Events & Programmes Archive

Come and enjoy a prelude to summer with us by immersing yourself in our feel-good comedy film season!From wacky time-travel to ancient Rome (Thermae Romae) and a musical extravaganza set in feudal Japan (Princess Raccoon), to a slapstick twist on the film noir genre of the 60’s (Murder Un-Incorporated) – our annual Pre-Summer Explorers season aims to make you shake and cry with laughter while presenting the multi-faceted and unique sense of humour in Japanese cinema! Click on the individual titles of the films in this year's lineup for screening details and free booking: 26 June: Night is Short, Walk on Girl 29 June: Fukuchan of Fukufuku Flats Princess Raccoon Thermae Romae Getting Any? 30 June: Murder Un-Incorporated

Come and see the UK's talented young students of Japanese language at the Finals Day of the Nihongo Cup - the Japanese Speech Contest for Secondary Schools! Students from all levels of secondary education – Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 – will showcase their amazing talent and hard work in their Japanese language studies while competing for some fantastic prizes – including a trip to Japan! Entry is free – No booking required.   To read our report about last year's finals day, click here.

Nihongo Cup is the Japanese Speech Contest for Secondary School students across three categories: Key Stage 3, Pre-GCSE Key Stage 4/5, and Post GCSE Key Stage 4 and 5. Finalists will be invited to perform their speech at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford in front of a panel of judges and VIPs from the field of Japanese language education and Japan-UK relations, for the chance to win some fantastic prizes – including a trip to Japan! Finals day will take place on 22nd June 2019 (Saturday). Finals will take place at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford. You can also find articles about previous Nihongo Cup finals on our News Page.

Nobuko Tsuchiya uses a variety of media to create imaginative sculptures that evoke an arresting narrative quality. Her work incorporates found household objects including mop buckets, table legs, rags and plastic tubing. Her enigmatic sculptures resemble minimalist mechanisms devoid of function, primitive robots, or curious experiments.  She begins by collecting materials she is intuitively attracted to and combining them into polymer-like structures which are then cast. Tsuchiya will be showing her work at Leeds Art Gallery for Yorkshire Sculpture International and will use the gallery as a studio to assemble the final works. 

Manga, or Japanese comic books, is a 4 billion dollar a year industry, making up 40% of the country’s published works. Yet, contrary to Western comic books which often focus on targeting male readers, in Japan, a particularly prominent and developed genre of manga is shojo manga (Girls’ manga), with women across the nation’s demographic making up a large percentage of target readership due to its reflection of female desires and aspirations. Celebrating the UK’s biggest manga exhibition at the British Museum (23 May – 26 August 2019), the Japan Foundation is proud to welcome Professor Yukari Fujimoto, a manga expert from Meiji University specialising in gender and feminist theory. Overviewing the girls’ manga genre by talking about some notable features, she will discuss how manga has played a vital role in empowering female creativities as well as the readership body; in particular, by contextualising the way female sexuality and attraction – especially between same sex – has been drawn as women’s values continued shifting. This event will provide you with an insight into an obscure yet currently relevant terrain of manga, one of Japan’s most renowned cultural imports. 

In celebration of Photo London 2019, Dr Lena Fritsch – Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Ashmolean, specialist in 20th and 21st-century Japanese art and photography – will talk about notable moments in the history of Japanese photography and the diversity of the medium.She will be joined by Miho Kajioka, a Japanese artist dealing in the medium of photography, who will discuss her definition of the art form in question and divulge why she chose to utilise the camera in her creations. Together they will trace the journey that this particular medium will take in Japan going into the future.

This event aims to provide relevant professionals with information about various opportunities for graduates in teaching, studying and conducting research in Japan. This is the only annual event in the UK where attendees can learn about the diverse programmes in these fields.

On the 10th and 11th May 2019, the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford will host an international graduate-led conference to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Ishin, commonly known in English as “The Meiji Restoration”. 

In partnership with the Flatpack Festival, the Japan Foundation is delighted to be bringing a series of satellite events to the festival's programme. 

The Japan Foundation, London is proud to be co-organising the Japanese Children's Day family event at King Street Halls in Orkney. This event is organised by: Orkney Japan Association, The Japan Foundation, London, The Consulate-General of Japan in Edinburgh, Orkney Islands Council, Blue Earth Works and The Japan Society of Scotgland. There will be many fun activities, including origami, traditional dance and calligraphy, as well as delicious snacks to eat. Plus! There will be an ikebana demonstration and flower workshop for children from 11:00am to 12:00pm for primary school children aged seven and older. You can download a flyer with more information by clicking here. Please note that prior registration is required to take part in the ikebana workshop. Please contact OJAinfo@btinternet.com by close of day Tuesday 30 April 2019.  The Japanese Children's Day is FREE to take part in.

The traditional Japanese lunch box, or bento, has undergone a number of metamorphoses over the long course of its history, becoming a staple and a unique point of pride in Japanese cuisine. Depending on the occasion, bento can range from a mass-produced lunch container available from railway stations, to lovingly hand-crafted compartmentalised meals set in equally stylish lacquerware. However, the most notable transformation may be perceived in the category of home-made lunch, the ingredients of which not only form an appetising meal but also, with increasing intricacy, a visually engaging one. This is known as kyara-ben (character bento) and it is particularly enjoyed by children, who will often receive bento bearing the likeness of famous manga and anime characters. In collaboration with the Flatpack Festival, we are happy to welcome Mari Miyazawa — a leading bento arranger and animation filmmaker whose work includes short films such as Twins in Bakery (2013) — to talk about the development of vibrant bento creations in Japan. Herself having invented a similarly illustrative genre of oekaki-ben (picture bento) in which food is arranged to resemble an intricately decorated scene or landscape, Miyazawa will also provide an introduction to turning ingredients into edible characters, revealing how her ideas attain the balance between nutrition and visual appeal. This event is aimed at showing our audience that creating an edible work of art is something enjoyable everyone can do and be proud of!

The JF/BATJ Spring Seminar, Participatory Approaches and Drama for Learning, will take place on Saturday 27th April. This will be a hybrid seminar – participants may join in either in-person or online. Workshop Leader: Kumiko Uehara (The Japanese-German Centre Berlin) Facilitator: Yuko Fujimitsu (Japan Foundation, London, BATJ Member) Presenters:   The 2017 and 2018 cohort of the Training Programme for Japanese Language Education in Europe (voluntary speakers) Hiroko Tanaka (Japan Foundation, London, BATJ Member) Miho Tokimoto (Sapienza Universita di Roma) Kaori Nishizawa (University of Oxford, BATJ member) Sawako Nemoto (L’Association Franco-Japonaise Paris-Sud, Cours de Japonaise) Nozomi Yamaguchi (University of Manchester, BATJ member) To see the provisional programme and to book your place, please click here  Discounted fee applies until 10th April.