Events
January - December 2013
Arts & Culture

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Education

Lectures

LifestyleSpecial Events

For more information or to book for Japan Society events,
please visit the website or contact the office.

The Japan Society, Swire House, 59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AJ

tel: 020 7828 6330 fax: 020 7828 6331 info@japansociety.org.uk www.japansociety.org.uk
A company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 3371038
Registered Charity No. 1063952 VAT Registration No. 241 5505 89.

Book launch - Britain & Japan Biographical Portraits Into the Mountain Greenery: Early Western climbers
Volume VIIIin the Japanese Alps – Hamish Ion

Monday 18 February

6.45pmWednesday 20 February 2013

6.45pmThe Japan Foundation
6th Floor Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London WC1B 5EH

The Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2TH(Hall entrance on Barter St)

Free - booking essential

Free – booking recommended

Booking deadline - Thursday 14 February

Nearest underground station: Holborn

To mark the publication of Biographical Portraits
VIII, the Japan Society is holding a special booklaunch in association with the Japan Foundation,with accompanying talks by the editor and key
contributors. Presentations will last for approximately
fifty minutes, to give attendees a flavour of some ofthe personalities featured in this volume. The formal
proceedings will be followed by a short Q & A session.

For centuries Japanese have made religious pilgrimages into the mountains, and climbed to the summitof many of them. In fact, there were very few major
peaks in the Japanese Alps that had not been scaled
before Western alpine pioneers clambered up them.
To climb as a leisure activity, however, was a novelidea, which had not occurred to the Japanese before
the late nineteenth century. Mountain climbing as aleisure pursuit was one of the new sports introduced
into Japan by Westerners during this period and hassince become a popular pastime. This talk looks at
the achievements of Walter Weston and those that
followed him, H. E. Daunt and Murray Walton, as an
enduring legacy of pre-war Anglo-Japanese relations.

This book forms part of a series of volumes which
record the lives of people who have contributedin various ways to the development of UK-Japan
relations. The current volume brings the Japan
Society’s collection of individual memoirs to a
cumulative total in excess of 400 biographicalportraits.
We are delighted to be able to offer copies of
Biographical Portraits VIII free of charge to membersof the Japan Society while stocks last. Copies will beavailable to collect on the night. Members who areunable to attend the launch may obtain a copy fromthe Japan Society office on request, either in personor by post, at a cost of £5.00 (UK residents).

In the history of Japan’s cross-cultural relations
with the West, sports have proved themselves tobe remarkably durable. In large part, this is because
they normally pose neither a direct challenge tothe indigenous culture nor are they subject to thewhims of fashion to the same degree as foreign intellectual ideas. Japan has accepted and adapted
a great many Western sports, including mountainclimbing, and also successfully exported someof its own traditional sports to the outside world.

Hamish Ion is a graduate of McGill University andholds a Ph.D. in Japanese Studies from Sheffield
University. He has written extensively on various aspects of Japanese history including Anglo-Japaneserelations in the Meiji and Taisho periods. He teaches
history at the Royal Military College of Canada.

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In association with:

Joint Lunch with the JCCI: UK-Japan nuclear
cooperation - Sir John Beddington

Friday 22 February 201312.30 for 1.00pm

The National Liberal ClubWhitehall Place
London SW1A 2HE(nearest tube: Embankment Station)£50 per head for members of the JCCI andJapan Society, and their guests
Booking deadline – Monday 4 February
The Japan Society and JCCI are delighted to welcome,as the guest speaker at their first joint lunch of 2013,
Sir John Beddington, the UK Government’s Chief
Scientific Advisor.

Sir John will talk about UK-Japan nuclear cooperation.
The future of nuclear power in Japan is still underconsideration, while the British are embarking on an
accelerated building programme. Thus the scope forcooperation is significant. Sir John’s early and clear
advice at the time of the Fukushima crisis was greatly
appreciated in Japan.
Sir John Beddington has been based at Imperial
College, at the Universities of Edinburgh and Yorkand he is a specialist on Economics and the Biology
of Sustainable Management. He has chaired theEnvironment Food and Rural Affairs panel andthe Defence Scientific Advisory Committee andhas advised the European Commission and the
UN Food Organisation. The Government’s Chief
Scientific Advisor is the personal advisor on scienceand technology-related activities to the Prime
Minister and Cabinet, and is also the Head of theGovernment Office for Science and the network of
Chief Scientific Advisors in place in all major scienceusing departments
Following a two-course lunch, Sir John Beddington
will speak for about 20 minutes, after which there will
be time for questions until 2.30pm.

BADA Antiques & Fine Arts Fair – Tea & Talk

Sunday 17 March 2013

4.30pmDuke of York Square(Off Sloane Square)
London SW3 4LY£15 for Japan Society members and their guests
Booking essential
Booking deadline – Thursday 14 MarchTea and a special talk at the British Antique ­Dealers’
Association Fair has been organised for Japan­Society members and guests. A visit is a mustfor anyone interested in art and antiques, wherea huge array of top quality furniture, paintings,
clocks, ceramics, jewellery and silver can be viewed
and bought. The great attraction of this annual
visit is the easy access to stalls and exhibits from­approximately 100 of the UK’s best antique dealers.
Members who attend this event, and who havepre-paid for their entrance through the ­Japan­Society, can enter the fair after 11.00 am ­during
the day of Sunday 17 March, pick up their ticket(s) from the desk at the fair reception, andreceive a complimentary BADA Handbook.
At 4.30pm members will be invited to enjoy
tea and cake and a special welcome from fair
­Director Gillian Craig in the Cellini Restaurant.
This will be followed by a private visit to the ­special loan
exhibition William Payne (1760 – 1830): ­Topographer
and Artist of the ­Picturesque. An ­exhibition of rarely seen works by the ­English watercolorist, ­curated
by expert and BADA Fair Exhibitor John Spink,
all the paintings have been lent by four ­private­collectors and have seldom been seen in public.
The fair will close at 8.00pm but members will­receive a special voucher entitling them to ­returnthe following day if they wish to. The fair is open to
the public daily at 11.00am ­between Wednesday 13– Tuesday 19 March.

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In association with:Sir Alfred East (1844-1913): A Centenary Talk – PaulJohnson.

Monday 18 March 2013 2013

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2TH(Hall entrance on Barter St)
Free – booking recommended

Curator-led tour of the Fan Museum Archives

Saturday 23 March 2013

2.00 pm

The Fan Museum
12 Croom’s Hill
LondonSE10 8ER£11.00 for Japan Society members and theirguests (Includes afternoon tea following the tour)

Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided

Booking deadline – Wednesday 20 MarchThis talk will cover the career of the landscapepainter Alfred East. Drawing on the diaries kept by
East and his travelling companions AL Liberty (thefounder of Liberty’s store) and CH Holme (who wasto become the editor of The Studio magazine), thetalk will cover his journey to, and 6 months spent in,Japan in 1888-89 sponsored by the Fine Art Societyof London. Arriving at Nagasaki, amongst the places he visited were Kobe, Kyoto, Hakone, Yokohama,Tokyo, and Nikko. The talk will cover the attitudes ofEast and his travelling companions to Japanese art ofthe period and Hideko Numata’s Japanese perspective on his work. It will be illustrated by reproductions of the artist’s oils, water colours and etchings
portraying the country, its people, its temples, lakes
and mountains, its blossom and changing weather.

The Japan Society is being offered a rare
­opportunity to visit behind the scenes and explore
the Fan ­Museum’s archives, where the ­majorityof the ­Museum’s collection of Japanese fans isstored. In the company of founder and curator
Helene ­Alexander, guests will have the chance to­examine fans from a range of periods and styles.
­Following the tour, afternoon tea will be servedin the beautifully restored Georgian Orangery.

Completing his journey round the world throughNorth America, East repaid his debt to the Fine Art
Society with a very successful exhibition of morethan 100 of his pictures on his return in March 1890.
An avid collector of Japanese prints, drawings, pottery, bronzes and netsuke by the time of his death,
East had built up a collection of more than 400 items.
Paul Johnson is the co-author (with Professor Kennneth McConkey) of Alfred East Lyrical Landscape
Painter (2009). His father was one of Alfred East’s
executors in 1913. With a degree in modern history,
Johnson qualified as a solicitor and spent his working
life in the spheres of public law and administration.

The Fan Museum is the only museum devoted
entirely to every aspect of fans and fan making,home to a collection of more than 3,500 fans fromaround the world, dating from the 11th century
to the present day. The Museum stages themed­exhibitions throughout the year, including fanson loan from other collections. The curator-led
tour will also include a chance to examine the­current exhibition The Fan in Europe: 1800 – 1850,­featuring an eclectic array of fans from this period.

Helene Alexander (née Adda) was born in Alexandria, Egypt in December 1932. She specialised
for a ­diploma in theatrical design at the Central
School of Art and Design (then the Central Schoolof Arts and Crafts) in London. She also holds a
degree in History of Art from London University and has been associated with the Victoria andAlbert Museum where she worked for thirteen
years as a volunteer in the textile department.
Over the years, she has assembled one of the mostcomprehensive collections of fans and fan leaves
in the world. She was the founding president of
the Fan Circle International, is President of the Fan
Museum Trust and currently serves as ­Director
and Curator of the Fan Museum in Greenwich.

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Japanese Fiction in Translation: Michael Emmerichand Stephen Dodd in conversation

Thursday 18 April 2013

6.45pmJapan Society Pub Quiz

Tuesday 30 April 2013

7.00 for 7.30pm

The Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2TH(Hall entrance on Barter St)

The Prince of Wales
Drury Lane
Covent Garden
London WC2B 5PF

Free – booking recommended£1 per head (payable at the door)

Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided

Booking essential (places are limited)

The Japan Society is delighted to be hostinga discussion between two eminent figures in
the world of Japanese translation and literaturestudies, Michael Emmerich and Stephen Dodd.

おやっとさあ ! To mark the visit of the Japan British
Society of Kagoshima, the Japan Society pub quiz
returns after three years in retirement. A popularfeature of British pub culture, a pub quiz is a chance
to band together with a team of friends and pit yourwits against the pub’s quiz master – and of course
enjoy a drink or two along the way. The uniquepoint about the Japan Society Pub Quiz is that half
the questions are in English and half in Japanese,­although it is structured so that anyone can take part.

The evening will begin with a short ­presenta­­­tion
on Emmerich’s current book project, The
Tale of Genji: ­Translation, Canonization, andWorld Literature, in which he re-examines the­conventional narrative of this iconic work’s­history, arguing that it became a classic outsideof Japan before it was popularized domestically.
Stephen Dodd, Senior Lecturer in Japaneseat the School of Oriental and African ­Studies,
will then join Emmerich in conversation about­theories of world ­literature and how its ­canon isconstituted and ­recognised. The ­discussion will
expand to encompass Emmerich and Dodd’s
own translation work, which ranges from­classical to contemporary-era Japanese fiction.
Michael Emmerich is an assistant professor inthe ­Department of East Asian Languages and­Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.­ In addition to his many ­publications
in English and Japanese on early modern,­modern, and contemporary Japanese literature,
he is the translator of works by writers such as­Kawabata Yasunari, Yoshimoto Banana, Takahashi
Gen’ichirō, Matsuura Rieko, and Kawakami Hiromi.
Stephen Dodd gained two BA degrees in Chinese(1977) and Japanese (1980) from Keble College,
Oxford. He obtained a PhD in Japanese Literaturefrom Columbia University (1993). From 1994, hehas been teaching at SOAS, University of London,
where he is presently Senior Lecturer in Japanese.

This, the fifth Japan Society Pub Quiz, is your chance
to show everyone just how much you know, or simply to come and have fun with ­­like-minded people.
If you have never participated in a pub quiz, it’s time
you found out what they are all about. If you are apast master, this is another chance to form a winningteam. In honour of our visitors from Kagoshima, there
may well be some questions with a certain Satsuma
slant. But don’t worry, it is not a quiz about the history of southern Kyushu and we will try to place oneof our visitors from Kagoshima in each team to help.
All team members will be asked to pay £1 on thenight. The collected takings will form the prize, which
will be awarded to the winning team. The moreteams and more participants, the bigger the bounty!
There will also be a prize for the team with best name.
The rules are not strict, but teams will have about
six members and will need to include at least one
Japanese speaker. If you are interested, but haven’t got a full team, please let us know. We canmatch you with other people to make up a six.

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Gala Opera Evening 2013

Joint lunch with JCCI: The UK-Japan 21st Century
Group’s 30th Annual Meeting

Thursday 2 May 201312.30 for 1.00pm

The Cavalry and Guards Club
127 Piccadilly
London W1J 7PX£55 per head for members of the JCCI andJapan Society, and their guests
Booking deadline – Monday 29 April
The guests at the next Japan Society and JCCI joint
lunch will be the co-Chairmen of the UK-­Japan
21st Century Group, Mr Yasuhisa Shiozaki andthe Lord Howard of Lympne, together with other British and Japanese members of the Group.
The 21st Century Group is a non-­Governmental­forum. It was set up in 1984 to help cement closer links between British and Japanese politicians,­business and media figures, and academics. It meets
each year, alternating between Japan and the UK, todiscuss issues of mutual national ­interest, reporting
direct after each meeting to the British and JapanesePrime Ministers. Membership of the group varies
from year to year but includes ­Members of the UK
Parliament and of the Diet, experts on the issues­being discussed, senior business ­representatives andwell-known media commentators.
For this lunch, members of the 21st Century Groupwill be spread through tables of 10, otherwise
made up of members of the Japan Society and of
the JCCI; all attendees will be allocated seats. The
co-Chairmen will make brief speeches, but the aimof the lunch will be to enable the members of theSociety and the Chamber to discuss current issuesof interest in UK/Japan relations directly with themembers of the Group. There will representativesof the Society’s Board on each table, who can feedback any specific points after the lunch as necessary.
We are indebted to Nikko AM for ­funding the­participation of the ­delegates from the 21st Century
Group.
This is an important event: dialogue with the­parliamentary and other delegates who will be­going straight on to debate the same issues over the­weekend, will give our members a chance to provide
input to key questions and also to ensure that themembers of the Group are aware of the issues facedby those involved in UK-Japan relations here in the UK.

Wednesday 15 May 2013

7.30pmSt Giles’ Church
Cripplegate
Fore Street
BarbicanLondon EC2Y 8DA
Ticket price – £15
Contact Japan Society for booking form
The Japan, Hong Kong and Anglo-Korean­Societies, the Islington Chinese Association, the­British-­Japanese, British-Chinese and British-Korean Law Associations and St Giles Church, Cripplegate are organising a Gala Opera Evening featuring­operas with Asian settings or themes performedby outstanding young professional opera singers.
The performance will be raising support for
the City Music Foundation and the St Giles
Young
Musicians’
initiative
RisingStars.
Performers
Victoria Stanyon (Soprano)Charlotte Stephenson (Mezzo Soprano)John Pierce (Tenor)
Gerard Collet (Baritone)
Alice Turner (Pianist)
Programme
Un bel di, vedremo (from Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini)
Vogliatemi bene (from Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini)
Sous le dome epais (from Lakme by Leo Deliibes)
Au fond du temple saint (from Les Pecheurs de perlesby Georges Bizet)
You are my heart’s delight (from The Land of Smiles
by Franz Lehar)Interval

Miya sama (from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan)
Brightly dawns our wedding day (from The Mikado
by Gilbert and Sullivan)
Three Little Maids (from The Mikado by Gilbert and
Sullivan)
The Sun, whose rays are all ablaze (from The Mikado
by Gilbert and Sullivan)
Signore, Ascolta! (from Turandot by Giacomo Puccini)
Nessun Dorma (from Turandot by Giacomo Puccini)...........................................................................................................................................
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Supported by:Jomon Revelations: What the prehistoric Japanese did for us

Wednesday 22 May 2013

6.45pm

A Voyage Through Words and Music

Tuesday 11 June 2013

6.30pm (doors open)

Free – booking recommended

All Saints Church Fulham
Pryors Bank
Bishops Park
Putney Bridge Approach
London SW6 3LA

Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided

Free – booking required
Seating – first come, first served

The people who lived in the Japanese archipelago in
the millennia before the arrival of rice farming, long
before the first historical records that refer to Japan
were written, were among the first to experimentwith a number of innovations that had a profound
impact on the subsequent history of humanity.
These include creating some of the earliest ceramic
containers in the world; fostering close relationships
with plants and plant products, in particular lacquer;and creating some of the first village communities.

Join us in celebrating the arrival, 400 years ago to theday, of the first British ship to Japan with an eveningof music and words drawn from the traditions of thetwo countries.

This talk examines recent discoveries that illustrate
the contribution of the prehistoric Japanese to world
history and presents evidence that the Jomon archipelago was not as cut off from its surroundings as isoften thought. Drawing on examples from fieldworkin the Shinano and Chikuma River system, central
Honshu and elsewhere, we will also see how these
Jomon foragers were remarkably resilient in the faceof regular natural catastrophes, incorporating copingwith very active environments and their unpredictability into Jomon cultural perceptions of the world.

Doors Open: 6.30pm (A pay bar with sake, wine andsoft drinks available)

The Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2TH

Dr Simon Kaner is Director of the Centre for JapaneseStudies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich andHead of the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at
the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts
and Cultures. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
of London, he is directing the Shinano River Project,
investigating the development of historic environments along the Shinano and Chikuma rivers, thelongest drainage in the Japanese archipelago. He is
also currently involved in research into the archaeology of the sacred island of Okinoshima, the collectionof kofun period archaeological materials collected byWilliam Gowland at the British Museum, and the interface between cultural tourism and archaeology.

Musical programme arranged by: Jason James, David
Hughes, Michael Spencer, Meg Hamilton and David
Fawcett
Programme (more details to follow on the website)

Starts: 7.30pm
Programme Ends: 9.45...........................................................................................................................................
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Carmen Blacker Lecture 2013: A Glimpse of theModestly Literate Picnic Lovers of Old Japan

Monday 15 July 2013

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH

Japanese Whisky Tasting at Tsuru

Friday 26 July 20136.30 for 7.00pm

Tsuru Restaurant Bishopsgate
Broadgate Plaza (off Primrose Street)
London EC2M 3AF

Free – booking recommended
Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided
Despite its many rules and constraints, the stability ofJapanese society for more than two centuries under
the Shogunate’s policy of seclusion (1630s-1850s)
did not result in gloomy stagnation. How was this­possible? The answer may lie in the era’s abundance of unambitious, self-contented elders, who
can be ­labeled ‘modestly literate picnic lovers (gakumon hodo hodo, yusan dai-suki)’. The ­existenceof this group has been uncovered through a­­computer-processed analysis of the patterns of wear
and tear on the bottom surfaces of more than sixty­extant copies of the bulky Setsuyôshû, a household­encyclopedia used commonly by local community
elders. First ­produced in the late medieval period,the S­ etsuyôshû was popularised and expanded­during the 18th ­century and came to be regarded asa ­reliable reference book.
In this lecture, Professor Yokoyama will discuss the­users of the book who tended to be detached fromthe establishment, while indulging in individual­pursuits, and hence contributed to the radiance of
old Japan.
The Carmen Blacker Lecture Series honours the memory and scholarship of Carmen Blacker (1924-2009).
Each year a senior scholar will lecture on a theme related to Japanese religion or folklore. ­Professor Toshio Yokoyama is Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University
and Executive Vice-President at Shiga University.

£50 – booking essential
Booking deadline – Monday 22 July
Back by popular demand, Tsuru will once again ­offer
Japan Society members and guests a chance to­enjoy an exclusive tutored Japanese whisky tasting.
Whisky wizards Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley havebeen on the hunt for seldom seen spirits to bringto London for your enjoyment. Those attending
will have the opportunity to taste five distinctive­selections paired with special dishes prepared by
Tsuru’s chef.
Joel and Neil will be on hand to introduce and discusseach whisky. Tasting notes and information will also
be available for guests to take home.
Japanese whisky is similar in style to Scottish whisky and regularly competes for the top spot at world
whisky tastings.
The full menu will be available to view on the Japan
Society website shortly.
Tsuru Restaurants offer hand-made sushi, ­authentic
katsu curry and other Japanese dishes madeby ­experienced chefs using fresh, sustainable­ingredients.

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Joint Lunch with JCCI: Can the UK remain part of the EU?
Charles Grant, Centre for European Reform

Tuesday 30 July 201312.30 for 1.00pm

The National Liberal ClubWhitehall Place
London SW1A 2HE(nearest tube: Embankment Station)£50 per head for members of the Japan Society, the JCCI and their guests
Booking deadline – Friday 26 July

Dinner Party Sushi –Special Class at Sozai Cooking School

Friday 9 August 20136.30 - 8.30pm

Sozai Cooking School
5 Middlesex Street
London E1 7AA£38 – special price for members of the Japan
Society and their guests
Booking deadline – Friday 2 August

Questions about the UK’s current and future relationship with the EU are among the key issues for investors in the UK, especially for the many which have
European Headquarters in this country.

This August, Sozai Cooking School is offering Japan
Society members the opportunity to join a sushi
making class. This is a wonderful chance to learn
Japanese cooking skills from a professional chef andapply them to meals in your own home.

In the light of David Cameron’s pledge that, if a Conservative Government is elected in May 2015, there
will be a referendum by 2017 on whether Britain
should remain part of the EU, many are watchingdevelopments closely. The issues behind this initiative are wide-ranging and need explanation. Charles
Grant will give his views on the British relationshipwith Europe and the prospects ahead.

Sushi comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes
and is a key feature of dinner party dining in Japan. In
this class you will learn to make exciting party sushi
full of tremendous ‘wow’ factors and guaranteed toimpress your guests. Akemi Yokoyama will teach you
the skills and techniques required to put together atruly astonishing party plate.

Charles Grant studied at Cambridge before joining
Euromoney and then The Economist. He covered
the European Community for the latter from 1989
to 1993 when he became the magazine’s Defence
Editor. In 1996, Grant founded The Centre for European Reform, a think tank devoted to making the European Union work better and strengthening its rolein the world. The CER is pro-European and regards
European integration as largely beneficial. Under
Grant’s leadership the CER has become a respected
influence on British perceptions, and relations with,
the EU.
Following a two-course lunch, Charles Grant will
speak for about 20 minutes, after which there will betime for questions until 2.30pm.

Included in the evening class:*How to make sushi rice
*Inari-sushi (colourful sushi made with bean curdskin, ultra thin eggomelette, prawn and raw salmon)*kazari-sushi (large square sushi roll with a beautiful
pattern)*temari-sushi (small round shaped sushi)
Akemi Yokoyama‘s enthusiasm for gastronomy
originated early in her childhood in Sapporo, where
enjoying the spoils of wild vegetable foraging andsea fishing were regular family activities. This drove
her understanding regarding the importance of the
freshest, highest quality ingredients together withexquisite taste pairings in Japanese food. Akemi
came to London in 1985, where she learned sushi
making while working in London’s popular Japaneserestaurant Hiroko.

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The youth of things: an exploration of 1920s Japanese culture
Kimigayo to Japanoise: 160 years ofthrough the literature of Kajii Motojirô - Stephen Dodd
Japan-UK relations in popular music – Akira Imamura

Monday 19 August 2013

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on
Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended
Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided
Japan-UK relations in popular music began in 1854,
when a military band which accompanied Rear
­Admiral Sir James Stirling played a medley of English
airs in Nagasaki.
By looking into a series of fascinating episodesin ­Japan-UK popular music, Akira Imamura will
­examine how music has brought the peoples ofboth ­countries together. From the story of a ­British­bandmaster who composed the first Japanese­national ­anthem K­ imigayo in 1870, to the close collaboration ­between the members of Yellow Magic
Orchestra and the ­British art rock band Japan in the
1980s, or the ­creative experiments of Japanoise anddub-step in the 2000s, this lecture explores how music ­influenced mutual perceptions. What inspiration
did musicians find in each other’s works? What impact has state policy, technology and other external
factors had on musical interaction? How has collaboration in music production deepened over thecourse of 160 years? These and other questions will
be addressed in the course of the evening’s talk.
Akira Imamura is Minister and Consul General at the
Embassy of Japan in the UK. He was stationed in­Moscow three times between the 1980s and 2000s.
After graduating from Tokyo University in 1984, heserved for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He has served as Director, Russia Assistance ­Division(2002), and Director, Central and South Eastern­Europe Division (2003), in Tokyo.

Monday 16 September 2013

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended
Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided
Kajii Motojirô was born in 1901, and wrote only about
twenty short stories before dying of ­tuberculosis in
1932. He is best known today in Japan and in theWest (if at all) for his short story, Lemon, written
in 1925. While the brevity of his period of literary­activity is undeniable, his short stories stand out
both in terms of their fascinating narrative plots,
and also in their use of an undeniably poetic prosestyle. Kajii began writing from the mid-1920s, a
brief but very significant moment of Japanese literature when, just as in the West, all sorts of political­ideologies and philosophies of life were being hotly
debated in the cultural and literary worlds. On theother hand, by the time he passed away in the early
1930s, those ­debates were already giving way to amore ­conservative and inward-looking consensus onwhat it meant to be Japanese; a development that
led to the cultural movement known as the ‘Returnto ­Japan’ (Nihon kaiki).
In this talk, Stephen Dodd will demonstrate how ­Kajii
engaged with the diverse ideas of his time from avariety of angles: for example, he had an unusually
positive interpretation of his own relationship withtuberculosis; he had an idiosyncratic understandingof what the Japanese version of Modernism mightentail; and he explored extremely porous ­definitionsof self-identity in Japan during the early ­twentiethcentury. Dodd will draw upon examples of his­literary fiction in translation in order to flesh out these­various themes.

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Japan Society Family Day at the Golden Hinde

Sunday 29 September 2013 11.00am - 5.30pm
The Golden Hinde
1 Pickfords Wharf
Clink St
London SE1 9DG(Nearest underground station: London Bridge)

Current Developments in North Korea –Aidan Foster-Carter

Wednesday 2 October 2013 12.00 for 12.30pm
JETRO London
MidCity Place
71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6AL

Free admission (see booking information below)£12 for members of the Japan Society, JCCI
and those introduced by JETRO£18 for non-members

The Japan Society and the Embassy of Japan areorganizing a family day, In conjunction with Golden
Hinde and in association with Japan400, to celebrate
the 400-year ties between England and Japan, and to­introduce Londoners to different aspects of ­Japaneseculture.

Booking deadline - Monday 30 September

Booking essential - capacity is limited onboard

The day’s activities centre on the replica of Sir Francis
Drake’s Golden Hinde, which was used in the highly
successful TV mini-series of James Clavell’s Shogun,
the tale based on the true story of the first English
sailor to reach Japan.
Onboard and around the dock, families can enjoy avariety of entertainment, from ­dressing in ­traditional
Japanese armour and kimono, to ­watching Japanesefolk tales performed on deck and recounted in theheart of the ship’s hold. Children will have the chance
to collect pictures on the Shogun’s Treasure Trail andmake their own origami ships, or try their hand at­calligraphy.
The Japanese flag is hoisted up the mainmast forthe start of the day at 11.00am and lowered again
at 5.00pm. For a full programme of the day’s timed
activities please visit the website.

A major source of instability in the region,
North ­Korea is a considerable cause of ­concern
for ­successive ­Japanese and other regional­governments. ­Normal diplomatic practices and­relations do not seem to ­apply; the leader is young
and inexperienced (­although with some education
outside Korea) and those around him are unlikely tochallenge his ­decisions. The regime is ­unpredictable
and the ­economy weak and yet the military is relatively well armed and has some nuclear capability.
An ­understanding of North Korea, its leadershipand ­unpredictabilities is important for us all. Aidan­Foster-Carter will seek to explain the motivations of
the Government in Pyongyang, outline the dilemmas of dealing with it, and predict scenarios for North­Korea’s future.
Aidan Foster-Carter is Honorary Senior Research­Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds­University and is one of this country’s leading­authorities on North Korea, which he has followed
for 45 years.

Due to the popularity of this event, please book yourfree place in advance to ensure that you can gain
­access to the ship on the day. Please also specify apreferred time slot when booking - 11.00 am,
1.00 pm or 3.00 pm.

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Ginkgo: An Evolutionary and Cultural Biography

Japan Society Annual Dinner 2013

Monday 4 November 2013
Monday 21 October 2013

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended
Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided
Beginning with the historic Ginkgo tree that has
thrived in Kew Gardens since the 1760s, this lecture
will explore the evolutionary and cultural historyof the species from its mysterious origin throughits ­proliferation, drastic decline, and ­ultimate­resurgence. The lecture will also highlight the cultural and ­social significance of ginkgo, particularly inJapan: its ­medicinal and nutritional uses, its power asa source of artistic and religious inspiration, and its
importance as one of the world’s most popular street
trees.
Ginkgo is a botanical oddity that has remained­stubbornly unchanged for more than two hundred
million years. It is the most widely recognized of all
botanical ‘living fossils.’ Once regarded as a cousin ofpines and yews, ginkgo was first distinguished fromconifers in plant classifications of the early ­nineteenth
century. The evidence that has come to light since –particularly an astonishing discovery made in Japan
in 1896, about the intimate details of its ­reproduction– has reinforced the isolated ­position of ginkgo
among living plants.
Professor Sir Peter Crane FRS is Carl W. Knobloch Jr.
Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies at Yale University. His work focuses on thediversity of plant life – its origin, fossil history, current
status, conservation and use.

7.30 for 8.00pm

1 Great George St
London SW1P 3AA
Members under 30: £30
Members (& first guest): £55
Additional guests / Non-Members: £90
Dress code: Black tie / Lounge suits / National dress
The cost includes drinks on arrival, threecourse dinner, wine and coffee.
The Japan Society is delighted to be hosting thisyear’s annual dinner at One Great George Street, justoff Parliament Square in the heart of Westminster.
The venue was built for the Institution of Civil­Engineers, whose first President was Thomas Telford,
between 1910 and 1913. The design was the resultof an architectural competition won by James Miller. Over its lifespan the building has played host to arange of historic events, including the signing of thecharter that established UNESCO in 1945.
The dinner will take place in the Great Hall, with its
elaborate ceiling of somersaulting biplanes and steel
cranes, dedicated to the work of engineers during
the First World War. The site of several film epics
over the years, from Ghandi, to the political thriller
In the Loop and the TV drama Foyles War, One Great
George Street is, in the words of one architectural
critic, ‘a modern rendering of the late Renaissance.’
The dinner is traditionally a black tie event and many
guests will wear formal dress, but for those who­prefer lounge suits, this is perfectly acceptable. Most
people will be sitting at round tables of 10. If you
have any seating preferences, please specify withwhom you wish to be seated. Please also inform us ofany special dietary requirements. Tickets will be sent
to all those attending.
The Japan Society Awards 2013 will also be­announced and presented during the evening.

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Supported by:Love Statues, Shell Fish and Communist Treachery:
Japan’s early postwar responses to the War Crimes Issue– Barak Kushner

Japan Society Christmas Party 2013

Thursday 5 December 2013
Monday 18 November 2013

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH

6.30 to 8.00pm

Embassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London W1J 7JT£17 (Members & their guests)
Booking Deadline – Monday 2 December

Free – booking recommended

Please bring photographic identification withyou as those without may be denied entrance

Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided

This year’s Christmas party will once again be held in
the Ballroom of the Japanese Embassy.

An analysis of the end of World War Two and the­beginning of the Cold War does not just relate to­politics but also to the story of Japan’s ­imperial ­failure
and the sociology of defeat. The ­repatriation of­millions of Japanese civilians and returning ­soldiers
often made acceptance for the responsibility of
defeat and the war all the more difficult, as did thememory of the war dead because it was so deeply
connected to Japan’s imperial ideology. The Tokyo
War Crimes Trial, focused on class A war criminals,
generated rivers of ink in the Japanese language but
much less has been said about the war crimes puzzle
at Japan’s imperial periphery.

In 2013 we have been marking two significant­anniversaries: the arrival 150 years ago of the Choshu Five in London and the 400th anniversary of
the first British ship, The Clove, to make landfall in­Japan. It was on this same day, 5 December 400 years
ago, that John Saris and his crew departed on their­return ­voyage, with gifts from the Shogun to KingJames and an official Vermilion Seal Letter (shuinjô)
granting the English permission to live and tradethroughout Japan. These historic occasions provide
the theme for our festivities but the Christmas party
is also a great opportunity to catch up with friends atthe close of the year and start thinking ahead to newchallenges in 2014.

This lecture will focus on the 5,700 B & C class war
criminals, prosecuted in 2,244 cases that were
­adjudicated in forty-nine venues throughout Asia.
Japan’s national responses to those more ­numerous
and varied crimes across the former empire from1945-1965 detail a hitherto unknown story about
Japan and how it viewed itself in the postwar period.
Barak Kushner teaches modern Japanese history
at the University of Cambridge. He was recently­awarded a 2012-2013 British Academy Mid-Career
Fellowship which he used to complete his thirdbook Men to Devils and Devils to Men: Japanese War
Crimes and Cold War Sino-Japan Relations (19451965) (forthcoming from Harvard University Press,
2014).

The Japan Society and the Embassy of Japan are­delighted to welcome delegates from Shizuoka
City as special guests for the evening. The Mayor of ­Shizuoka will attend alongside Mr Tsunenari­Tokugawa, the 18th generation head of the Tokugawa family and a direct descendant of Shoguns Ieyasu
and Hidetada, the rulers whom John Saris met in
1613.
There will be special presentations during theevening, including speeches from His Excellency The
Ambassador and Japan Society Chairman, Sir David
Warren, alongside a demonstration of hand-rolled
tea and other crafts from Shizuoka. The party foodhas once again been generously provided by theJapan Centre.

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Tales from a Mountain Cave by Inoue Hisashi

Joint Lunch with the JCCI: Why the UK’s
relationship with Japan matters – Sir Simon ­Fraser

Monday 9 December 2013

Monday 16 December 2013

7.00pmThe Old Star (basement alcove)
66 Broadway
London SW1H 0DB
Free for Japan Society Members
For its Christmas meeting, the Japan SocietyBook Club will be reading a humorous short story­collection by Inoue Hisashi. We are delighted thattranslator ­Angus Turvill will be joining the discussion
to share his own perspective on the book.
The sound of a trumpet across a Japanese mountainvalley leads a young man to befriend a mysterious
stranger. During repeated visits to the cave where
the stranger has set up home, the young man learns
about his past – in the mines, villages and ports of theregion. The stranger’s hilarious, bawdy and touching
narratives captivate the young man, but he begins
to doubt their veracity. Finally, as the young man­decides his own fate, the full truth about the stranger
is revealed.

Tales from a Mountain Cave is a translation of
Hisashi Inoue’s highly popular Shinshaku Tono
­Monogatari (新釈遠野物語), set in the Kamaishiarea of Iwate ­Prefecture, Northeast Japan. Kamaishi
was ­devastated by the tsunami of March 2011, and­royalties on sales of this book will be donated topost-tsunami ­community support projects.
Inoue Hisashi (井上 ひさし, 16 November 1934 – 9
April 2010) was a leading Japanese playwright andwriter of comic fiction. Inoue was, in the words ofNobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe, one of the towering figures of contemporary Japan. A novelist, playwright, producer and scriptwriter, his awards include
the Naoki Prize (1972), the Yomiuri Literary Prize(1979, 1981, 2010), the Japan SF Grand Prize (1981),
the Seiun Award (1986), the Tanizaki Jun’ichiro Prize(1991), the Kikuchi Kan Literary Award (1999) and the
Asahi Prize (2000).

12.30pm

The National Liberal ClubWhitehall Place
London SW1A 2HE(nearest tube: Embankment Station)£50 per head for members of the Japan­Society, the JCCI and their guests
Booking deadline – Friday 13 December
The Guest Speaker at the last joint lunch of the Japan
Society and The Japanese Chamber of ­Commerceand Industry in the UK in 2013 will be Sir Simon
Fraser, Permanent Under-Secretary of the ­Foreign
and Commonwealth Office and Head of the UK Diplomatic Service. His remit covers not only ­British foreign policy, but also the running of the FCO.
The Permanent Under-Secretary’s talk will focus
on the opportunities in the UK-Japan bilateral­relationship for cooperation on security and trade, as
well as wider global issues which are of ­importanceto both countries. This is a challenging time for ­British
foreign policy interests. Despite recent ­indications
that the economic situation may be improving in
the UK, the FCO still operates with tight resources
and funding, and is faced with responding to fast-­changing world events: from instability in the ­Middle
East to the rise of new economies in Asia, and fromBritain’s role in the EU to managing consular c­rises. His talk will be of great relevance to both the­Japanese business community in the UK and those
representing UK ­corporations with an international
outlook.
Sir Simon Fraser started his career serving in the
British embassies in Baghdad and Damascus, and as
Private Secretary to the then Minister of State. Prior
to his current posting he was Permanent Secretaryin the Department for Business, Innovation and
Skills, with previous appointments as chief of staff
to the then-European Trade Commissioner Peter­Mandelson and as Director General for Europe andGlobalisation in the FCO.

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Japan’s Family Planningfor the Global War on Population – Aya Homei

Monday 16 December 2013

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free – booking recommended
Nearest underground station: Holborn
Light refreshments will be provided
In our final academic lecture of 2013, Aya Homei will
explain how Japan came to participate in the global
war on population in the latter half of the twentiethcentury by promoting family planning, initially in‘underdeveloped areas in Asia’, based on the alleged
expertise Japan accumulated from its experience in
the immediate postwar period.
Since the term ‘population bomb’ was coined in the
1960s, population growth has developed into one of
the major issues in global politics. The perspectiveon ‘overpopulation’ has shaped various arguments
for socio-economic development, and garnered­support for international cooperation in family planning from many countries, including Japan.
In this lecture, Homei argues that, in order to fully understand Japan’s participation in the ­global­endeavour, it is critical that we first reassess the­domestic reproductive politics and politics of­postwar Japan from the perspective of transnational history, but in so doing, we also need to incorporate the history of Japanese colonialism into our­analysis. The ­promotion of Japan’s family planningunder the name of ‘international cooperation’ and­‘technical ­assistance’ was not only shaped by cultural, ­economic and political factors specific to postwar
Japan, but was also mobilized by Japan’s aspirationfor ­socio-economic progress and technological future vis-à-vis world politics which, during the period
concerned in the talk, was informed by racial politics
and by the discourse of pan-Asianism.

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