Seventeen
Other Stories). In 2015 he published The
Sun Gods, a novel about a Japanese motherand her American son who were held at a
US internment camp during World War II.
Professor Rubin’s Penguin Book of Japanese
Short Stories will be published in 2018.

The obscured ‘middle-way’ in Japanese politics: theJtransformative power of dialogue, with Anne M. Fisker-Nielsen b
Monday 19 March 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

The highly charged political rhetoric that
erupted with the Peace and Security
Legislation debates between 2014 and 2016
resulted in freezing debates at the level ofbeing ‘anti-Abe’ meant being pro-peace, with
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented by the
opposition as the irredeemably ill-intentioned
prime minister. This created a polarized
political discourse that did not reflect thefact that the legislation was not a significant
departure from Japan’s past policies or fromits ‘self-defence-only-pacifism’.
Looking closely at the actual processes ofnegotiation and outcome of the bills, Komeito
played an instrumental role in persuading
the LDP to significantly change their initial
security proposals. The legislation, arguable,
increased the possibility of maintaining
Article 9 and Japan’s self-defence only
position rather than the opposite.
This presentation focuses on Komeito’s‘middle-way’ politics that is driving a political
agenda of complexity and concrete policy
proposals, as well as direct engagement on
the international scene. Komeito’s politics haveoften been invisible to the general public, or
explained away by the mass media as simply‘giving in’ or ‘compromising’ with the LDP.

The talk will focus on two specific issues: 1)
the politics that surround the LDP-Komeito
coalition government decision not tosign the 2017 United Nations global ban
on nuclear weapons and Komeito’s longstanding political objective of abolishing
nuclear weapons; 2) Komeito’s long term
direct engagement with China and what that
may mean in Sino-Japanese relations today.
Dr Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen is a social
anthropologist focusing on politics andreligion in Japan. Her research has focusedon Japanese politics, and particularly on
Komeito and its relationship with Soka
Gakkai. Other areas of interests are civilsociety engagement, peace activism, religion
in Japan, politics in Okinawa, and media andthe public in Japan. In recent years, she has
focused on politics surrounding security
debates and Komeito in Sino-Japaneserelations. She became a Senior Teaching
Fellow at SOAS in 2008 and lectured onJapanese Culture and Society and Social
Theory until August 2017 when she moved toTokyo to take up a post as Associate Professor
in Social Anthropology in the Department of
Humanities at Soka University Japan.

Japan Society Book Club: Heaven’s Wind edited and translatedby Angus Turvill
Monday 9 April 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

Heaven’s Wind is a collection of short stories
by five of Japan’s leading contemporary
authors: Kuniko Mukoda – The Otter; Natsuko
Kuroda – Ball, Kaori Ekuni – Summer Blanket;
Mitsuyo Kakuta – The Child over There; andAoko Matsuda – Planting.

Angus Turvill is an award-winning translatorof Japanese. His other translations include
the work of anti-militarist Hisashi Inoue,
Akutagawa Prize winner Masatsugu Ono anddecluttering guru Nagisa Tatsumi. He teaches
Japanese translation at Durham University.

These writers were born over five decades,from 1929 to 1979, and all of them happen
to be women. The pieces themselves were
written between 1963 and 2012. The fictional
worlds they portray are set against pre-war
to present-day backdrops, including towns,
suburbs, the countryside and the coast.
They engage with themes of childhood andchild loss, work and society, marriage andisolation, deceit, illness and disaster. The
stories are presented in Japanese and English
translation, in a parallel-text format.

Heaven’s Wind is published by the Japan
Society and is available for sale on our
website.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

‘Cherry’ Ingram – the English Saviour of Japan’s Cherry
Blossoms – with Naoko Abe
Monday 16 April 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

Collingwood Ingram (1880－1981) was a selftaught English botanist whose passion for theJapanese cherry blossom saved many uniqueand rare varieties of this iconic flower fromextinction. Based on ‘Cherry’ Ingram’s diaries,
original documents and scores of interviews,
Naoko Abe’s book examines the life of a planthunter extraordinaire and the enormous
impact that his pioneering work has had oncherry blossom cultures around the world.
In this lecture, Naoko will talk about Ingram’s
first sojourn in Japan in 1902 and his historic
speech in Tokyo in 1926 exhorting Japaneseroyalty and industry leaders to save the dying
blossoms at a time of rapid modernizationand Westernization. She will discuss how
the blossoms survived and will examine
the flowers’ political and cultural heritage
throughout the 20th century, including theirrole in Japanese militarism during World War
II and the evolution of a cloned cherry that’s
become the global symbol of modern Japan.
Naoko will also talk about how sakura helped
ease tensions over U.K.-Japan prisoner-of-war
issues in the 1990s and the current state ofcherry blossom diplomacy between the twocountries.

Born in Nagoya, Japan, Naoko Abe is a former
staff writer for the Mainichi Newspaper,
one of Japan’s most influential newspapers.
She covered the prime minister’s office andtravelled around the world with the paper.
She moved to London in 2001. As a freelance
journalist/non-fiction writer, Naoko has
written extensively about British society andpublished six books in Japanese. Her mostrecent non-fiction book, ‘Cherry’ Ingram – theEnglish Saviour of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms
won the prestigious Nihon Essayist ClubAward in 2016. She is currently writing an
English version of the book, to be publishedin February 2019 by Chatto and Windus, animprint of Penguin Random House.

The essence of omotenashi – Rethinking hospitality with Toru
Machida, Head Concierge of The Savoy
Monday 30 April 20186.30pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended
Priority for Japan Society members

The concierge is the public face of ahotel and his or her reputation can be an
importantfactor when choosing where tostay. Toru Machida is the first Japanese to
become Head Concierge at London’s fivestar Savoy, an iconic hotel which has longplayed host to royalty, politicians and starsof the silver screen and which occupies anenviable position in the UK, where muchstore is set by traditions and status.
It has been 23 years since Toru Machidaarrived in the UK at the age of 19. Starting
as a room cleaner, he has worked his way
up to a position as a top concierge. Frommaking restaurant reservations to getting
tickets for shows, Mr Machida does all he canto meet any requests from guests. Whether
guests are trying to buy the latest games
console on the day of release, or trying to
get in touch with an old friend with whomthey have lost contact, Mr Machida neversays no. The ultimate spirit of omotenashi isdemonstrated by someone who goes aboveand beyond the call of duty to understandpeople’s desires, and results in guests who
return time and again.

In this lecture, Mr Machida will discuss the artof looking after hotel guests with anecdotes
from his experience, detailing his techniques
for anticipating needs and managing the
expectations of hospitality.
Toru Machida was born in Tokyo in 1976
and came to the UK after graduating fromhigh school. He studied hotel management
at university and,in 2001, started work at
the Four Seasons Hotel in Canary Wharf.
Beginning in housekeeping, he worked his
way up to concierge clerk. He has extensive
experience as concierge working inrenowned hotels. Since December 2014, hehas been working as Head Concierge at The
Savoy; the first Japanese to do so.

Japanese Robata Grill Inspired Supper Club – With Japan
Society and Jenius Social – Hosted by Silla Bjerrum
Thursday 10 May 2018

6:30pm for 7:00pm start

Jenius Social
6 Hornsey Street, Studio 8
London N7 8GR£45 per head
Booking deadline: Friday 4 May 2018

We are delighted to announce an informal
Japan Society supper club again, organised inpartnership with Jenius Social and renowned
chef and food consultant, Silla Bjerrum.
Following our successful miso inspired
supper club and sake & izakaya dining events,
this is another opportunity to relax withother members of the Japan Society. Bring
your friends, or simply come and meet new
people. We look forward to seeing you there,
but please be quick – places are limited.
Our host for this evening’s supper club is
Silla Bjerrum, co-founder in the late 1990sof London’s first sushi delivery service, Feng
Sushi. She is also known as an advocate
for sustainability in food consumption
and production, actively seeking positive
solutions. She has become well-known as asushi specialist, but her passion for good fooddoes not stop at sushi. Her new book Robata:
Japanese Home Grilling is published in April.
In it she shares the appeal of robatayaki, astyle of cooking which allows the flavours of
the raw ingredients to shine.
Jenius Social is a vibrant new social hub inNorth London where food and passion collide:a fresh destination for people to meet, greet
and eat.

With a menu based on Silla’s new book, thisevent is certain to offer a memorable dining
experience showcasing her delight in goodfood.
The menu* at this event includes:
1. Canton Hisbiscus Tea Royale cocktail
served with Japanese appetisers of robata
edamame and pickles
2. Spring ‘robata garden’ which is seasonalvegs set in sesame dip and toasted quinoa
3. Main, sharing dishes:-Salmon Negishio-Lamb Ribs with Shiso-Cubed Sirloin with Chilli Butter-Early Summer Salad-Rice Wrapped Banana Leaves-Japanese Slaw
4. Dessert of robata drunken pineapple withmiso ice cream.
*Depending on availability of seasonal
ingredients, this menu may be subject to lastminute change. Please ensure you notify us ofany dietary requirements when you book.
In association withJ

Japan Society Book Club: Dendera by Yuya Sato
Monday 14 May 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

Inspired by Shichiro Fukazawa’s classic novel
The Ballad of Narayama, Yuya Sato’s novel
explores the Japanese legend of ubasute –the custom of abandoning elderly relatives
to die in a desolate place. The novel’s heroine,
Kayu Saito, was supposed to pass away after
being taken to a remote mountain by her
family, but she instead fell sleep and wakes
up in a utopian community of old abandoned
women who hunt and gather.
Yuya Sato was born in 1980 in Hokkaido. He
is mostly known by writing crime fiction,
thriller and science fiction. In 2001, his novel
Flicker Style won the 21st Mephisto Prize.
He also won the Yukio Mishima Prize for1000 Novels and Backbeard in 2007 and has
been nominated for the Noma Literary New

Face Prize on two occasions. Some of his
short stories have appeared in English in themixed manga/prose anthology series Faust.
His works have been translated into English,
Chinese and Korean.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Positive Energies: social inclusion of children with disabilities. A
talk with parents, teachers and photographers
Thursday 17 May 2018

6:30pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

In recent years, a range of prenatal screening
tests has become widely available andmany women now choose to have thesetests. When the investigations reveal foetal
abnormalities, pregnant women and theirfamilies have to face the difficult decision ofwhether or not to continue the pregnancy.
In the UK, over 90% of parents told that theirunborn child has Down’s syndrome choose
to have a termination.
The decision in the UK to offer women witha higher risk of a Down’s baby a new safer,
non-invasive, test from this year, has sparked
much debate. This has brought to the fore
ethical questions about policies which seemto devalue people who live with disability or
which imply criticism of women who choose
to continue a pregnancy, despite test results
indicating abnormality.
‘Positive Energies’, an exhibition of the workof Japanese and British photographers,
opens on 16 May 2018 at the Gallery@oxo in
London. It presents images by Fumio Nabata,
Fiona Yaron-Field and Richard Bailey thatchallenge pre-conceived ideas about people
with Down’s syndrome. Japan Society ispleased to hold this discussion to celebrate

and focus more closely on issues raised by
the exhibition. We hope this event withspeakers from a range of backgrounds will
provide an opportunity to explore attitudes
and perspectives on Down’s and otherchildren with disability, in Japan and the UK.
In the first half of the evening, we will reflect
on bringing up children with disability, theireducation and questions relating to prenatal
diagnosis with three speakers: Yumiko
Little, a Japanese parent raising a childwith disability in the UK, who will discuss,through her experiences with her son, theimportance of children’s hospices; Cathy
Darvell, a British teacher who organised aJapan-UK school exchange project involving
children with special needs; and Kazuhiro
Takemura, director for international relations
at the Japan Down Syndrome Society andfather of a child with Down’s syndrome, whowill examine the concept of ‘Smart Inclusion’.
It will be followed in the second part by a talkby photographers Fumio Nabata, Richard
Bailey and Fiona Yaron-Field who will discuss
about their work and the exhibition ‘Positive
Energies’. The evening will conclude with a
Q&A panel session with all the speakers.

Translation and the public dissemination of science in Meiji-era
Japan – with Ruselle Meade
Monday 21 May 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

The use of a single term, hon’yaku, to describetranslation during the Meiji era belies the wide
diversity of practices identified by this word.
This diversity of practices reflects the varietyof actors who became involved in translatingtexts to chart a way forward in this era ofsocietal and intellectual upheaval. During
the Meiji era, many who were not specialists
in science turned their energies towards
translating science. They did this, not simply
to transmit scientific knowledge, but because
they felt science had a special relevance innavigating the challenges particular to thetimes in which they were living, and because
they felt it was a means of promoting thetype of society they envisioned.
In this talk I will discuss who translated sciencein the Meiji period, for which audiences, andfor what reasons. I will show how translator
motives shaped how they approached theiractivity, and will discuss the role played bytranslators in shifting science from an elite
activity into one open to people of various
educational and literacy levels. Through arange of examples I will demonstrate howtranslators creatively made science accessible
and relevant to those who had not previously
engaged with it, and how they used science

as a means of engaging with wider debates
about the future of Japanese society.
Ruselle Meade is a lecturer in Japanesestudies in the School of Modern Languages
at Cardiff University, where she teaches
Japanese history, language and translation.
He research focuses on public representationsof science in modern Japan, with a focus on
the Meiji period. Her current work examines
the methods and motives of those engaged
in the translation and popularization ofscience, and seeks to understand the effectsof their activities on emerging professionaland national identities.

North Korea: a view from Pyongyang, with British Ambassador,
Alastair Morgan
Friday 25 May 2018

11:30 for 12:00 noon start

Willis Towers Watson
51 Lime Street
London EC3M 7DQ
Free – Booking essential
Priority booking for Japan Society members and their guests.
Non-member booking opens on Monday 14 May.
Booking deadline: Wednesday 23 May 2018

We are delighted to welcome British
Ambassador to the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea, Alastair Morgan, to brief
members of the Japan Society on current
developments on the Korean peninsula.
The historic meeting between the leaders of
the two Koreas, Kim Jong-un and Moon Jaein, on 27 April 2018 was observed eagerly by
the world’s politicians and press. The year
began with heightened tension in the region,
after over 20 North Korean ballistic missile
tests in 2017, including two intercontinental
ballistic missiles that can reach the US
carrying a nuclear payload.
However, 2018 has seen participation in the
Pyeongchang Winter Olympics by athletes
from North Korea and the promise in the
coming weeks of a meeting between Kim
Jong-un and Donald Trump. The pace atwhich the political atmosphere has changed
is remarkable and makes this session with the
British Ambassador in Pyongyang particularly
timely.

HE Mr Alastair Morgan is British Ambassador
to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
He took up his appointment in Pyongyang
in December 2015, before which he wasTrade and Investment Director at the British
Embassy in Beijing and then Britain’s ConsulGeneral in Guangzhou. He has had two
previous diplomatic postings in East Asia,
both in British Embassy Tokyo. From 1991 to
1996 he was First Secretary (Trade Policy) andfrom 2002 to 2006 he was Counsellor Trade
Policy and Director of Inward investment. He
also worked in Tokyo on loan to the Japanese
Ministry of International Trade and Industry
from 2001 to 2002 and from 1983 to 1985 as a
Lecturer in English language and literature at
Gakushuin University.
The Japan Society is very grateful to Willis
Towers Watson for kindly hosting thisimportant meeting.

In association with

,Japan Room Lecture: Trading Cryptocurrencies
Tuesday 29 May 20186.30pmLodge Room No 11
The Freemasons’ HallGreat Queen Street
London WC2B 5AZ
Free for Japan Society members
Non-members: £9Booking deadline: Friday 25 May

Due to exciting progress being made in theworld of blockchain and cryptocurrencies,
The Japan Room will be shifting its focus to
the arena of cryptocurrency trading.
In 2017, The Japan Society hosted a series of
fintech events to introduce the basic ideas
behind concepts such as AI, blockchain andcryptocurrencies. The Japan Room now takes
this a step further to introduce the trading of
cryptocurrencies, which has links to Japan
from Homma’s Japanese candlestick charting
to Satoshi Nakamoto and beyond.

Guest Speakers: Anil, Oxana and Arran fromPro FX Options
Host: Pauline
Ambassador.

Chakmakjian,

Please let us know if you would like to take anoptional tour of the Freemasons’ Hall at 5.15
for 5.30pm.

In association with

Visit

Kyoto

Japan Society Book Club: The Hunter by Asa Nonami
Monday 11 June 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

The Hunter is the first English translation of
the atmospheric, gritty and character-driven
work of prize-winning, bestselling Japanesewriter Asa Nonami in which she presents
the character of Takako Otomichi, a former
motorbike patrolwoman-turned-detective. In
this story, Otomichi is partnered with an older,seasoned, misogynist detective in a murder
investigation in the nightclub underworld of
Roppongi in Tokyo. Before long, the case islinked to another death, this time apparently
the result of an attack by a large dog. The
Hunter won the Naoki Prize in 1996.
Asa Nonami was born in 1960 in Tokyoand attended Waseda University to studysociology before dropping out and getting a
job at an advertising agency. She is a prolific
writer of Japanese crime fiction and horror
stories and is known for her strong female
characters. In 1988 she won the Japan
Mystery and Suspense Grand Award for her
debut novel A Happy Breakfast. Her otherawards include the 115th Naoki Prize for The
Hunter, which was adapted into a film, andthe Chuokoron Prize for Literature in 2012.
Her other works include The June 19th Bride,

Paradise Thirty, Dramatic Children, Murdererof the Blooming Season, and Body.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.
Forthcoming book clubs in 2018
9 July: Shiokari Pass by Ayako Miura
13 August: Tei, A Memoir of the End of War
and Beginning of Peace by Tei Fujiwara
10 September: The Scarlett Gang of Asakusa by
Yasunari Kawabata
8 October: After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima

J
TJoint Lunch for Mr Graham Stuart MP, Minister for Investment –The Investment Environment for Japanese companies in the UK
Wednesday 13 June 201812.30pm for 1.00pm

National Liberal ClubWhitehall Place
London SW1A 2HE£60 per head
Members of the Japan Society, the JCCI and their guests
Booking deadline: Friday 8 June 2018

The guest of honour at the Japan Society
and the Japanese Chamber of Commerceand Industry in the UK’s second joint lunchof 2018, will be Minister for Investment at
the Department for International Trade, Mr
Graham Stuart MP.
We are delighted to welcome Mr Graham
Stuart, appointed in January 2018 to theposition of Minister for Investment at the
Department for International Trade, to share
his views on the investment environment forJapanese companies in the UK.
Mr Stuart’s speech is extremely timely
against the backdrop of Brexit, and in light of
the recently concluded EU-Japan Economic
Partnership Agreement (EPA) at endDecember 2017.
Mr Graham Stuart will speak following a twocourse lunch, after which there will be time forquestions until 2.30pm.

Mr Graham Stuart was elected Conservative
MP for Beverley and Holderness in 2005
and more recently, appointed Minister
for Investment at the Department forInternational Trade. Graham started his
publishing business while still at Cambridge
University. He was later elected to Cambridge
City Council, where he eventually led theConservative Group.
Graham’s Parliamentary career has seen
him serve as Chair of the Education SelectCommittee (2010-15) and as a Government
Whip with responsibility for the Department
of Health, and later for HM Treasury andthe Ministry of Defence. In his role as
Minister for Investment at the Department
for International Trade Graham focuseson encouraging foreign investment into
the UK economy and promoting overseas
investment
opportunities
toBritishcompanies.

Please note that spaces are limited and thisis likely to be a very popular event.

In association with:

Oswald ‘Shiro’ White (1884-1970): Thirty-eight Years in theJapan Consular Service – with Hugo Read
Monday 18 June 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

Oswald White was a very modest man, bothprofessionally and privately, who neverbragged about his great achievements or his
intimate knowledge of the Japanese language
and culture. As a direct result of this, he is lesswell known than many of his predecessors
in the Japan service, but he is neverthelessa significant figure in its history. He spent hiswhole career in the Japan Consular Service,serving the last third as a Consul General.
He left his last official post in February 1941,
before Pearl Harbour (November 1941) andtherefore shortly before Japan entered WWII.
His interest in Japan extended beyond hiswork. Nicknamed ‘Shiro’ (White in Japanese),he had a great affection for Japan and
the Japanese throughout his life. Always ahands-on people’s person, White’s Japanese
became fluent and natural. By the end of his
career he was one of the leading Western
experts on the Japanese language, withprofound knowledge of the culture, region
and its people.
In the 1930s and up to 1942 he wrote his
memoirs, All Ambition Spent, which painta fascinating portrait of a Consul General in
the centre of a key region at a pivotal timein world history. For this talk, Hugo Read,
his Great-Grandson, has drawn on White’s
memoirs (which he edited), artefacts heldby the family and on personal accounts todescribe White’s life and times.
Hugo Read is the great-grandson of Oswald
White, who spent 38 years in the Japan
Consular Service (1903-1941). He contributed
a portrait of Oswald White published in
Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol.
X (Renaissance Books, 2016). White’s Memoir,
All Ambition Spent, edited by Hugo Read was
published in 2017 also by Renaissance Books.

ANArtist talk -momentNoritake Kinashi in conversation
Tuesday 19 June 20186.30pmConway Hall
25 Red Lion Square
London, WC1R 4RL
Free – Booking essential
Priority for Japan Society members

In June 2018, the work of anglophile andpolymath Noritake Kinashi will be appearing
in a new exhibition, introducing the latest
phase of his ongoing creative project ‘REACH
OUT’. Also an actor, musician and comedian,
Kinashi will showcase a series of paintings
created as a result of his unique observational
point of view, with his dynamic and nonconformist, yet ever-evolving brush style.
To celebrate his first show in the UK, Kinashi,in conversation with Dr Lena Fritsch, a
specialist in 20th and 21st century Japanese
art and photography, will discuss how hedraws inspiration from everyday life, andhow his art activities influence his acting andcomedy performance, and viceversa.
Noritake Kinashi started his professional
career as a comedian in the early 80s. He
quickly became a household name, notonly as a comedian, but also as a singer andactor. Since making his artistic debut in 1994,

his works have been exhibited in numerous
museums including the 21st Century
Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa(Japan) and the Ueno Royal Museum (Tokyo,
Japan) as well as in a solo exhibition in New
York in 2015. This year saw him take theleading role in the film ‘INUYASHIKI’, that
was awarded the 2018 Golden Raven at
Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.
His first solo show, Noritake Kinashi London
Exhibition -moment- will run at Protein
Studios from 21 to 24 June.
Dr Lena Fritsch is Curator of Modern andContemporary Art at the Ashmolean
Museum (University of Oxford). Prior tojoining the Ashmolean in 2017, she was
Assistant Curator of International Art at Tate
Modern, co-curating exhibitions on Agnes
Martin in 2015 and Giacometti in 2017. Fritschstudied Art History, Japanese Studies, andEnglish Studies in Bonn University, Germany
and Keio University in Japan.

In association with

Japan Society Golf Tournament 2018
Wednesday 27 June 20188.30am for 9.30am two tee start

Berkhamsted Golf ClubThe Common
Berkhamsted
HP4 2QB£80 per head for Japan Society Members and their guests
Booking deadline: Monday 18 June

The Japan Society’s Annual Golf Tournament,
for the Asprey and Garrard Plate, is due totake place at Berkhamsted Golf Club on
Wednesday 27 June, with a two tee start at
9.30am. The format will be Stableford.
The all-in price is £80, including coffee anda bacon roll on arrival, 18 holes of golf anda two -course lunch on completion. BDO,
a leading member of the Japan Society, isonce again generously providing the prizes
and there will be competitions for ‘Nearest
the Pin’ and ‘Longest Drive’; halfway houserefreshments will be provided.

Berkhamsted’s reputation is founded on theunique nature of the course, which is entirely
natural with no man-made hazards. It was
founded in 1890 and designed by renowned
golf course architect G. H. Gowring, who
made the most of the natural landscape,including Grim’s Dyke, a huge Iron Ageearthwork, which you will encounter several
times as you navigate the course. While
there are no sand bunkers, Berkhamsted is aquality heathland layout so watch out for theswathes of heather and gorse which await to
gobble up any wayward shots.

In association with:J

Japan Society Book Club: Shiokari Pass by Ayako Miura
Monday 9 July 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

Based on a true story, Shiokari Pass is a moving
tale of love eclipsed by sacrifice and tragedy.
The hero of this Japanese novel is the young
and idealistic Nobuo Nagano, who finds
himself forced to make a heart- wrenchingdecision, when he must choose between hischildhood sweetheart, Fujiko, and his newly
found Christian faith. Set in Hokkaido at theturn of the nineteenth century, when for the
first time Western culture and ideas werebeginning to challenge Japan’s long-heldtraditions, Shiokari Pass takes an intriguing
look at Japanese life and thought of ahundred years ago.
Ayako Miura (1922-1999) was born in
Hokkaido and rose to literary stardom on
the basis of her first novel, Freezing point,
published serially in 1964. After graduation,
she worked as a teacher at primary school,
but soon afterwards, she contracted

tuberculosis and spent over 13 years in asanatorium. Miura converted to the Christianfaith and was baptised in 1952. Her life before
her writing career began is described in thefirst volume of her autobiography The Wind
is Howling. She published over eighty worksof both fiction and non-fiction and a number
have been remade as feature-length films.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Private viewing and artist talk: Travels in a Paper Coat
Thursday 12 July 20186.30pmAPT Gallery
6 Creekside
Deptford SE8 4SAFree – booking essential
Limited availability (Priority will be given to Japan Society members)

Following two successful exhibitions at the
Poetry Society (2015) and the Glass Tank
Gallery, Oxford Brookes University (2016),
Travels in a Paper Coat is the third Matsuo
Basho inspired collaboration between
sculptor Isao Miura and poet, Chris Beckett.
For this new multi media exhibition, they are
joined also by filmmaker Nikolai Azariah.
Japan Society members are invited to a
special private view of the exhibition, withintroduction by the artists.
With Basho’s paper coat as a symbol oflightness and simplicity, the exhibition takes
visitors from a Departure point of collage
and sculpture, past a “Haiku Creek” madeof Shiramine paper, towards a Temple
installation with tatami floor & shoji walls
made by Isao Miura, onto which Nikolai
Azariah’s films from the Narrow Road
are projected and where natural sounds
together with readings of Japanese poetry
are audible. Bronzes & paintings by Isao act
as fascinating Uta Makura landmarks along
the way, including the Mojizuri Stone and theNine-Tailed Fox demon.

Isao Miura is a painter and sculptor from
Akita in the “deep north” of Japan. He left
his village near Mount Chokai (an active
volcano) and Kisagata Bay to study painting
in Tokyo, later moving to London to continue
his studies. Isao is now engaged in a projectto translate Basho’s Narrow Road into visual
images, to analyse its emotional power, its
culture-defining charm, through paintings,
drawings, calligraphy and sculpture.
Chris Beckett is an English poet, publishedby Carcanet Press, who worked in Tokyo in
the 1980s. His collaborative book with Isao
Miura, Sketches from the Poem Road (Hagi
Press, 2015), was shortlisted for the Ted
Hughes Award.
Nikolai Azariah is a half English, half Finnish
filmmaker whose work centres around theidea of discovery, both in process and end
product. Having a love for travel, he spent thelast two years exploring India, Nepal, Japan,
Colombia and Peru while working on three
self-initiated documentary film projects.
Being half Finnish, frequent sauna visits are
essential to his creative process.

CiCarmen Blacker Lecture 2018: Thinking for Oneself. Individuality
in Early Modern Japan – with Peter Nosco
Monday 16 July 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

For this year’s Carmen Blacker Lecture weare delighted to welcome Peter Nosco,
Professor of Japanese History and Culture
at the University of British Columbia. The
Carmen Blacker Lecture Series honours thememory and scholarship of Carmen Blacker(1924-2009) and is organised jointly by the
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of JapaneseArts and Cultures and the Japan Society.
In his most recent published work, Nosco has
attempted to challenge a number of longstanding assumptions regarding various
aspects of Japanese society before the
Meiji period. Looking at the construction ofindividual identity, the aggressive pursuit ofself-interest, the defiant practice of forbidden
religious traditions, the widespread interestin self-cultivation and personal betterment,
new understandings of happiness andwell-being, and the embrace of “neglected”
counter-ideological values, Nosco hasargued that taken together these point
to higher degrees of individuality in earlymodern Japan than has generally been
acknowledged, and perhaps higher levels
than one finds in Japanese society today.

In this annual Carmen Blacker Lecture for2018, Nosco attempts to synthesize andsummarize his broader argument; and in an
Afterword, he reflects on Dr. Carmen Blacker,
her influence on him, and especially how shetaught him what it means to think for oneself.
Peter Nosco is Professor of Asian Studies
at the University of British Columbia. He
benefited directly from Carmen Blacker’s
mentorship at Cambridge University in
1971-3 and again in 1977-8, and to thisday his scholarship reflects her influence.
A specialist in the intellectual and social
history of early modern Japan, Nosco has
published work on several Japan-related
topics: Confucianism (the edited volume
Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture) andespecially its religious dimension, nativism
or kokugaku (the monograph Remembering
Paradise: Nativism and Nostalgia in 18thCentury Japan), values and identity (coedited with J. Ketelaar and Kojima Y., Values,
Identity and Equality in Early Modern
Japan), individuality (the monographIndividuality in Early Modern Japan: Thinking
for Oneself ), underground Buddhist andChristian movements, civil society and evena translation of short stories by Ihara Saikaku(Some Final Words of Advice).
Co-organised by:

J
BJapanese Garden Party
Sunday 29 July 201812:30pm – 6:00pm

Hammersmith Park – Japanese Garden
South Africa Road
White City, Shepherd’s Bush
London W12 7NU
No booking required – just turn up on the day!

Join us for an afternoon of Japanese live
music, family activities and Japanese food tocelebrate the regeneration of the Japanesegarden in Hammersmith Park! Expect taiko
drumming, ramen, and family friendly
activities such as origami and calligraphy,
alongside much more!
The day will end with two very special
performances by contemporary Japaneseartists Ichi and Hatis Noit. We hope you canjoin us for what is bound to be a fantastic
summer celebration of all things Japanese!
Why we’re celebrating
Hammersmith Park is all that remains of the1910 Japan-British Exhibition in White City,but few know it is a Japanese garden. Now
an avenue of stone lanterns and a wooden
entrance gate are being installed to celebrate
the park’s Japanese origins.
To mark the event, Japan Society, together
with the Embassy of Japan and the Friends ofHammersmith Park, are hosting an afternoon

activities and music. Children and adults alikecan make their own Japanese lantern to takehome, learn to write their name in Japanese,
try on a kimono, fold some origami, and evenmeet Hello Kitty herself!! That’s right – Hello
Kitty will be making a personal appearance
at the celebrations! And if all the excitement
makes you hungry, you’ll be able to sample
delicious Japanese street food at the Japan
centre food stalls.
A wide range of Japanese traditional andcontemporary music will fill the garden all
afternoon, from the guitar-like shamisen, totaiko drums, concluding with performancesby two exciting Japanese musicians. ICHI,
takes the concept of the one man band toentirely new heights with his homemade
instruments and eclectic, fun sound, while
Hokkaido-born Hatis Noit’s mesmerising
vocals draw on musical traditions fromJapanese court music to opera, and Buddhist
chanting to pop.

Co-organised by:Japan Society Book Club: Tei, A Memoir of the End of War and
Beginning of Peace by Tei Fujiwara
Monday 13 August 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every monthMore than sixty years ago, Tei Fujiwara
wrote a memoir Nagareru hoshi wa ikite iru
about her harrowing journey home with her
three young children. Tei’s memoir begins
in Manchuria, then a Japanese-controlled
state in China, in August 1945. Tei and herfamily fled from the invading Soviets who
declared war on Japan a few days after theUnited States dropped the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima. After reaching her home in Japan,
Tei wrote her memoirs as a testament to her
young children, who wouldn’t remember
their journey and who might be comfortedby their mother’s words as they faced an
unknown future in post-war Japan. However,Tei survived and her memoir, originallypublished in 1949, became a best seller.
Tei Fujiwara (1918-2016) was born in Chino,
Nagano Prefecture. After graduating inhigh school, she married the author Nitta
Jirou in 1939. She traveled to Manchuriawith her husband who was assigned tothe meteorological observatory in Shinjing
in 1943. In 1945 after the defeat war, she
temporarily left her husband and withdrew
with her children to Japan. After returning
home, she wrote her memoir Nagareru hoshi
wa ikite iru which was adapted for film and
TV. She worked as respondent of the Jinsei
Anai section at Yomiuri Shimbun for about 13
years until 1997.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Tiny Objects can tell the Truth. British Influence on the Birth ofJapanese Archaeology – with Tomoaki Nakano
Monday 20 August 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

It was about one hundred years ago when
the first department of archaeology was
founded in Japan, at Kyoto Imperial University(1916). Kosaku Hamada, the first professorof archaeology, had studied the subject
under Professor Flinders Petrie, the ‘Father of
Egyptian Archaeology’, from 1913 to 1916 atUniversity College of London.
At that time both imperial universities inTokyo and Kyoto sent contributions to the
Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt
Exploration Society), with which Petrie
worked, and legally received finds excavatedby the organisation in Egypt.
To mark the centenof the relationshipbetween Kyoto and London Professor
Nakano made a study of about 1500 Egyptian
objects over a seven year period, andpublished a catalogue of the Kyoto University
collection. While conducting this research,he also identified distribution records of thefinds and letters exchanged between UK andJapan in the archive of the Egypt Exploration
Society.

In this lecture, Professor Nakano will introduce
the Egyptian objects sent to Kyoto anddiscuss the academic exchanges between
the two countries.
Tomoaki Nakano studied anthropology at
Nanzan university and Egyptology at the
University of Oxford. He received his PhD
in anthropology from Nanzan University
in 2000. After serving as a Research Fellowof the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science and an Associate Curator of theAncient Orient Museum, Tokyo, he moved
to the College of International Studies,
Chubu University, as Associate Professor in2009 and then became Professor in 2016.
His fieldwork in Egypt includes a 3D laser
scanning survey of the step pyramid at
Saqqara and excavations of a Graeco-Roman
temple called El-Zayyan in Kharga oasis. The
catalogue of the Egyptian Collection in the
Kyoto University Museum was published in2016 under his supervision and he is a coauthor of the Encyclopedia of Ancient Orient(Iwanami-shoten, 2004) edited by the Society
for Near Eastern Studies in Japan. He won theSociety’s Award for Young Scholars in 1997.

JY

Japan Society Book Club: The Scarlett Gang of Asakusa by
Yasunari Kawabata
Monday 10 September 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

In the 1920s, Asakusa was to Tokyo what
Montmartre had been to 1890s Paris,
Alexanderplatz was to 1920s Berlin andTimes Square was to be to 1940s New
York. The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa captures
the decadent allure of this entertainment
district, where beggars and teenage
prostitutes mixed with revue dancers andfamous authors. Originally serialized in a
Tokyo daily newspaper in 1929 and 1930,
this vibrant novel uses unorthodox, kinetic
literary techniques to reflect the raw energyof Asakusa, seen through the eyes of awandering narrator and the cast of mostly
female juvenile delinquents who show him
their way of life. Markedly different from
Kawabata’s later work, The Scarlet Gang of
Asakusa shows this important writer in a newlight.
Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) was born inOsaka but after the early death of his parents
he was raised in the countryside. He studied
at the Tokyo Imperial University and was oneof the founders of the publication Bungei
Jidai, the medium of a new movement
in modern Japanese literature. Kawabata
made his debut as a writer with the shortstory, Izu dancer, published in 1927. Afterseveral distinguished works, the novel SnowCountry in 1937 secured Kawabata’s position
as one of the leading authors in Japan. In
1968, Yasunari Kawabata became the firstJapanese novelist to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Images with and without Texts: The Photographic Magazine in
1930s Japan – with Jelena Stojkovic
Monday 17 September 2018

6:45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

The 1930s are sometimes referred to as the‘golden age’ of Japanese photography.
Following the touring of Film und Foto
exhibition around the country in 1931
modernist approaches to the medium
flourished on an unprecedented scale,among such prominent photographers as
Kiyoshi Koishi, Iwata Nakayama and Nakaji
Yasui. However, as a significant proportion ofnegatives and original prints from the period
were lost in the Allied bombings at the end of
the Second World War, this ‘age’ of Japanesephotography is best perceived through theprism of photographic magazine.
In this lecture, we look at versatile examplesof the rich photographic magazine culture

in 1930 Japan, from the iconic Kōga andPhoto Times as well as the lesser-known
publications such as Kameraman or even
Home Life. We discuss the ways throughwhich photography was mobilised in thesepublications in relation to text, and whatthese different forms of presentation tell us
about the Japanese visual culture at large
during the turbulent decade between the
Manchurian Incident (1931) and the onset of
the Pacific War (1941).
Dr Jelena Stojkovic is Lecturer in History
and Theory of Photography at the Arts
University Bournemouth. She is the author offorthcoming Surrealism and Photography in
1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde.

Rw

Recent Developments in the Global Market
with Hiroshi Watanabe
Tuesday 18 September 2018

2.30pm for 3.00pm start

BDO LLP
55 Baker Street
London W1U 7EFree for members – Booking essential
Non-members: £10 per head
Priority booking for Japan Society members and their guests
Non-member booking opens on Monday, 10 September

We are delighted to welcome Mr Hiroshi
Watanabe, President of the Institute forInternational Monetary Affairs (IIMA) tobrief Japan Society members on Recent
Developments in the Global Market. Mr
Watanabe’s wide ranging experience in the
public and private sector, has given him abroad overview of the international financial
scene. At a time of great uncertainty in theUK, his views on the current situation froma Japanese perspective will be particularly
relevant.
The Institute for International Monetary
Affairs (IIMA) was originally established on
December 1, 1995, as a non-profit researchorganization by MUFG Bank, Ltd.

Mr Hiroshi Watanabe, a graduate of the
University of Tokyo, joined the Ministryof Finance (MOF) in 1972. He has servedin various senior positions over the years,
including as Vice Minister of Finance forInternational Affairs in 2004, DirectorGeneral of International Bureau, and Personal
Secretary to the Minister of Finance. After
his retirement in 2007, he was a professor
at the Graduate School of Commerce andManagement of Hitotsubashi University.
From 2008 to 2016, he served as CEO of Japan
Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
The Japan Society is very grateful to BDO LLP
for kindly hosting this important meeting.

In association with:

Japan Matsuri 2018
Sunday 30 September 2018

J
10.00am – 8.00pm

Trafalgar Square
Westminster
LondonWC2N 5DN
Free

London’s very own festival of Japaneseculture – Japan Matsuri – returns on Sunday,
30 September 2018 in Trafalgar Square in thecentre of the city. A regular fixture now in
the London calendar, this free annual festival
brings people together to enjoy Japanese
food, music, dance, and activities for all thefamily.
Everything kicks off at 10.00am and runs
through till 8.00pm. With two stages, thereis plenty to see all day. The programme ofstage performance for this year is still being
finalised, and will feature exciting new acts aswell as the return of favourites from previous
Matsuri.
Enjoy the atmosphere with Japanese festival
food from the numerous stalls. Join in the
fun in the family activities area with games

In association with:and dressing in kimono. Try your hand at
Japanese cartoons on the manga wall.
Come and meet Japan Society staff at ourstall on the north terrace in front of the
National Gallery (opposite St. Martin in the
Fields).
Japan Matsuri is organised jointly by theJapan Association, Japanese Chamber ofCommerce and Industry, the Japan Society
and Nippon Club, with support from theEmbassy of Japan.
For all the latest news, follow Japan Matsuri
onfacebook(@Japan.Matsuri.London),twitter (@japanmatsuri) or visit Japan
Matsuri’s website on www.japanmatsuri.
comJapan Society Book Club: After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima
Monday 8 October 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every monthFirst published in 1960 under the Japanese
title Utage no Ato, The New Yorker called
After the Banquet “the biggest and mostprofound thing Mishima has done so far inan already distinguished career” upon its
translation into English by Donald Keene
in 1963, and it is still considered a modern
classic. This book was praised in particular for
its approach to contrasting musings on deathwith finding meaning in life itself, as well as
its richly described settings. The plot follows
Kazu, a shrewd and charming proprietor of arestaurant that caters to politicians. But when
the she falls in love with one of her clients, anaristocratic retired politician, she renounces
her business in order to become his wife.
As Mishima based the novel on events inthe life of a real politician, Hachiro Arita, thework triggered a landmark legal case, famous
due to its celebrity litigants and the groundbreaking decision with regards to a “Right toPrivacy”.
Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) was the pen nameof Kimitake Hiraoka, a Japanese author, poet,playwright, actor, and film director. Mishima

is considered one of the most important
Japanese authors of the 20th century; he
was nominated three times for the Nobel
Prize in Literature and was poised to win the
prize in 1968, eventually losing the award to
his fellow countryman Yasunari Kawabata.
His avant-garde work displayed a blending ofmodern and traditional aesthetics that broke
cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality,
death, and political change. Mishima wasalso known for his bodybuilding and martial
arts obsessions. In 1970 he committed ritualsuicide by seppuku after a failed coup d’état.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Japan Conference for Schools 2018
Friday 12 October 2018

10.00am – 4.15pm

The British Council
10 Spring Gardens
London SW1A 2BN
Free for school teachers but prior booking is an essential
requirement.
Booking deadline: Friday 5 October 2018

This is a free one-day conference for teachers
to network and share ideas about bringing
Japan and Japanese into schools.
The event is open to schools or local authorities
that are new to the study of Japan, schools
already implementing Japanese in theircurriculum, those involved with partnerships
in Japan and schools looking to enhance ordevelop an existing programme of Japanrelated study.
There will be general sessions as well as
sessions specifically geared to Primary or
Secondary teaching.

Workshops that will be running include:
Session One– Designing and Managing Japanese
Language Instruction for a Multi-level Class– Cross-Curricular Focused: Introducing
Japan/Japanese in schools
Session Two– Language Focused: Japanese Language
Club – Manga as a Gateway to Learning– Cross-Curricular Focused: Enrichment
and Curriculum Ideas to Engage Japanese
Learners

The day will be divided into three“sessions”. For each “session”, participants
can choose one workshop. Please notethat participants can choose to attend
EITHER the Pearson A-Level CPD workshop
OR a combination of the other session
workshops running throughout the day.

Session Three– Cross-Curricular Focused (Primary): Maths
Through Japanese– Cross-Curricular Focused (Secondary): Art in
the Japanese Classroom.

Please note applications for the Pearson
A-Level CPD Workshop are now closed.

This event is co-organised by Japan Foundation
London and the Japan Society with generous
support from the British Council.

If you have any queries, please contact:
education@japansociety.org.uk

TTurf Wars: Territories and Textbooks in Sino-Japanese Relations
Monday 15 October 2018

6:45pmJapan House London		
101-111 Kensington High Street
London W8 5SA			Free – booking recommended

The content of Japanese school textbooks
has been a bone of contention between the
Chinese and Japanese governments sincethe 1980s when the first ‘textbook issue’
emerged. The Chinese government has
lodged protests at various points since 1982
at what they perceive to be a ‘beautification’of history and distorted accounts of Japan’s
war of aggression. In recent years, theircriticisms have shifted to include the changes
made to the descriptions in Japan’s middle
school civics textbooks of territorial disputes(the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands) which havethemselves courted controversy in Japan.
At the same time, Japanese politicians andacademics have begun to raise concerns
about China’s history textbooks, and theirperceived anti-Japanese content.
This talk explores some of the changes
that have been made in Japanese andChinese textbooks in recent years against
the backdrop of ‘patriotic education’reforms in both countries, and considers theimplications for Sino-Japanese relations.
Professor Caroline Rose is based in the
Department of East Asian Studies at the
University of Leeds. She specialises in various
aspects of Japanese and Chinese foreign
policy as well as historical problems in SinoJapanese relations. Her books include SinoJapanese Relations: Facing the Past, Looking
to the Future? (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004)
and Interpreting History in Sino-Japanese
Relations (Routledge, 1998). She is currently
completing a monograph on history andcitizenship education in China and Japan andhas published widely on various aspects of
the history problem in China-Japan relations.
She is embarking on a project on the role oftrust and friendship in East Asia.

Japan Room Lecture: The Curious Case Of Japan Leads To
Deep Revelations About Money
Tuesday 30 October 20186.30pmLodge Room No 11
The Freemasons’ HallGreat Queen Street
London WC2B 5AZ
Japan Society members: £9Non-members: £15
Booking deadline: Friday 26 October

How weak is macroeconomic theory? Japan
has terrible macroeconomic numbers(by leading nation standards) yet a highquality of life. This contradiction drags
macroeconomics, monetary policy, taxation,and politics under a spotlight.
In this talk, Professor Michael Mainelli intends
to draw on the work of his Long Financemovement, along with the work of Professor
Richard Werner, and use the more interesting
contradictions of Japan to show how much
more we need to learn about fiat currencies,
cryptocurrencies, trade, and tax in order toprovide alternative visions of economic andfiscal (six letter word for tax) policies.
Professor Michael Mainelli FCCA FCSI(Hon)
FBCS, Executive Chairman, Z/Yen GroupA qualified accountant, securities professional,
computer specialist, and management
consultant, educated at Harvard University
and Trinity College Dublin, Michael gained
his PhD at London School of Economics
where he was also a Visiting Professor. He
began his career as a research scientist, later
becoming an accountancy-firm partner anda director of Ministry of Defence research.
During a spell in merchant banking in 1994,
he co-founded Z/Yen, the City of London’sleading commercial think-tank. He has
led Z/Yen from creating smart ledgers(aka blockchains) through the Financial£aboratory, Taskforce 2000, Long Finance& the London Accord, Global Financial
Centres Index, Global Green Finance Index,
and Global Intellectual Property Index. He isan Alderman of the City of London, a nonexecutive director of two listed firms and a
regulator, Emeritus Professor at Gresham
College, Fellow of Goodenough College, andMaster of the Worshipful Company of World
Traders. His third book, The Price of Fish: A
New Approach to Wicked Economics andBetter Decisions, won the 2012 Independent
Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment& Economics Gold Prize..
Please let us know if you would like to take anoptional tour of the Freemasons’ Hall at 5.15
for 5.30pm.
Host: Pauline
Ambassador.

Chakmakjian,

In association with

Visit

Kyoto

A Japanese View on World Energy Future: Energy
Transition and A Thorny Path to 3E Challenges
Tuesday 6 November 2018 10.00am to 12.00am (registration: 9.45am)
JETRO London Office
Mid City Place
71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6BA
Free of charge – Booking essential
Members of the Japan Society and their guests
Booking deadline: Tuesday 30 October 2018

JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization),
the Japan Society and JOGMEC (Japan
Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation)
London would like to invite you to a seminaron a Japanese view on world energy outlookwith special focus given to the analysis of oiland electricity supply interruption, as wellas that of the impact of “zero new coal-fired
power generation” on 3E challenges.
Professor Ken Koyama, Chief Economist andManaging Director of Institute of Energy
Economics, Japan (IEEJ), will present anoutline of the IEEJ’s latest long-term Energy
Outlook up to 2050, followed by comments
and discussion by prominent energy experts.
Professor Koyama will also touch upon Japan’s
latest energy policy challenges, based on thediscussion on the latest “Strategic Energy
Plan” of Japan which was approved by the
Cabinet July this year.
Minister Plenipotentiary with Embassy ofJapan, Mr Takashi Okada will offer some brief
remarks at the opening of the seminar.

Commentators:
Professor Paul Stevens, Distinguished
Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources,
Chatham House
Peter Hughes, Director, Peter Hughes Energy
Advisory Ltd.
Mr. Masayuki Tanimoto, Regional Head forEurope, the Middle East and Africa, Japan
Bank for International Cooperation.
Professor Ken Koyama received his BA and MA
degrees in Economics from Tokyo’s Waseda
University, and his PhD from the Universityof Dundee where his thesis was titled Japan’s
Energy Strategies toward the Middle East. He
joined the IEEJ in 1986 and has held various
positions within the Institute, such as Senior
Economist and later Head of the World Oil andEnergy Group, and Senior Research Fellow in
the Energy and Strategy unit. Alongside hiscurrent position, Professor Koyama has alsotaught at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate
School of Public Policy since 2010.
To reserve your place, please visit our website
and find the link to JETRO registration form.

Organised by:

In association with:

Sixth Form Japan Day 2018
Wednesday 7 November 2018
(Registration from 10.00am)

10.20am to 4.00pm

SOAS University of London
Russell Square Campus
London WC1H 0XG
Free of charge to schools
Booking deadline: Thursday 1 November 2018
The Japan Society, in association with
Ritsumeikan University (UK) and SOAS, ispleased once again to invite Sixth Form
students to attend its popular FREE one-day
course about Japan, its culture and its role in
the global community.
The day is designed to give an insight into
aspects of Japan, traditional and modern,through lectures and practical workshops.
It is not only aimed at Sixth Form students
who are studying Japanese, but is also for
those who have not had the opportunity to
do so formally at school. As part of the day
we will have a University Exhibition, wherestudents will have the chance to talk one
on one with a range of representatives fromuniversities in the UK offering JapaneseStudies programmes. For those considering
applying to do other subjects at universities
in Japan, there will also be a chance to learn
about study abroad opportunities.
Students will also have the chance to speak
one on one with representatives from a rangeof universities offering Japanese studies.
The course will feature a keynote address by
Beth Kempton, Founder of ‘Do What You Love’and bestselling author of ‘Wabi Sabi: Japanese
wisdom for a perfectly imperfect life’
The day will also include a lecture by a special
guest speaker Professor Takeshi Hashimoto(Ritsumeikan University) and a talk by final
year Japanese studies students from SOAS.
Elective practical workshops in small groups
will allow students to take part in a rangeof activities, including: Calligraphy, Cookery(Sushi), Oekakinden (Smart Wearable Sports
Technology), Manga (Drawing), Martial Arts
(Aikido), Sumi-e (Ink-wash painting), and alanguage focused workshop led by the JapanFoundation exploring the topic of O-Bento(Japanese lunch box).
Booking information
Places will be issued on a first-come-firstserved basis. Students may attend on theirown or be accompanied by a member of staff.
For more information about the workshops
and to apply, please visit our website anddownload the booking form: https://www.
japansociety.org.uk /schools/sixth-formjapan-day/Japan Society Book Club: 69 by Ryu Murakami
Monday 12 November 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

Thirty-two-year-old narrator Kensuke Yazaki
takes a nostalgic look back at the year 1969,
when he was an ambitious and enthusiastic
seventeen-year-old, living in Sasebo, inwestern Kyushu, where he gets into antics
with his equally ambitious and enthusiastic
best friends, Iwase and Adama. Theirpriorities are girls, cinema, music, literature,
pop culture, organising a school festival tobe called “The Morning Erection Festival”,
besting teachers and enemies, and finding a
way to change the world somehow.
Born in 1952 in Nagasaki prefecture,
Ryu Murakami is the enfant terrible ofcontemporary Japanese literature. Awarded
the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1976 forhis first book, a novel about a group of young
people drowned in sex and drugs, he hasgone on to explore with cinematic intensity
the themes of violence and technology incontemporary Japanese society. His novels
include Coin Locker Babies, Popular Hits of
the Showa Era, Audition, In the Miso Soup andFrom the Fatherland, with Love. Murakami isalso a screenwriter and a director; his films
include Tokyo Decadence and Because ofYou.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Imamura Shohei: How to Win Fans and Influence People in
the Postwar Japanese Studio System – with Jennifer Coates
Monday 19 November 20186.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

Imamura Shohei’s first four films havereceived significantly less academic andcritical attention than his work from 1960
onwards. Stolen Desire (Nusumareta yokujo,
1958), Ginza Station (aka Lights of Night, Nishi
Ginza eki mae, 1958), and Endless Desire(Hateshinaki yokubo, 1958), made at Nikkatsu
Studios, have been largely dismissed, with My
Second Brother (Nianchan, 1959) credited withbringing Imamura to critical and academic
attention. This lecture takes a closer look at
the contents and reception of these earlyfilms, investigating their relation to critical andpopular understanding of Imamura’s own
directorial persona.
Many
critics
consider
these
films
uncharacteristic of Imamura, yet if we lookclosely at their themes, casting, language,
and settings, we can see many centralcomponents of Imamura’s later work in theseearly studio films. While the dominant story of
Imamura’s career situates My Second Brotheras the work in which he found his authorial

voice, this voice is discernible much earlier.
Imamura’s first three films are in fact strongly
characteristic, not only of his later work, butalso of his public-facing auteur persona. A
closer look at these early works helps us
to understand how Imamura to won overprofessional film critics to become a criticallylauded star director.
Jennifer Coates is Senior Lecturer in JapaneseArts, Culture, and Heritage at the Sainsbury
Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts andCultures, University of East Anglia. She is theauthor of Making Icons: Repetition and theFemale Image in Japanese Cinema, 19451964 (Hong Kong University Press, 2016). Her
current ethnographic research project focuseson early post-war film audiences in Japan.
Jennifer has been a Kluge Fellow at the Libraryof Congress, Washington D.C. (2012), a Visiting
Research Fellow at the Australian National
University (2011), and a Hakubi researcher at
Kyoto University (2014-2018).

sJapan Society Annual Dinner
Wednesday 21 November 20187.30pm for 8.00pm

One Great George Street
London SW1P 3AA
Members under 30: £40 (first 30 to apply)
Members (& guests): £70
Non-Members: £100
Booking essential – deadline Friday 16 November
The cost includes drinks on arrival, three course dinner, wine andcoffee.
The Japan Society is delighted to be returning
to the Great Hall of the spectacular One Great
George Street, home to the Institution of
Civil Engineers in the heart of Westminster,for its Annual Dinner, the largest event in its
calendar.
This Grade II listed building, completed in
1913, was conceived as a monument to British
engineering – a celebration of Victorian
gravitas and Edwardian vision. It was oneof the first buildings in London constructedusing a steel frame, allowing the architects
to create the vast spaces that characterise
the building – the domed atrium, and GreatHall. Aside from the marble columns, goldleaf and magnificent crystal chandeliers, theHall’s defining feature is its painted ceiling,
depicting soaring biplanes and steel cranes –a gift to the ICE as a tribute to the role playedby its members during the First World War.

The dinner is traditionally a black tie eventand many guests will wear formal dress,
but for those who prefer lounge suits, thisis perfectly acceptable. Most people will
be sitting at round tables of 10. If you haveany seating preferences, please specify withwhom you wish to be seated. Please also
inform us of any special dietary requirements.
Tickets will be sent to all those attending.
Cancellation Policy
A full refund will be given where notice ofcancellation is received at least 72 hours prior
to the event. In other cases, refunds will begiven at the discretion of the Japan Society
and event partners.
We are very grateful to JTI for their support
which enables us to offer discounted tickets
to all members and a further discount tomembers under 30, ensuring that the event
can be enjoyed by everyone.

This event is kindly supported by:

The Fukushima Accident & Its Aftermath
Monday 3 December 201814.00pm registration for 14.15pm start

JETRO London Office
Mid City Place
71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6BA
Free of charge – Booking essential
Priority for members of the Japan Society and guests.
Booking deadline: Monday 27 November

The Japan Society is delighted to welcome
Mr Naomi Hirose, Executive Vice Chairman,
Fukushima Affairs, Tokyo Electric Power
Company Holdings, for a special briefing formembers.
More than seven and a half years have passed
since the Great East Japan Earthquake andsubsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Plant accident. Steady progress has
been made towards the reconstruction of
Fukushima, the repopulation of surrounding
areas, and the decommissioning of the plant,of which Tokyo Electric Power Company
Holdings (TEPCO) must shoulder $145 billionof the $200 billion total estimated cost of
the accident. Meanwhile, with Japan having
fully liberalised its electricity and gas retailmarket (in 2016 and 2017 respectively), thebusiness environment surrounding TEPCO
is undergoing a major change. In the longterm, TEPCO foresees a decrease in demand
for their power service and increased
competition among utility companies.

In this seminar, Naomi Hirose, who was
appointed to manage the Fukushima
incident in March 2011, and went on to
spearhead reform as President of TEPCO from2012 to 2017, shares his insights on the current
situation in Fukushima, lessons learned andimplications from the accident.

Japan Society Book Club: Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki
Monday 10 December 2018		

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members – booking recommended
The book club is held on the second Monday of every month

Spring Garden is the second novel by Osakaborn Shibasaki Tomoka. It centres on twentysomething Taro who recently divorced after
a short-lived marriage and is still reelingfrom the death of his father. Taro lives on
his own in a one-bed flat in a condemned
apartment block. The story follows him
and his two neighbours who remain in theemptying building; the ones left behind,
without much in the way of family. The
unusual friendship that unfolds between
Taro and Nishi, the woman from the top floor,
leads him to surprising discoveries about hisneighbourhood.
Tomoka Shibasaki was born in 1973 in Osakaand began writing fiction while still in highschool. After graduating from university, shetook an office job but continued writing,
and was shortlisted for the Bungei Prize in
1998. Her first book, A Day on the Planet, wasturned into a hit movie, and Spring Garden
won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2014.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Japan Society Christmas Party
Friday 14 December 20186.30 to 8.00pm

Embassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London W1J 7JT£20 per head
Japan Society members and their guests only
Booking essential – deadline Monday 10 December

This year’s Christmas Party will once again
be held in the Ballroom of the Japanese
Embassy, by courtesy of The Ambassador.
We hope that many members will join us forthis festive occasion. This annual gathering
provides members with a great opportunity
to catch up with friends at the close of the year
and start thinking ahead to new challenges
in 2019. Members may bring guests but
space may well be limited, so early booking
is advised; places will be allocated on a firstcome-first-served basis.
We are extremely grateful to our hosts the
Embassy of Japan and to the Japan Centre
which is generously providing the party
canapes for the evening. Established in
1976, the Japan Centre Food Hall is a wellloved institution situated in Central London
with an outpost in Westfield Stratford City
and an online shop. Summer 2018 saw the
opening of Europe’s largest Japanese foodhall Ichiba, in partnership with Cool Japan
Fund, Kikkoman and Gekkeikan.

Names are required for the Embassy security
in advance therefore early booking is advised.
You will be sent a confirmation of yourbooking to print out and show on arrival.
Please note that guests will not be
admitted without a form of photographic
identification (passport, driving licence etc).
Cancellation policy
A full refund will be given where noticeof cancellation is received by Monday 10
December 2018. In other cases, refunds
will be given at the discretion of the Japan
Society and event partners.

This event is kindly supported by:

The Arrival of Tango in Japan: Allure, Fear, and Morality in
Early Twentieth-Century Japan – with Yuiko Asaba
Monday 17 December 20186.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended

In the early twentieth-century, Argentine
tango arrived in Japan as a critical part ofthe country’s modernisation. Since thatfatal moment, its foreign, provocative allure– a music that ‘originated’ far, far away inArgentina – spiced with a hint of romanticised‘low-life’ imaginaries, has continued to capture
Japanese people’s hearts and curiosity acrossthe social classes. Japanese performers
embraced this exogenous genre as a vehicleof expressivity. Devotees have digested
its knowledge, creating and nourishing a
distinctly Japanese tango culture. The soundsof tango provided comfort and a sense ofhope to many during the most turbulent yearsof the twentieth century. In over a century ofhistory in Japan, tango has entered the hearts
and accompanied the lives of many Japanesepeople.
Crucially, however, tango’s initial arrivalin Japan in the early twentieth-century
was through Britain, after tango had been
accepted into the Western higher social strata
as a morally agreeable dance-music. Tango
thus brought with it in Japan its own social
contexts of tensions between social classes.
Above all, in spite of its acceptance into
the Western high societies tango’s ‘morally

suspect’ associations had never left its image.
Taking a closer look at the early reception oftango and the development of regulations ontango in Japan at this time reveals intriguing
historical details of allure, fear, and morality.
Yuiko Asaba is Tutor in Music at the Universityof Oxford, and Visiting Lecturer of Music at
Royal Holloway, University of London. She is
now completing her monograph on Tango
in Japan for University of Hawai’i Press, partof which will be published in Japanese asa chapter in an edited volume (edited by
Yusuke Wajima) with Minerva Shobo. Her
article on Tango and emotions in Japan is
also forthcoming. Yuiko’s current research
looks at the relationship between Japan’s
migration politics and tango in the earlytwentieth-century. She is also a Tango violinistand has worked as a member of the National
Orchestra of Argentine Music (Argentina),
Tango Orchestra Astrorico (Japan), and hasrecorded award-winning albums. Yuiko
received her PhD in Music in 2017 fromRoyal Holloway, University of London.
© Image: dancers Ryo & Hazuki with tangoorchestras Astrorico and Garufa of Japan