Events & Programmes Archive

  Citizen of the Universe is the first public solo exhibition in Europe of abstract sculptor Ruth Asawa’s work. The exhibition displays Asawa’s signature suspended looped- and tied-wire sculptures, as well as photography documenting her home life, and archival material of her involvement with educational programmes and her local community.

We are partnering with this year's Flatpack Festival, who will be presenting Japanese animated short films from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, including those of TEZUKA Osamu and YOKOO Tadanori. These screenings will be accompanied by live music written and performed by UK-based artist, ICHI.

Choreographer, director and perfomer Ney Hasegawa presents his immersive, 'social experiment theatre' in the UK for the first time ever with United Me. The stage becomes a little island that holds a single race. This single govenment nation was divided into 3 territories due to people's intolerances. In a country suffering from a shortage of water, you belong to one territory in the country, and you exchange opinions. How do we now confront the "Tolerance/Intolerance" spreading across the world (or do we decide not to)? It is your decision that this immersive experience demands.

Butoh (or Butō) or the ‘Dance of Darkness’ is an idiosyncratic and physically demanding dance form. Both trained by eminent Butoh masters, Akaji Maro and Akira Kasai, Barabbas Okuyama collaborates with award-winning choreographer Kentaro Kujirai to present a double bill of mesmeric dance.

Institutions can apply for up to £3000 for non-profit-making projects or activities which promote Japanese language education in the UK. Please see the attached documents at the bottom of this post for more detailed information. We prioritise projects that fit into one of the four following categories: Category 1 - Newly Introducing Japanese into the curriculum Up to £3,000 for projects that promote the introduction of Japanese into the curriculum (or onto the main school timetable) at primary and secondary schools. This grant covers staff costs and the cost of Japanese language books. Projects may take place online or offline. Category 2 - Supporting GCSE or A-level courses Up to £3,000 for projects that support GCSE or A-level courses. Particularly, if schools/organisations require support to ensure a large number of candidates are able to take formal qualifications in Japanese, they will be able to maintain their project by re-applying the following year. This means organisations will be able to apply for up to a total of £6,000 over two years. (Please note that we do not supplement the salary of teacher(s) already hired by the applying organisation.) Covers staff costs and costs of Japanese language books. Projects may take place online or offline. Category 3 - Japanese clubs Up to £2,000 for organisations that newly introduce Japanese as an extracurricular activity or enrichment subject. In the case of schools, this is even if this is not within the school timetable. Covers staff cost, Japanese language book cost, origami cost and calligraphy cost. Clubs may take place online or offline. Category 4 - Projects that enable links between primary/secondary institutions and institutions of higher education Up to £3,000 for projects that strengthen connections between secondary institutions and institutions of higher education and create and/or strengthen networks among pupils, students, and teachers for the purpose of helping to promote Japanese language education in the UK. These projects can be aimed at both potential learners of Japanese and people who already are learning Japanese. This is a recently added category, so please contact us if you have any questions or would like to apply but are unsure as to whether your project is suitable. These projects may take place online or offline. Application deadline: 16th June 2022 (Thursday), 23:59

A talk with the author of "The Paths of Zatoichi", Dr Jonathan Wroot.

A roundtable discussion with Japanese Film Festival directors.   Date: Tuesday, 29 March 2022, 12:30pm (BST) Online Event hosted on Zoom

Date: Friday, 25 March 2022, 12:30pm (GMT) Online Event hosted on ZoomOnline Talk Director x Author in conversation, with YOSHINO Ryuhei x TSUMURA Kikuko

Wednesday, 23 March 2022, 12:30pm (GMT) Online Event hosted on Zoom Talk Event   A Conversation with Director WAJIMA Kotaro (The Lone Ume Tree) & James Moore  

Why not join us for the online Finals Day of the 17th Japanese Speech Contest for University Students and listen to what university students studying Japanese in the UK and Ireland have to say! The finalists will give their speeches and presentations in Japanese to an audience consisting of members of the public, fellow students, teachers, families, key figures from the UK-Japan community and a panel of judges.   ** Finals Day Programme, Speech Category Summary and Individual and Group Presentation Caegory Abstracts are now available to download! ** 

We are delighted to announce that the 2022 Japan Foundation and British Association for Japanese Studies (BAJS) Postgraduate Workshop will be held at University of East Anglia. This will be an in person event!

Calling all secondary school teachers of Japanese! We will be holding a fourth Online Get-Together. This is a great opportunity to talk with your colleagues about your work in a relaxed, casual setting. We hope you can use this as a chance to talk about any issues you are facing in the classroom, exchange information on exams, and more.   As well as group discussion sessions, Ms Anne Rajakumar will be giving a talk on the theme of “How to make your lesson effective - Integrating the use of online resources into your teaching (Flipped Learning) -.”.   About the speaker Anne Rajakumar has been teaching Japanese for over thirty years, in both Australia and the UK. She is the author of the successful Australian primary-level workbooks, Yonde Kaite, and has a website and Youtube channel which hosts a wealth of material to support the GCSE and International Baccalaureate Japanese programmes. Until giving up classroom teaching last year, Anne was the Head of Japanese at Hockerill Anglo-European College and since then she has focussed on teaching online. For the past seven years making online resources to support 'Flipped Learning' in the classroom has been a major focus of her work, and she has integrated the use of online resources into her teaching (Flipped Learning) to great effect.    Date: -          5th February 2022 (Saturday), 10:00-11:30 (BST) (main event), 11:30-12:00 (optional post-event discussion session)   Schedule: -          First half: Presentation by Ms Anne Rajakumar -          Second half: Group discussion   To apply, please click here. https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/QQ70RN/   Participation fee: Free (Registration in advance is required.) Registration Deadline: 25th January 2022 Languages used: English will be used in the main presentation, but some parts of the event will be in Japanese.   You can read some comments from participants of the previous Online Get-Togethers below: ·           It was really good to join in with fellow Japanese colleagues from around the country (and world!) and listen and see in Japanese how these colleagues created and use these resources. ·           I spent a hugely worthwhile time getting to talk with other teachers that I do not often get a chance to meet and exchange new information. ·           I have gotten a lot of ideas and tips from the speaker’s presentation. Thanks to the presentation I think I can improve my teaching skills to encourage my pupils to learn more!