My Japan, My Britain
In 2013 we marked the 400th anniversary of Anglo-Japanese relations with theJapan400 project. One of the ways in which we celebrated this many-sided and dynamic
relationship was with My Japan, My Britain – a collection of first-hand accounts
celebrating the mutual interest, respect and admiration that the British and Japanesecontinue to share. We asked people who, in one way or another, have one foot in Japanand one foot in Britain to tell us about what first attracted them to the other culture,
and what it means to them today. These are stories of inspiration, humour, creativity,and of challenges overcome.

My Japan My Britain was originally hosted on the Japan400 website, and we are very
grateful to the original contributors and coordinators for allowing us to transfer thecontent over to the Japan Society website.

Anne Kaneko

Phillida Purvis

Dai Fujikura

Rebecca Salter

Haroon Mirza

Ruth Taplin

Hisaaki Yamanouchi

Sandra Lawman

Jill Fanshawe Kato

Setsuo Kato

Kathryn Findlay

Sioned Huws

Kozo Hiramatsu

Takashi Sano

Mayumi Hayashi

Yuri Suzuki

Opal Dunn

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Anne Kaneko
Chairman of a manufacturing company in Koriyama, Fukushima“How did a shy girl from North Yorkshire with a ‘flair for languages’ end up in
Fukushima? From country school to the School of Oriental and African Studies; on to
Tokyo and several years cocooned in the Embassy; then marriage to Naochika – tall,handsome, charming. But he was an eldest son – the chōnan. There should be a sign at
Narita: Beware the Chōnan! In 1980, finally bowing to pressure from his father, wemoved to Koriyama in Fukushima prefecture, a commercial town in a rural backwater
no one had heard of. Aside from missionaries, there were few foreigners. I didn’t likebeing stared at but enjoyed special status giving talks on my assigned topic, ‘A blueeyed view of Japan’ where a foreigner speaking Japanese was the main draw. Mastering
the language, discovering the culture was an adventure. Fukushima was beautiful. In
the winter we skied in the mountains. In the summer we swam and sailed on the lake.
“Then in 1989 Naochika died and I became CEO, shachō, of the family firm. If yourhusband died you were expected to step into his shoes with no training and carry thetorch for the next generation. I didn’t play by the rules. My three children I brought up
in England. And after 23 years I sold the business. But after feeling like an outsider for somany years, the earthquake and nuclear accident made me intensely loyal to this area.
Soon after the accident the Embassy rang me twice urging me to evacuate on the bus
leaving from Sendai. But how could I abandon 100 staff? And I found myself deeply
saddened. That obstinacy, reluctance to change or voice an opinion which I had found2
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so frustrating suddenly became virtues in the aftermath of the disaster, and it washeartbreaking to see the blight on this area so rich in natural beauty.
“I’m honoured to be part of this community and in the end that cliché about doing
business in Japan – the importance of long term relationships – turned out to be true.
The fact that I was able to sell the business and can continue making a living here I owe
to the people I’ve known for over 30 years. For their friendship and support I’ll always
be grateful.
“When I retire to England it will be hard to leave. But it will be the start of a newadventure. My life with Japan may have had its ups and downs. But it’s never been
boring.”Website: Anne Kaneko's Fukushima Blog

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Dai Fujikura
Musician and Composer (Photo ©Ai Ueda)

Although Dai Fujikura was born in Osaka, he has now spent more than 20 years in the
UK where he studied composition and has been the recipient of numerous prizes. He is
fast becoming a truly international composer. His music is not only performed in the
country of his birth or his adopted home, but is now performed in Caracas and Oslo,
Venice and Schleswig-Holstein, Lucerne and Paris.
“I’ve spent more than half my life in the UK. In fact I feel more British than Japanese. The
two cultures at first seem worlds apart. The excessive politeness which is common
currency in Japan is something I shall never really understand. Having said that,compared with other European cultures, I think Britishness is like a reflection, albeit faint,of Japaneseness; both peoples are self-effacing and apologetic.
“So it wasn’t a big culture shock to come here as a teenager. The only real challenge was
the language. It didn’t help that the Japanese academic year is out of sync with the
British, which meant I joined the school in April, missing the first two terms of study for4
My Japan, My BritainGCSE. The plan was to repeat year 10, giving me an extra term to prepare for my exams
as well as learn English, but the headmaster, despite my worst ever exam results,
decided to let me progress to year 11.
“The first month wasn’t easy as all the other kids had established friendships and I had
no one to help me with my homework. Language was the big problem, especiallybiology with those Latin names for body parts. I went to the school on a musicscholarship and participated in my first concert after 4 weeks. What a transformation:
suddenly everybody wanted to be my friend.

２００５年ルッツェルン音楽祭にて同音楽祭委嘱作品「Stream State」の世界初演に向けて ピエールブーレーズ氏とリハーサル。 The rehearsal with Mr. Pierre Boulez for the world premiere of “Stream State” atLuzern Music Festival 2005

Photo Priska Ketterer, Luzern Festival“It was a strict boarding school with three roll calls every morning – when you got up,
another at breakfast and a third before church. I couldn’t handle this. I missed
everything, left the school premises without permission, would take the train up to
London when I felt like it. I missed breakfast and would sneak out to a café with a friend.

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One day some teachers came in there to have their breakfast. My friend went white asa sheet, but they just gave me a friendly wave as they left.
“So you see I was in a privileged position. Because I was the music scholar, I could break
all the rules without punishment. It was music which made my new life in the UK
possible. The school even involved me in their fundraising dinners as a sort of musicalambassador. I thought that was cool and I felt very businesslike.

Photo © Tsutomu Ishiai“Although this is my adopted country, my Japanese friends tell me I haven’t changed abit. So maybe you can be both Japanese and British at the same time.”

Website: www.daifujikura.com
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Haroon Mirza
ArtistHaroon Mirza is a British artist, working in London. His site-specific installations use
audio compositions and found domestic materials. In 2012 he won the Daiwa
Foundation Art Prize and exhibited at SCAI The Bathhouse in Tokyo.

Haroon Mirza, Falling Rope (2013)“It wasn’t surprising to hear that the most commonly used word for noise in Japan was
noise. The word is relatively new anyway, it came about during the industrial revolution
to describe the sound of machinery and is etymologically linked with the word nuisance.
In Japan though, the imported word has little established relationship with pollution,
anxiety and the idea of it being a nuisance, which might account for the aural culture in
Japan being so fertile and fruitful. Listening is regarded just as highly as seeing.”

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Haroon Mirza, Falling Rope (2013)

Website: www.clickfolio.com/haroon/
Lisson Gallery: www.lissongallery.com/artists/haroon-mirza

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Hisaaki Yamanouchi CBEProfessor Emeritus of English, Tokyo University

Hisaaki Yamanouchi CBE is Professor Emeritus of English, Tokyo University. (Hon) CBE.
He was born in Hiroshima in 1934 and studied at Tokyo, Columbia and Cambridge
Universities. He was the first Japanese to receive a PhD in English from Cambridge. He
has taught at a number of universities in Japan as well as at Cambridge and the Open
University of Japan. His many publications include The Search for Authenticity inModern Japanese Literature (CUP).
“My first encounter with Britain was in my father’s library in Hiroshima. I wondered as achild what was written in those English books gilt-lettered on their spine. Together withthe books, their owner, and everything else, the whole city was wiped out
instantaneously by the Bomb on 6th August 1945. At the secondary school I entered acouple of years afterwards I made friends with a grandson of the renowned founding
father of English Studies in Hiroshima. At his house I saw rows and rows of shelves filledwith standard English authors from the medieval to the present, which evoked in me
aspirations that one day I should be reading them.

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“Years later I decided to read ‘British Studies’ at Tokyo University. This was a new courseof studies inaugurated in 1951 which aimed at cross-disciplinary studies of British
culture and society with a view to attaining an understanding of ‘a whole way of life’
concerning Britain. It has since run along with the traditional ‘English Department’
which dates from the late nineteenth century and has had during its long history a hostof dedicated English scholars/writers like Edmund Blunden (1896-1974). Fortune
favoured me with the poet Anthony Thwaite (1930- ), who came with his wife Ann(1930- ) to teach in Tokyo during 1955-57. They represented the living British culture
embodied in them. It was an exceedingly fresh and inspiring experience for us to have
English literature taught in English by a living poet and without Japanese as a medium.
Anthony introduced us to the British Council in Tokyo (established in 1953), the use of
its library, and the frequently organised series of lectures given by the resident British
writers/scholars.

Anthony Thwaite at Tokyo University Komaba (1957)“While pursuing my postgraduate studies in English, an opportunity arose for me tospend a year at Columbia University and another at the University of Toronto (with the10
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rare privilege of being supervised by the great Coleridgean Professor Kathleen Coburn[1905-91]). In 1967 I was among the fortunate dozen of British Council Scholars (theCouncil ‘Representative’ then was E. W. F. Tomlin [1913-88]). That was the genesis of myextended years (1967-76) at Peterhouse (doing research in the English Faculty andteaching Japanese as Lector in the Faculty of Oriental Studies), my later revisit (1984-85)
as Visiting Fellow-Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge, and my frequent journeys
between Britain and Japan. What I learnt and gained in Britain is too invaluably rich a
nourishment for my subsequent career to be summed up in just a few words.”

Professor Yamanouchi with the Thwaites in Tokyo (2005)

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Jill Fanshawe Kato
Potter (Photo © Setsuo Kato)

Jill Fanshawe Kato is a British potter who has exhibited widely internationally. Originallytrained as a painter, she was drawn to Japanese ceramics while living in Japan andstudied with the potter Yosei Itaka. Her ceramics are inspired by the natural world andtravel.
“The most obvious way in which Japan has influenced my life is that I first went there asa painter and came back to England as a potter. As a recent graduate in Painting fromChelsea School of Art, I had scarcely experienced the world of ceramics.
“Living in a 3-tatami room in a student lodging house in the then-downmarket Harajuku,
I could only afford the cheapest restaurants. I clearly remember the teishoku meal
served on a tray, a long samma fish served on a sparkling blue and white long
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rectangular plate, just right for the fish. Five varied bowls held artistically-arranged
pickles, soup and rice, and tea was in a warm orange shino yunomi. The chef in blue andwhite worked behind the tiny counter, backed by shelves of blue and white ceramics.
Having previously mainly encountered the big white round plate in England, I fell inlove with ceramics from then on.

Asobi Sake set (Photo © Setsuo Kato)Rock Bowl (Photo © Setsuo Kato)
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“Early evening in Shibuya in the August heat, armies of men in identical white shirts
were marching across the bridges as an amazing inflorescence of neon lights began toflower on tops of buildings in every colour, like an electrical garden. I only had 3 wordsof Japanese at that time and those unreadable kanji advertisements were the most
exotic thing I’d ever seen.
“Despite the kindnesses and the wonderful cultural experiences there were positives
and negatives, however, the downside for me was the rampant male chauvinism inthose days and the experience of being a gaijin (foreigner) everywhere I went. Missing
liberation and flower power, I came back to England vowing never to return to Japan.
“Life being what it is, however, I had to rethink Japan, as one of the first people I met on
my return to London was Japanese photo-journalist Setsuo Kato, studying in London
for 3 years but due to return to Tokyo. We were later to marry, in kimonos, in a Shinto
ceremony in Tokyo, but the 3 years were a torture for me as to whether to go back toJapan or not. Eventually, Setsuo went back and sent me a return London-Tokyo-London
air ticket in case I changed my mind, and he also found me a lovely pottery teacher
called Yosei Itaka, so my fate was sealed. I studied with Yosei for four years before we
returned to England more or less permanently, but there began my ping-pong life as apotter, with 43 exhibitions in Japan and many in the UK and internationally. I neverplanned it like that, but Japan has certainly enriched my life.”

Bird Vase (Photo © Setsuo Kato)
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Spanish Birds (Photo © Setsuo Kato)

Jugs (Photo © Setsuo Kato)
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Curve Pod (Photo © Setsuo Kato)

Peacock Bowl (Photo © Setsuo Kato)
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Exotic Plants Dish (Photo © Setsuo Kato)

Scottish Gallery: www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/artist/jill-fanshawe-kato

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Kathryn Findlay
Architect

When we first put together ‘My Japan, My Britain’ for Japan400, we were looking forways to celebrate the encounter between Britain and Japan. Some encounters arerecent, some are long-standing and all express finding something special in each other’sculture.
One person who symbolises this encounter was Kathryn Findlay, a brilliant andpioneering architect who, with her husband Ushida Eisaku created a new expressionist
genre of architecture in Japan described as both modernist and surreal and typified by
the organic ‘Soft and Hairy House’ built in 1994 in Tsukuba, Japan. Kathryn graduatedfrom the Architecture Association in 1979. She became Associate Professor ofArchitecture at Tokyo University, Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Vienna
and UCLA, and Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee and went on to create asignificant and influential body of work in the UK. Sadly, Kathryn passed away early in2014 but we discussed with her the ‘My Japan, My Britain’ project and she was an
enthusiastic supporter. At the time of her death, on 10 January 2014, Kathryn wasannounced as winner of the 2014 Jane Drew Prize for her “outstanding contribution to
the status of women in architecture”.

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Therefore, on the occasion of re-launching ‘My Japan, My Britain’ with the Japan Society,we would like to share with you her magical thoughts about Suikinkutsu (水琴窟). Her
daughter Miya says ‘ I remember my mum doing impressions of the sound that asuikinkutsu makes. It was a sort of ‘plop plop’ sound and she was so enthusiastic! Even
just the memory of this sound would make her feel calm and peaceful’.

Kathryn Findlay’s sketch of a Suikinkutsu (水琴窟)

Kathryn was always inspired by Japan, and in turn, Kathryn continues to inspire young
architects and artists and all of us interested in the creative connections between Britain
and Japan.
“My favourite sculpture does not have an author. It is generic and invisible. It is a hollow
metal sphere with a hole cut into its top and buried under the earth and when it rains,
the rainwater percolates the soil and drips into the hollow sphere and you hear the echoof water dripping into the metal cave. And it gives you an exchange of heat into cooland the sound is calming and there is nothing to see...’’.

Find out more about Suikinkutsu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suikinkutsu
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Kozo Hiramatsu
Director of the London Office of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Kozo Hiramatsu is Director of the London Office of the Japan Society for the Promotionof Science. He is Professor Emeritus of Kyoto University and was British Council Fellow
at Southampton University, 1981-82. His academic research has been on the sonicenvironment, initially the engineering of noise control and subsequently in the fieldstudy of acoustic ecology.
“When I went to Southampton in October 1981 as a British Council Fellow, I had not
expected that the one-year visit would prove so crucial to my future academic career. I
was an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Engineering Department of Kyoto
University, doing research mainly on the effect of noise.
“The Institute of Sound and Vibration Research of Southampton University was afabulous institution with a high reputation worldwide. What I really envied was the way
the academic staff could focus their energy mostly on research and education thanks tothe assistance of many support staff. Besides conducting psychophysics experiments inwhole body vibration and regularly going to real ale pubs as a CAMRA member, I
frequently visited libraries and encountered a book written by a late prominent Harvard
professor of acoustical engineering. It was almost the first book published about thehistory of acoustics before the emergence of modern science. I was so impressed by thebook that I decided to translate it into Japanese and it was later published in Japan. The
libraries in the UK were amazingly useful for me in finding the references cited in thebook, many of which were classical and even medieval texts dealing with Greek, Roman
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and Arabic science and civilisation. In doing so, I found I was reading many books on
the history and philosophy of science as a matter of course. That experience was epochmaking and later led me to reconsider the paradigm of my own research in engineeringand to get out of the laboratory into the town of Kyoto to do fieldwork on the sonicenvironment.
“As field studies were not regarded as ‘engineering’, I left the Engineering Department
and eventually became a professor of area studies. Would this have happened if I had
not left Japan? Not impossible perhaps, but it would have been extremely difficult. Or
rather, I should say that had I stayed in Japan, pursued by the miscellaneous demandsof day-to-day university business, it would have been unlikely. Without the terrificlibraries and the friendly colleagues who answered my questions, I have no doubt I
could not have translated the book and discovered those texts on the history andphilosophy of science. Putting myself in the British environment was a truly fruitfulexperience. And I cannot find proper words with which to express my gratitude to the
British Council.”Find out more about the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science:www.jsps.go.jp/english/

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Mayumi Hayashi
Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Institute of Gerontology at King’s College London

Mayumi Hayashi is an academic specialising in social care studies, specifically the careof older people in Japan and the UK. She is a post-doctoral Research Fellow in theInstitute of Gerontology at King’s College London.
“I am originally from Gifu Prefecture in central Japan and now live in London, working
as a post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Institute of Gerontology at King’s College
London. My research focuses on the care of older people in Britain and Japan, from avariety of perspectives. I am currently working on a Leverhulme-funded research projecton the role and contribution of the voluntary sector in providing social care for older
people in Britain and Japan. I am also an Associate Research Fellow in the Departmentof Human Services Research at University of Tsukuba, Japan. My interest in the care ofolder people comes from the experience of looking after my late grandfather, with myfamily, at various care locations in Japan. In addition to this personal experience, I havelong held an academic interest in the foundations of Britain’s Welfare State andcomparative welfare policy. So I came to England to embark on a PhD in the history of
long-term care of older people in England and Japan, completed in 2010. Developing
my thesis I have recently published a book The Care of Older People: England and Japan,

A Comparative Study (Pickering & Chatto).
“Acknowledging that the subject — the care of older people — is of significant
importance and relevance to all sections of society, I have expanded my research
activity beyond the academic domain. I have been involved in outreach projects and in
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public engagement, promoting an enhanced understanding of the subject among awider audience in both Britain and Japan and facilitating exchanges of information,knowledge and experiences between the two countries. In the process of disseminating
the many challenges facing Japan, I have published articles on the care of older people
there, in the Guardian, the Health Service Journal, Housing LIN and History & Policy. I
have also given a presentation to the Cabinet Office regarding Japan’s ‘time-banking’scheme—a tradition of local mutual help networks based on exchanges of nonmonetary units termed ‘time credits’. I have advised the UK HM Treasury and Canadianpolicy-makers on the financing of long term care.

“For a general public audience, I have discussed aspects of Japan’s retirement andageing in BBC World Service programmes on both of these themes. Meanwhile, I am in
the process of explaining Britain’s policy and practice to a wide Japanese audience by,for instance, advising the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, on the productionof a TV programme examining dementia care in Britain.
“Most recently, I am engaged in several developing projects addressing various aspectsof the challenges both Japan and the UK are faced with by the increasing need for
dementia care. I will be co-leading an imminent field study trip to Japan to allow thevarious UK specialists first hand experiences of Japanese care models.”

Website: Dr Mayumi Hayashi page at King’s College London
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Opal Dunn
Co-founder of the first International Children’s Bunko in Tokyo

Opal Dunn co-founded the first International Children’s Bunko in Tokyo in 1977 tosupport and encourage ‘international’ children who have a knowledge andunderstanding of other countries’ language and culture.
“I was privileged to stay in Tokyo for nine years in the 1970s. This gave me time to bondwith Japanese who understood my passion to help young children reach their, often
underestimated, potential to pick-up languages and explore their cultures.
“I clearly remember my first dialogue in Tokyo about young children in 1972, when
Nursery School Education academics, mostly men, invited me to the Celebration of 100
years of Japanese Nursery School Education. There I learned to my surprise that theroots of Nursery Education in Japan came from a German lady, Clara Titleman, trainedat the Froebel Teachers’ College in Berlin. She, together with a Japanese Germanspeaking professor, opened the first (Froebel) Nursery School at Ochanomizu. To theseacademics’ amazement, the roots of British Nursery Education also came from Froebel
brought to England in the 1850s by German ladies, who later founded the Froebel
Education Institute, where I had been trained initially. From this shared link grew a
supportive interest in my passion.
“Living in Kagurazaka, then a Japanese neighbourhood, I soon met International
Japanese families, who had lived overseas on assignment and whose kikokushijo—(returnee children) spoke native-speaker English. Mothers (children’s first language
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teachers) told me about their young children’s academic and social re-entry problems
into Japanese Elementary Schools and asked my advice on how, within Japanesemonolingual society, they could keep their young children’s English fluency. I easily
empathised with them as my young children had lived in three Asian countries withshort intervals in London and, as planned, were unconsciously absorbing threelanguages.
“‘The future wealth of any nation lies in their children’ (UNESCO) and I realised that thesekikokushijo, like my own, could all grow-up to be valuable mediators between peoples.
They had unique potentials and, to achieve them, I had to help them re-enter Japanesesociety smoothly, whilst finding a place where they could use and ‘feel good’ about theirother bi-language and culture.
“As the numbers of kikokushijo were increasing, I knew I had to create something
different from formal language schools, as these young children did not need to betaught. They were used to picking-up language themselves by taking part in interesting
activities that also included culture. I was also aware that anything I created had to bean easy-to-copy model that could be used with any language, and be sustainable after
I left Japan.
“I had visited a friend’s small Japanese Home-Bunko (mini-Library) and deduced that if
I internationalised this Japanese concept, rather than introducing a foreign, unfamiliar
idea, kikokushijo would be more easily accepted in society. As a lover of picture books,
I decided to make my own English Home-Bunko with my private collection of 200 books.
Thus children could borrow books, join in book activities with me and unconsciously
increase their English in the way they had been used to in schools overseas.
“However, on reflection I realised the limitations of my original plan. So I recast my idea
and in 1977, together with Japanese friends, opended Dan Dan Bunko, the first
International Children’s Bunko, in a Tokyo Community Centre. Dan Dan (slowly slowly),apart from being my name Mrs Dan (Dunn), implied we were not a Juku! News spread
fast and within two years the model I had created had been copied not only using
English, but also French and German.
“Now, 37 years later, self-help, non-profit, International Children’s Bunko exist
worldwide as do special human bonds made through volunteering in Bunko. Visits to
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Tokyo for me consist largely of catch-up meetings with Bunko staff and children, Bunko
OGs and grown-up kikokushijo, whilst in the UK I am involved with the 36 IC Bunko that
help very young children enjoy Japanese.
“Most children in International Children’s Bunko world-wide today are ‘Double Children’
from mixed marriages where one parent, generally the mother, is Japanese. ‘DoubleChildren’ in UK attend British Nursery or Primary School and unconsciously grow-up
with 2 languages and 2 cultures. The school language generally becomes dominant, as
more waking hours are spent immersed in English, and children come to Japanese
Bunko to absorb Japanese spoken language and make their first steps in reading andwriting, preparing them for the more formal education style of Japanese Saturday
School. Language is acquired through taking part in cultural activities including
celebrating Japanese Festivals and having opportunities to play and talk with otherJapanese including other ‘Double Children’ in a family-like atmosphere.
“I believe both kikokushijo and ‘Double Children’, if nurtured in their early years to feelproud and positive about their language skills and identities, can, as adults, possessmany of the special types of ‘wealth’ needed for successful interaction in the changing
Global World.”

Website: www.kodomobunko.org.uk (UK) / www.icba-1979.org (Japan)

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Phillida Purvis
Director of Links Japan

Phillida Purvis MBE is Director of Links Japan, which she founded in 1998 to promote
non-profit and non-governmental sector exchanges between the UK and Japan.
“I did not choose to go to Japan – it was chosen for me. As a result of a language aptitude
test the FCO sent me to study Japanese, at SOAS and in Kamakura. After diplomatic
postings in Tokyo and Singapore I returned to Japan to experience life as a teacher, ofinternational relations at a private university, and as a student again – at Tokyo
University – of Japan’s role in the resolution of the Cambodia conflict. For the first time
I met the original Japanese NGOs and understood their impact on Japanese aid policy.
I also met a wide range of community organisations while trying to find residential
placements for young British volunteers. On an informal basis, I started sharing
information between these voluntary organisations and counterparts in the UK.
Believing in the value of these links, and in the role of the non-governmental sector in
addressing the needs of people facing the greatest social challenges both in our own
societies and in the least developed countries, I organised more formal exchanges whilerunning programmes at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. Finally, finding noother organisation or individual focusing solely on this field, I committed to it full timeand set up Links Japan in 1998.

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“Over the years Links Japan has partnered with dozens of voluntary and community
groups – national and local – all around the UK, the EU and Japan, bringing them
together to share ideas and experiences on good practice and good strategy in meeting
their charitable objectives, in ways which are beyond the scope or interest of
government, businesses and families and, often, to engage in joint projects. It has beena fascinating journey encompassing an extraordinarily diverse range of issues, some in
one-off projects, such as the voluntary sector Compact, management, special
educational needs teaching in school, bullying, domestic violence, rights-based
approaches to development. Others have been taken up over the longer term:
governance, accountability, fundraising, community regeneration, building community
based partnerships with developing countries, homelessness, citizenship education,
volunteering, care of the aged and employment of people with disability. Predominantthemes for Links Japan over the last few years have been: the development of social
enterprise, social finance required to start such enterprises and, underlying both, social
innovation across all sectors.I have had fifteen years of fun with so many inspirational‘good people’ who are working to make a difference to the lives of the mostdisadvantaged. To discover if the effort of those people has been worthwhile, ask any
Japanese whether they would like to see NPOs or NGOs more involved in the deliveryof public services. As for the effort of Links Japan – who can say? For my part, after athirty year involvement, including ten years’ residence, I can say that I never cease to be
surprised by Japan!”

Website: www.linksjapan.org

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Rebecca Salter
ArtistRebecca Salter is a British artist who lived for six years in Japan. In 2011 she had a major
survey exhibition of her work at Yale Centre for British Art. She has also written two
books about Japanese printmaking.
“As happens with so many people who go to live in Japan, I set off with one set of ideas
and came back hugely enriched with another. I had graduated from art school in the UK
and after two years of securing funding I arrived at Kyoto City University of the Arts. Thiswas 1979 and prospects in the UK for an artist were pretty dismal. Arriving in Japan I felt
as if I had skipped a century. The difference between booming Japan and ‘winter of
discontent Britain’ could not have been greater. But amongst all the vitality andexcitement of Japan at its peak, it was the largely solitary and quiet experience of finding
my voice as an artist in a totally different culture which has stayed with me.
“The art history I had been taught focussed almost exclusively on the Western tradition
and it was visually exhilarating and hugely challenging to be immersed in a way ofseeing and interpreting the world which was so completely different. Based in Kyoto I
was able to become familiar with some of the world’s greatest treasures (both artistic
and architectural) and part of the privilege was for them to become part of my everyday
life. For five years I lived within walking distance of Katsura Detached Palace! The
understanding of space, texture, colour and form that I learned through living in Kyoto
has stayed with me. Every day in my studio in London thirty plus years later I find that I
am still drawing on inspiration from the time I spent in Japan.
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Mixed media on linen 150 x 170 cm by Rebecca Salter“There is no doubt in my mind that my professional career as an artist is built
on Japanese foundations but on a personal level, learning to speak and read Japanese
has probably given me the greatest pleasure. I live with the fear that after all the hard
work required to learn it, I will lose it one day and my parallel life in Japan will be lost tome. My guilty secret is that every time I fly back to Japan I look forward to turning on
the television and catching up on the latest soap operas and game shows while eating
coffee jelly and cream and seeing just how many new words I don’t understand.”Website: www.rebeccasalter.com

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Ruth Taplin
Author and editor

Ruth Taplin is the author/editor of over 200 articles and eighteen books on the Japanese
economy, innovation and intellectual property. She is Director of the Centre forJapanese and East Asian Studies. She is currently Honorary Advisor for the Society ofInterdisciplinary Business Research in Hong Kong, a Research Fellow at the University ofLeicester and Editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law.
“Over 20 years ago I was selected as a future leader in the field of Japan studies and wassent on a special course to Durham University to pursue this goal. I established myCentre for Japanese and East Asian Studies with a generous grant from the late Lord
Limerick and with the kind assistance of Viscount Trenchard, both formerly of Kleinwort
Benson, and this initiated a lifelong relationship encouraging connections between
Japan and Britain. This has taken various forms: from holding Kanji writing workshops
at the Centre’s offices in the City of London to writing or editing eighteen books(published mainly by Routledge).
“Many of my books and articles (over 200 hundred articles for various publications
including The Times) concentrate on the Japanese economy, innovation andintellectual property on which I am now considered a world authority. Additionally,
through this emphasis on the economy (PhD London School of Economics) and law(GDL Law) I have had the privilege of working with colleagues, especially at Osaka City
University and Tohoku University, on research projects which led to books, lectures andinvitations to them to speak at seminars here in London, and which, in turn, has led to31
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other collaborations, many of which were supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa
Foundation.
“The collaborations have been numerous, including a Chatham House project
concerning the former colony of Malaya and Japanese intervention during the Second
World War. The work I have done has often been very positive about Japanesecontributions to relationships with Britain but on this occasion the content was critical.
The late Ambassador Chiba accepted this with great equanimity in his usual goodspirited manner.
“Currently, the crisis in innovation and innovative leadership to be found in present day
Japan is affecting its economy adversely, its influence in East Asia and in the Asian
region in general and in the quality of life of its population. Thoughts and ideas need to
be shared between Japan and the UK more than ever to improve lives in both nations.
“The latest work encouraging acknowledgement of Japan’s contribution to innovationand thought is an article by Prof. Vellupillai, father of computable economics, soon tobe published in the journal I edit, Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business

Law, which argues that Japanese economists, Hirofumi Uzawa and Takashi Negishi
should be awarded the Nobel Prize for their outstanding work on equilibrium theory.”32
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Sandra Lawman
Mental health specialist

Sandra Lawman is a specialist in mental health. Her book Mental Health Care in Japan(co-edited with Ruth Taplin) is published by Routledge.
“I lived in Japan from 1980 to 1983. That started my lifelong love for the country. I haveworked for Japanese companies and since 2002 have been making connections overthe issue of mental health. In 2002 I gave a lecture in Tokyo on the British system andmy Masters dissertation at CASS Business School in 2008 was about foundation fundingof health and social care in Japan. I have made several visits over the last decade andlast year co-produced a book entitled Mental Health Care in Japan (Routledge, June
2012, ed Professor Ruth Taplin and Sandra Lawman).
“I have been privileged to contribute in a unique way to the understanding between
Japan and Britain and I feel I still have more work to do. I have an empathy with Japanesepeople and went there initially because I thought the psyche would suit me, which I
think proved true. I’m not sure whether Japanese people would agree with me (but I
think quite a number do)! My boss at a Japanese company said I had more
understanding of Japan than any of the other ‘gaijin’.

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“Mental health is a vexed issue everywhere, and no less so in Japan. Great strides havebeen made in the last 15 years or so but more needs to be done to modernise thesystem and in particular to address the issue of stigma of mentally ill people (aseverywhere else, including Britain). I frequently escort visiting Japanese academics andothers around health and social care facilities in London and both sides think they havemuch to learn.
“I have had moving and touching experiences in the course of this work, not least froma group of service user activists in Osaka who were pleased they could do what they
were doing but felt they were then pigeonholed and it prevented them from doing
anything else. I am hoping those issues are now being ironed out. I think some of myJapanese colleagues found it amusing when I got confused over the terms for theillnesses in Japanese but I am getting there with the specialist language and haveattended a couple of conferences. I am grateful to the Great Britain Sasakawa
Foundation and also Maudsley International for funding a lot of this work.
“I am hoping to study this subject further and to try to contribute more to our mutual
understanding.”

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Setsuo Kato
Photo-journalist (Photo © Kazuyo Yasuda)

Setsuo Kato is a Japanese photo-journalist. He has worked for Japanese and British
media and published many books and articles about Britain and Europe. For over ten
years he published his own newspaper.
“On board the Russian boat “Baikal” at Yokohama in 1970, I said farewell to my family
and a few friends who came to see me off to the unknown world. I was a Press
photographer working for a British news agency’s Tokyo office. Japan was justbeginning to get its confidence back after the success of the Tokyo Olympic Games andOsaka Expo. A radical Japanese author wrote a book called “Nandemo Mite Yaro!” (BeGreedy to See Everything!). I decided to explore the world and the final destination was
set to be London. This is probably because I was working for a British company. However,about Britain, I only knew of the Queen, gentlemen and of course the Beatles.
“After travelling through the Soviet Union and a few Eastern European countries formore than two weeks, I arrived in Vienna, then Frankfurt, Paris and the finally London.
After the lengthy journey, my hair grew very long and as I did not bother shaving while
travelling, I had a fair amount of beard and moustache. I was very nervous at Heathrow
Airport. Would the immigration officer of the Gentleman’s Country accept me? To mysurprise the officer at the desk had longer hair than mine and I found beards andmoustaches everywhere.
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Sankai Juku at Stonehenge by Setsuo Kato

“I lived in the Angel, Islington and used to go to a local pub called the Island Queen. Thispub was packed with customers every night. There was rock music coming fromspeakers on the wall but you could hardly hear it because people were loudly talking,shouting and laughing. The whole atmosphere was electric. Every weekend I was
invited from the pub to somebody’s house for a party. I didn’t know who they were orwhat they were, but it didn’t matter as long as you enjoyed yourself.
“The Japan I left, compared with this, was very poor and people were more restricted
and felt guilty about having a good time. This was neither a religion nor a moral
obligation. I think it was purely the result of the war. Japan in the 70’s was still sufferingheavily from the war. I realized that I had come to the winners’ country from a defeatedcountry.
“Those people at the pub didn’t seem to have any job but how did they make a living?
To my surprise again, they were teachers, doctors, journalists, local government
bureaucrats, artists, architects, etc. etc. They seemed to be enjoying themselves verymuch every night but during the day had responsible jobs to do. They knew very welltheir freedom and responsibility and I realized that this was the basis of the British lifestyle.
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Bernard Leach by Setsuo Kato

“Today you don’t often feel the electric atmosphere of the pub. However, that essenceof freedom and responsibility goes on and it was my job, through the media, to tellJapanese audiences about this British life-style. I have been doing this for the last forty
years through Japanese newspapers, magazines, television, radio and books.”

Jill & Setsuo Kato (Photo © Kazuyo Yasuda)

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My Japan, My Britain

Sioned Huws
Choreographer

Sioned Huws is a Welsh choreographer and project director interested in memory andthe influence of environment. Her work challenges and integrates different art-forms.
“My introduction to Japan was through Aomori in 2008, on a dance research residency,
made possible by Aomori Contemporary Arts Centre, the independent artists collective
ARTizan also in Aomori and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.

Photo © Sioned Huws

“I travelled directly north without stopping in Tokyo. With no preconceived ideas about
my destination, or what I might do there, I simply wanted to meet this place, to see what
it would suggest to me. Arriving into an Arctic winter environment, unrelenting
snowstorms and vast mountainous landscapes, I was faced with my own insignificance;
my perception became more acute to small detail, those little things that make up aplace. I was soon welcomed by the warmth and humour of Aomori people, and I founda similarity to my own Welsh cultural background and upbringing; I grew up on a farm
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in the mountains of Snowdonia North Wales. The larger frame for my dance work has
always been the natural world; nature has no sympathy and is continually at work.

Photo © Kei Shii

“Meeting this region of Japan, and the arts centres’ concept of local and international
exchange, enhanced my choreographic research, my interest in the relation of dance toenvironment and the everyday. This has led to my long-lasting collaboration with andcommitment to an ongoing working process developed from the Tsugaru music anddance of north Japan, with a core of Japanese artists including Tsugaru Teodori, dancer
Yoshiya Ishikawa, Tsugaru shamisen music group Hasegawa Sangen-kai led by Yuji
Hasegawa, Tsugaru minyo song of Kiyoko Goto, and contemporary dancer Reina Kimura.
This year Agnese Lanza Elena Jacinta and Taz Burns, three UK based dancers, joined thecore company for the new collaboration Aomori, Aomori, a love story that has no
ending, believing in wishes, hopes dreams and desires.
“Since 2008 the project and my relationship with Japan has developed, with visits,
developments, tours and performances in Wales, London (Greenwich Dance),
Singapore, Italy and across Japan, involving different groups of local participants and39
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artists, continuing a local and international dance dialogue, remaining sensitive to theparticularities of a place.”

Website: www.sionedhuws.net

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My Japan, My Britain

Takashi Sano
Hair stylist

Takashi Sano came to Britain in 2000. After assisting some of the hairstyling industry’s
biggest names, he now divides his time between working on fashion shoots andrunning his own hair salon.
“What really attracted me to Britain was Punk music. I was a big Clash fan. I wanted to
go to an English speaking country and the combination of music and culture was a big
attraction. I had qualified as a hair stylist in Japan and really liked Vidal Sassoon. I wanted
to come to Britain to find out just how good he really was. I really admired his precise
skills and how he taught that hairdressing could be fun, not just work. It was a real wakeup call for me.

Takashi Sano creation for Volt Magazine

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“When I first came to Britain in 2000, what really got to me was the weather. I’m used to
it now, but one thing I still find a challenge is people here are very honest. Sometimes
too honest and their bluntness is hard to take sometimes.

Takashi Sano creation (Photo © Ram Shergill)“I started at the Vidal Sassoon Academy and worked as a hairstylist part time, slowly
building up my portfolio—and my English skills. Then I began to be contacted by hairand make-up agencies and started doing fashion shoots which is something I do
regularly. This gave me confidence to open my own salon Sano Professional Hair Salon
I worked out there are two types of people in Britain; those who are lazy and those whowork very hard and respond to every business opportunity. I modelled myself on thelatter. Now my salon is going really well and I have plans to open a second salon andlaunch my own products. My dream is to open my salons in Asia.”

Website: www.sanohair.com/
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My Japan, My Britain

Yuri Suzuki
Sound artist and electronic musician

Yuri Suzuki is a sound artist, designer and electronic musician from Japan who lives andworks in London. He explores the realms of sound through exquisitely designed pieces.
“For me, working in London is very important for my creative process. I am always
bumping into interesting and innovative people. I have lived in Tokyo, Berlin andStockholm and visited many other cities, however London with its mix of many culturesand people, making new cultures, is the still the best for creativity and for living. It is alsoquite important for me not to feel as if I’m a foreigner. In London, people see me as aLondoner, not as Japanese or Asian.
“My primary interest is always related to music. When I moved to London in 2005,“Grime”, an urban music genre was big; based on Jamaican rhythm; translated into
black music; and then layered with Middle East influenced melody; and Asian MCs
dropping rhymes onto the music. How complicated! But a nice collaboration that makes
for great music.

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The Sound of the Earth: an audio artwork by Yuri Suzuki“I always find the character of people via humour. I can clearly see English and Japaneseshare a sense of humour, from great TV programmes such as Monty Python, The Office,Fawlty Towers and Father Ted. These comedies are quite cynical and painful, howeverquite funny. I couldn’t share this sense of humour when I lived in other countries.
“Studying at the Royal College of Art was the most exciting moment of my life. I met
many talented classmates from all over the world and inspiring artists, designers ormusicians for whom I have great respect. When I studied for a degree in Japan, the only
way to be designer was working for big company as in-house designer, but here, manyof my design heroes gave me advice on how to be an artist or designer and taught me
the only thing is to believe my creativity and chose best way to work. This meant I could
start my own practice straight after graduation.
“As a Japanese and Asian, communication is a challenge, more so because of mydyslexia. However Britain is very inclusive and I received support at the RCA for my study
during my master degree. People still here try to understand what I am trying to say
despite my dyslexia and my Japanese accented English.

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“I am very grateful to the UK for giving me so many possibilities and still allow me to live
here and I feel honoured to be involved in cultural relation projects between UK andJapan.”

Website: https://yurisuzuki.com/

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