News and Reports Archive

The Japan Foundation London was proud to work with UCL for the 11th year of the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge! This is a prestigious week-long summer school, bringing together high school students from schools around Japan and pre-university students from the UK for a week of lectures, tours, and cultural exchange.…

On Friday 4 July, The Japan Foundation London hosted a seminar at Lancaster University, as part of our new series, Exploring the World of Japanese Studies. This new series aims to display the breadth and diversity within Japanese Studies, to inspire and motivate future researchers as well as to shine…

Journal of Anime and Manga Studies Publication *The proceedings of the following symposium have now been published on the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies*. This is freely available to the public and available online! Access the journal here: Vol. 6 No. 1 (2025): Proceedings from Transnational Perspectives on Anime:…

I am Kaoru MIYAMOTO. I have succeeded Mr. Shin-ichi TANAKA as Director of the Japan Foundation London. During my time here, I am looking forward to working in London and hope to have the opportunity to explore many other areas of the UK. The Japan Foundation London has a great relationship with…

Professor Simon Kaner, (Executive Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures)’s talk, ‘How Japanese Arts and Cultures Make Us Happier’ is now available to watch on YouTube! On Friday 18 October, 2024, The Japan Foundation Awards 2024 Commemorative Event was held in Tokyo, to celebrate the…

The Finals Day of the Japanese Language Championship for Young Learners UK (JaLaChamp) 2025 was held in the hall of Japan House London, on Saturday 10th May 2025. JaLaChamp is a contest for primary and secondary school students studying Japanese, either in a formal school setting or privately. It consists…

The Finals Day of the annual Japanese Speech Contest for University Students was held on Saturday, 1st March 2025 at Great Hall, King’s College London. For this year, the 20th anniversary of the contest, we welcomed 24 student finalists from 10 universities across the UK, who delivered a packed programme…

On Friday 21st February we welcomed 37 postgraduate students to The University of Edinburgh, for our annual Japan Foundation/British Association for Japanese Studies (JF-BAJS) PhD Workshop. It was a windy and rainy morning in the Scottish capital, but this did not dampen everyone’s spirits as they arrived with smiling faces…

On Thursday 16th January, we were extremely honoured to invite Professor Simon Kaner, Executive Director and Head of Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC), to speak on the extensive work that SISJAC has carried out recently and over…

“Rakugo and Kobanashi: Enjoy Storytelling and Explore Japanese” event series was held on 8th and 9th of November 2024 in Oxford, and 10th November 2024 in London.  The traditional Japanese theatre art Rakugo dates back to the Edo period, where it was appreciated by all classes – and it is…

On Saturday 5 October, as part of the free programme at this year’s The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, our Senior Arts Programme Officer Junko TAKEKAWA shared five recommendations for Japanese books you should be reading. If you couldn’t make it to Cheltenham, or just want a refresher,…

                For the full programme outline of the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge 2024, click here. This year, the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge celebrated its 10th anniversary with another successful week that celebrated cultural exchange between Japan and the UK. Just under 30 students from the…