The UCL-Japan Youth Challenge is back again! This is a prestigious annual summer school programme.
In this summer school, pre-university students from Japan and the UK attend a series of university-style lectures on a wide range of subjects by academics from UCL, and engage in UCL Grand Challenge Workshop, which aims to investigate one of the social issues in the world and explore solutions to it through discussion between Japanese and UK-based participants. It is a great opportunity for young people interested in cultural exchange and in getting some unviersity experience.
2026 will be the 11th year of the programme. It will be held in three places in the UK:
Rikkyo School in England, West Sussex;
University of Cambridge, Cambridge;
and UCL, London.
Dates: Saturday 25 July – Sunday 2 August 2026 (9 days)*
Fee for UK-based participants: 800 GBP
*Not all dates are compulsory to attend.
For full details and to apply, please visit the official website here: https://www.ucl-japan-youth-challenge.com/join-us/
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Japanese photographer KITAI Kazuo (1944– ) may not be well known in the way other photographers such as MORIYAMA Daido are in the UK. Yet he, as the first recipient of the prestigious Kimura Ihei Award, is regarded as one of the most notable figures in the world of Japanese photography.
Away from strong individuality or radical expression, KITAI’s photography – ranging from a series of shots of the Japanese rural landscape to protests in the 1960s and 1970s – captures ordinary people’s lives. His works share a renewed appreciation for the potential of this medium, offering a time for reflection on things we should have seen but have lost sight of.
For this special talk event, FUJIMURA Satomi (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Arts Council Tokyo), an expert in photography, will explore KITAI’s career as a photographer and his unique style while discussing how his images intertwine with political and social changes in Japan.
This event is co-presented with The Photographers’ Gallery and in conjunction with KITAI’s first solo exhibition in Paris, Kazuo Kitai, l’éloge du quotidien (Kazuo Kitai, in Praise of the Everyday), at the Japan Foundation’s Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris. FUJIMURA is the exhibition curator.
Do you think your Japanese level is getting rusty? Why not study Japanese online to brush up your Japanese level?
This course is for non-native-speaker-level Japanese teachers who currently teach Japanese in secondary and/or primary schools. You can improve not only your Japanese level but also your teaching skills. Moreover you can build a network among other Japanese teachers. Trainee teachers are also welcome to join. School teachers who are not currently teaching Japanese but wish to do so are also welcome. For more information, see below.
Eligibility (any one or more of the following):
- Non-native-speaker-level Japanese teachers who teach at secondary and/or primary schools, including teaching extra-curricular activites such as school clubs
- PGCE students who are aiming to become Japanese teachers
- SCITT trainees/candidates
Suitable Japanese Level
JLPT N3 or CEFR B1* (if you cannot assess your own level, please contact us.)
*This is an intermediate level course.
Schedule:
This course consists of Online Sessions and a face-to-face Final Day event. The online sessions will be held on Mondays on the dates below, followed by the Final Day event, which will be held for all level native speaking and non-native speaking Japanese teachers together.
Online sessions
- Time: 18:00-19:30 (90 min x 4 lessons)
- Date: 13th and 27th April, 11th and 25th May
In-Person Final Day Event :
- 11:00-15:00(TBC), 27th June (Saturday) or 4th July (Saturday)
- Networking event, workshop, presentation by Pearson Edexcel, and a lunch reception
- More detailed information will be given later. Teachers of all Japanese levels are welcome.
N.B. The course will take place online, but on the final day of the course we would like to hold a special face-to-face session, with special speakers. The Japan Foundation, London will provide lunch and cover your travel expense partly for the participants of the online sessions*.
* All participants are asked to pay up to £10 of their travel expenses out of their own pocket (no reimbursement). The rest of their travel expenses will be reimbursed by The Japan Foundation, London for amounts up to £100.00. If you need to travel the day before and stay overnight the night before the Final Day event, please consult us in advance.
- Course fee: Free (including all handouts)
- Registration Deadline: 6th April 2026
- Languages used: English/Japanese
- Resources: All handouts will be given during the lesson.
- This course may count as 10 hours of CPD (TBC)
- Course Objectives: To be able to teach GCSE-level confidently
Course Content:
- Week 1 (online): Introduction, Review of GCSE specification
- Week 2 (online): Review of Grammar and Kanji
- Week 3 (online): Review of Grammar and Kanji
- Week 4 (online): Review of Grammar and Kanji
- Final Day (face-to-face) : Workshop and resource sharing (TBC)
To register, please click here
- Further Enquiries: Ms Hiroko Tanaka
- Hiroko_Tanaka001@jpf.go.jp
Do we really know who we are and who others are? This is the main theme for the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026. Because of the complex nature of our minds and emotions, many filmmakers have employed the theme through various forms and narratives. Arguably, examples can be seen in KUROSAWA Akira’s Rashomon and our screening last year of Ichiko by TODA Akihiro, to name only a few. Recently, advanced technologies, widespread social networking services, as well as greater gender diversity, seem to bring fascinating new stories of self-images.
In this wrap-up online talk, we have invited experts who have long-standing careers in the film industries of Japan and the UK, to explore the theme of the true self by illustrating some concrete examples of their choices. Together, they will discuss the narratives, voices, and approaches of filmmakers to this theme by examining the course of film in the past and future.
This online talk is free to attend, but booking is essential.
Click here to book your place on Eventbrite.
YAGI Emi Photo: © ABE Mayumi
Japanese literature has never been so popular in the UK!
Following the successful talk tour by YUZUKI Asako and TSUJIMURA Mizuki, the Japan Foundation is delighted to present two authors from Japan whom you should watch out for: YAGISAWA Satoshi, the author of the worldwide best-selling novel Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and its sequel, as well as our previous guest YAGI Emi (Diary of a Void) whose new book When the Museum is Closed is now available in English.
Although the two authors have different writing styles and storylines, both sincerely face and examine in their books the lives of women in a complex modern world and their journeys of coping with relatable personal issues.
They will talk about their own books in London and Manchester.
YAGISAWA Satoshi
Debuted in 2010 with Morisaki Shoten no hibi (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop), which was adapted into a hit film and followed up with a sequel publication. His Morisaki Bookshop series has since been translated worldwide, become an international bestseller and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. His other works include the Junkissa Torunka (Torunka Cafe) series. His hobbies include playing the guitar and he loves coffee and cats.
YAGI Emi
Born in Nagano in 1988, is the award-winning author of Diary of a Void and When the Museum is Closed. Her work has been translated into 25 languages and acclaimed internationally. Her first novel, Diary of a Void, won the Osamu Dazai Prize. She lives in Tokyo and is an editor at a leading women’s magazine.
Image: A monk painting the Kanji of the Year 2011, ‘kizuna’, meaning bonds, chosen following the 2011 Tohoku triple disaster. Credit: https://www.jiji.com/jc/d4?p=knj120-jpp11868337&d=d4_dd
Date: Wednesday 11 March, 2026, 6pm – 7.30pm
Venue: Lecture Room 6.213, University Place Room, The University of Manchester
This event will also be livestreamed via Zoom.
Are you someone with a general interest in Japanese culture and society? Or are you a sixth form student or current university student, either studying Japanese language or with an interest in learning more about Japan? Why not come and listen to our next lecture as part of our seminar series: ‘Exploring the World of Japanese Studies‘!
Our fourth talk, Voices for a Better Japan: Insights from Anthropology, Religion, Sociology and History, is supported by the University of Manchester. We will be joined by Dr. Chika Watanabe, Prof. Erica Baffelli, Dr. Yuki Asahina and Dr. Aya Homei, with a special introduction to Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester by Dr. Peter Cave.
Talk Description
On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m., a 9.1magnitude earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami and a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Marking the fifteenth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, this event will explore what happens when disasters and crises occur and how individuals and communities respond to them. Each speaker will give a short presentation (approximately 10 minutes) drawing on their specific area of expertise, followed by questions from the audience.
The presentations will explore themes such as the intersections between disaster preparedness and art in activities with children; new social connections created through disaster relief activities in Tohoku with marginalised communities in Tokyo; collaboration between labour unions in supporting temporary and precarious workers; and actions, including formal apologies, addressing Japan’s painful past of forced sterilisation. Collectively these talks will reflect on examples from Japan that show how individuals and organisations mobilise to respond to disasters, crises, and difficult historical legacies.
About the Speakers:
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Dr. Chika Watanabe Chika WATANABE is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. Her research and teaching focus on disaster preparedness, play, futurity, and humanitarian and development aid. She has two forthcoming books, Play to Survive: Disaster Preparedness Along the Ring of Fire (2026) and Patchwork Ethnography: a Methodological Guide (2027). |
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Professor Erica Baffelli Erica BAFFELLI is Professor of Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester (UK). She is interested in religion in contemporary Japan, with a focus on groups founded from the 1970s onwards. Her research projects and publication focus on religion in contemporary Japan; religion and media; new and minority religions; religion, gender and violence; and Buddhism and emotion. She is currently PI on a Leverhulme Research Project on “Fear and Belonging in Minority Buddhist Communities” (2023-2027). |
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Dr. Yuki Asahina Yuki ASAHINA is a lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester. Trained as a sociologist, his research interests include social inequality and political sociology, focusing on Japan and South Korea. Yuki has recently completed his first book manuscript, Meritocracy’s Children (2027), and an edited volume, The Digital Rise of the Far Right in Japan (2026). |
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Dr. Aya Homei Aya HOMEI is a Reader in Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on the history of medicine and science in modern Japan and East Asia, with interests in reproduction, population, gender and diplomacy. Aya is the author of Science for Governing Japan’s Population (2023) and co-edited Medical Women in the Japanese Empire (2025). Most recently, she is working on a historical book examining Japanese family planning and healthcare diplomacy in Southeast Asia and involuntary sterilisation in Japan after World War II. |
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Dr. Peter Cave : Introduction to Japanese Studies at Manchester Peter CAVE is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies and director of the Japanese Studies programme at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on education in Japan, both contemporary and twentieth-century. His publications include books on primary and junior high school in Japan, as well as articles about educational reform, history education, maths education, and club activities in Japanese schools. |
This event is free to attend but registration is essential
In celebration of Japanese literature in the UK, join us this March for this rare talk event with multiple award-winning author SHIBASAKI Tomoka and renowned Japanese literary translator Polly Barton. Fluently changing subject between third-person and first-person, SHIBASAKI’s first English-translated book, Spring Garden, is a poetic but foreboding narrative of Taro and his neighbour, NISHI, who holds an obsessive interest towards the old house next door.
In this special talk, Tomoka and Polly will discuss the dazzling novels Spring Garden and the newly translated A Hundred Years and a Day.
‘A master class in novel writing… Tomoka Shibasaki rightly won the Akutagawa Prize in 2014 for this sublime novella of dislocation and regret, and Polly Barton’s light, understated translation does it immense justice’ – Japan Times
SHIBASAKI Tomoka
SHIBASAKI Tomoka is a Japanese novelist. Her debut novel Kyō no dekigoto (A Day on the Planet) was adapted into a film by YUKISADA Isao in 2004. Her 2007 novel Sono machi no ima wa (That Town, Today) received multiple awards including the Geijutsu Sensho Newcomers Prize. In 2010, her novel Netemo sametemo (Whether Asleep or Awake) received the Noma Literary New Face Prize; the book was subsequently adapted for the screen by HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke as Asako I & II and screened at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, SHIBASAKI won the Akutagawa Award for Spring Garden, translated into English by Polly Barton and published by Pushkin Press. Her 2023 novel Tsuzuki to hajimari (Continuing and Beginning) received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize and the Tanizaki Junichiro Prize. Her 2018 work A Hundred Years and a Day was translated into English by Polly Barton and published by Stone Bridge Press in 2025. Her latest novel is Kaerenai tantei (The Detective Who Couldn’t Go Home), published in 2025.
Polly Barton
Polly Barton is a writer and Japanese literary translator. Her translations include A Hundred Years and a Day and Spring Garden by SHIBASAKI Tomoka, Butter by YUZUKI Asako, Hunchback by ICHIKAWA Saou, Where the Wild Ladies Are by MATSUDA Aoko, and Mild Vertigo by KANAI Mieko. She is the author of Fifty Sounds, Porn: An Oral History. Her debut novel What Am I, A Deer? comes out in April.
Japan Foundation London Grant Programme
(Japanese Studies & Intellectual Exchange) 2026-2027
This programme is designed to provide grant assistance to projects (e.g. lectures, workshops, conferences) in any discipline of the humanities and social sciences that have a significant Japan element, or involve collaboration with Japanese researchers/practitioners.
Projects must take place in the UK to be eligible for support and applications can only be accepted from not-for-profit organisations in the UK.
Priority:
Priority will be given to projects that fall under one or more of the following descriptions:
1. Projects that will bring together researchers/ practitioners from a variety of disciplines and sectors that are relevant to Japan
2. Projects organised by, and/or involving core participation by, early career researchers/ practitioners
3. Projects that will nurture diverse interests in Japan among future generations in the UK
Applications for preliminary project development will be considered as long as such projects include some of the above elements.
Grant coverage:
Only specific items such as travel expenses, honoraria, venue hire, printing/publicity costs etc. which are deemed to be essential in order to carry out the project.
Projects must take place between 20 April 2026 and early March 2027.
Successful applicants may be granted up to £1500. As successful applicants will not necessarily be granted the full requested amount, applicants are strongly encouraged to secure additional funding from their own organisation and elsewhere.
Application Deadline: 6 April 2026 (1st Call for applications)
If you are interested in applying to this grant, please read the complete Application Instructions PDF.
Once you have read the Application Instructions, please email the Japanese Studies team at LO_JapaneseStudies@jpf.go.jp, and CC Iona_Vos@jpf.go.jp (Assistant Programme Officer for Japanese Studies) and Natsumi_Abe@jpf.go.jp (Manager of Japanese Studies Affairs)
ハイブリッドセミナー
「ヨーロッパの日本語教師のための、日本国内の日本語教育基礎講座 」
主催：パリ日本文化会館主催 共催：ロンドン日本文化センター＆ローマ日本文化会館
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【日程】
2026年2月27日（金）
10:00-12:00 ハイブリッドセミナー（パリ時間 オンラインZoom 対面会場：パリ日本文化会館）
12:00-13:00 アフタートーク（対面のみ・会場：パリ日本文化会館 限定15名）
【講師紹介・メッセージ】
神吉宇一（かみよし ういち）（武蔵野大学グローバル学部教授、武蔵野大学学外学修推進センター長 ）
専門は日本語教育政策、地域日本語教育。社会人の始まりは小学校教員、その後、さまざまな職を経て2013年から大学教員に。 元日本語教育学会副会長、元文化審議会国語分科会委員、その他国や自治体の委員等多数の実績あり。主な著書・訳書『ことばの教育と平和』（2023年 明石書店）、『日本語学習は本当に必要か』（2024年 明石書店）、『一歩進んだ日本語教育概論』（2024年 大阪大学出版会）、『よい教育研究とはなにか』（ガートビースタ著 2024年 明石書店）。『現代日本語教育ハンドブック』（2025年 大修館書店）。2021年度日本語教育学会学会賞、2021年度日本語教育学会学会活動貢献賞。
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【セミナー内容】
現在、日本は特定技能ビザや育成就労制度などで外国人就労者の受け入れを進めており、文化庁が「日本語教育の参照枠」を策定、文科省が認定日本語教育機関制度を定め、登録日本語教員制度が開始するなど、大きな岐路に立っています。ヨーロッパの日本語教師にとっては、現在のところ直接的な影響はありませんが、グローバル化が進み、オンラインで授業を行うことができるようになっている今、いずれはその影響を受けると考えられます。 本セミナーでは、日本の日本語教育政策にも深く関わってきた武蔵野大学の神吉宇一氏を講師として迎え、日本の現在の日本語教育の動向を解説していただき、今後のヨーロッパの日本語教育への影響を考えます。
【言語】日本語
【形式】ハイブリッド ZOOM＆体面
【費用】無料
【お申し込み締め切り】 2026年2月25日（水）
【お申込み】こちらから
【主催】国際交流基金パリ日本文化会館
【共催】国際交流基金ロンドン日本文化センター・ローマ日本文化会館
【セミナーに関するお問い合わせ先】kenshu@mcjp.fr
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