This year’s JETAA Japan-Scotland festival will take place over 3 days in New Abbey. Aiming to foster deep cultural connections between Japan and Scotland through arts, crafts, education, and sustainability. Everybody is welcome!
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. It is a great opportunity for young people to get a taste of university life in the UK, while making new friends and practicing their communication skills in a multicultural environment.
We were pleased to see a high number of students from the UK attending this year, showing the interest that young people have in attending a programme that promotes interaction between Japan and the UK.
The welcome day was held at the Rikkyo School in Surrey. This was an opportunity for the students to present and introduce themselves! The Japanese students introduced their schools, home towns, hobbies, and personal interests. Next, the UK participants welcomed the Japanese participants and introduced themselves one by one.
In the afternoon, the students participated in ice breaking sports activities. Then, they enjoyed a barbecue together on a sunny evening!
On Sunday, the students visited Cambridge for a day of sight-seeing, punting, and a formal dinner in the beautiful dining hall at Corpus Christi College.
The following day, they began their lectures at the University of Cambridge! Over the course of the day, they heard eight lectures on different topics, from neurobiology to robotics as well as physiology, from professors and doctors at the university.
On Tuesday they travelled to UCL to participate in the Grand Challenge Workshop! The theme for this year’s workshop was ‘Space and Us’, asking students to consider potential solutions to global issues. They began by defining their agreement to work well with one another, before discussing some pre reading that they had been set on topics such as personalized medicines, life expectancy, high emission rates, the climate crisis and space exploration. The students discussed the social, political, economic, technological, legal and environmental implications of the news items.
They were then split into their presentation groups for the symposium, and worked together to identify their key issues, the support that was available, and potential solutions. The students shared all of their ideas in English, ensuring to involve each individual in the discussions, and they left the workshop well equipped with ideas to prepare for their presentations in the symposium.
As in previous years, a representative from Scriberia provided live sketches of what the students discussed in the workshop
On Wednesday, the participants visited the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Didcot, Oxford. They spent the day learning about the work that Harwell are undertaking in Energy, Space, Health and Quantum Computing, and listened to talks about the Diamond Light Source research, Oxford Space Systems, and Space Clusters.
On Thursday, it was a return to UCL for a full day of interesting talks and lectures, including from representatives from the Embassy of Japan in the UK and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences London. They also heard introductions to UCL and Tohoku University and admissions, and lectures in the fields of linguistics, nanotechnology, and civil engineering.
The Japan Foundation London also informed the students of their events and grant programmes, giving the students a little insight into what it is like to work for a cross cultural organization.
Friday was the day of the symposium. In the morning, the students received a tour of the UCL campus, before practicing their presentations.
Then the symposium began. Prof Shin-ichi Ohnuma from UCL introduced everyone to the UCL-Japan relationship, the summer school programme, and thanked the sponsors for their support for the event.
During the symposium, Mr Yutaro Tanaka from Mitsubishi Electric spoke about their SLIM project to create machinery to carry out research on the moon, as well as ways in which Mitsubishi have supported space exploration. Dr Mikako Matsuura from Cardiff University talked about the exciting research that can be conducted using a space telescope. Ms Keshini Navaratnam, an international affairs and media expert, spoke about the changing modern landscape and the relationship between media and international law.
The student presentations were next! The participants had been instructed to create 3 minute presentations on the topics they had explored during the Grand Challenge Workshop earlier on in the week. The topics included preservation of cultural heritage sites, preparation for natural disaster, urban climates and biodiversity in smallholder farming. Each presentation was followed by a question from the audience. We were struck once again by how well carefully considered all the ideas in the presentations were, and the power of communication.
In the latter half of the symposium, Prof Andrew Coates from UCL informed us of UCL’s contribution to investigating life on Mars, and the Rover that UCL was helping to build. Prof Masahiro Yamaguchi from Tohoku University detailed the impact of Quantum Physics on the universe. Finally, Mr George Cann from Foster & Partners spoke about his work on designing permanent structures to be built on the moon.
The symposium ended with Japanese high school students giving the speakers gifts from their home towns, and a huge round of applause from the audience for all of the hard work that the students had carried out this week!
We then had a reception, where students from Fukushima prefecture spoke in English about the impact of the 3.11 triple disaster on their home towns. The students highlighted that issues that might seem local can actually be relevant on a global scale. This reflected the importance of continued cross-cultural communication, to keep sharing information about issues around the world.
Congratulations to the participants of the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge!
We would like to commend the organisers of the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge from UCL and Japan at UK for another successful programme. We would also like to thank the supporters and sponsors of the event, and we hope to continue to work together in the future on events that promote intercultural exchange and mutual understanding.
Click here to visit the official programme website.
©Scriberia, 2025. UCL-Japan Youth Challenge Illustration
The second round of applications for the Japan Foundation London Grant Programme FY 2025-26 has opened!
Deadline: Friday 8 August 2025
For projects taking place between 1 September 2025 – 31 March 2026.
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 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.
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.
Before contacting us, please read the full Application Instructions, containing further details about eligibility and the Application Process.
Application Deadline: Friday 8 August
Results will be notified by the end of August.
To read the Application Instructions PDF, click here.
If you have any questions, email Iona Vos at LO_JapaneseStudies@jpf.go.jp.
When you email us, please CC Natsumi_Abe@jpf.go.jp (Assistant Director for JF London and Manager of Japanese Studies Affairs) and Iona_Vos@jpf.go.jp (Assistant Programme Officer for Japanese Studies).
MORIIZUMI Takehito is a Japanese manga artist and an illustrator by profession. Having debuted in 2010 with Mary in the Forest, his representative manga works include Serie and Asleep, a post-apocalyptic science fiction tale. His unique technique of drawing initially with just water, then by dropping ink onto the paper and using toothpicks and chopsticks, among other unconventional tools, to fill in the details not only distinguishes him from other manga artists, but also allows him to create very poetic expressions of his highly intellectual story lines.
His professional activities are also characterised by his passionate involvement in literature: he has provided illustrations for Japanese literature publications and produced graphic adaptations of a variety of novels by esteemed authors including Franz Kafka, George Orwell, and MURAKAMI Haruki. Owing to his deep knowledge of and great interest in literature, he was once described by Japanese media as “a manga artist who is more of a literary figure than a novelist”.
In this special talk, MORIIZUMI will showcase his career and his works, explaining his unique creative process as well as the ethos behind his creations. As the son-in-law of late film director OBAYASHI Nobuhiko, and having once worked very closely with him, MORIIZUMI will also touch upon his personal relationship with OBAYASHI.
This event is free to attend, but booking is essential.
Click here to book your place on Eventbrite.
In conjunction with MORIIZUMI Takehito and his wife OBAYASHI Chigumi, there will be two special film screenings at the Garden Cinema in London for the films of OBAYASHI Nobuhiko.
OBAYASHI began his career with a largely experimentalist style but ultimately explored different genres throughout his life. His films feature themes of youth, love, and war.
6 August 18:00 ~ His Motorbike, Her Island. Followed by a Q&A with OBAYASHI Chigumi, the director’s daughter, as well as her husband MORIIZUMI Takehito, distinguished manga artist and illustrator.
9 August 17:00 ~ Hanagatami
Venue: The Garden Cinema London
If you are a pre-university student in the UK, and you are interested in making friends from Japan and learning Japanese culture, while also attending lectures at top UK universities delivered by academics and professionals and learning crucial team work and presentation skills through participating in the UCL Grand Challenge Workshop, then why not register for the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge 2025?!
This is a prestigious, annual summer school programme that was established in 2015. The programme brings together students visiting from high schools across Japan with pre-university students from the UK.
The programme takes place across various locations, including the Rikkyo School in England, the University of Cambridge, and UCL.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the programme! The theme is “Space for the Future”, focusing on how we can shape our future with the most advanced science and technology.
This year’s programme will run from Saturday 26th July – Sunday 3rd August 2025. Please note that some dates are optional, and full details can be found on the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge website.
The programme is now taking applications from UK students, so if you know anyone you think might be interested, please share the information with them!
For more information, visit the UCL-Youth Challenge official website: UCL-Japan Youth Challenge – Summer school programme
The UCL-Japan Youth Challenge 2025 is looking for volunteers!
If you are interested in Japanese culture or learning Japanese, and are over 18, why not come along to this week-long campus summer school programme to help pre-university students shape their future studies and careers?
The UCL-Japan Youth Challenge is an annual summer school programme for pre-university students from UK sixth form colleges and Japanese high schools for cultural interaction through various educational activites held at UCL and the University of Cambridge.
Dates and Venues*: Saturday 26 July (Rikkyo School in England), Sunday 27, Monday 28 July (University of Cambridge), and Tuesday 29 – Saturday 2 August (University College London).
*Volunteers may choose to join from one day to the whole programme.
What will be provided: Reasonable travel costs and lunch.
Eligibility: Volunteers must be 18 years of age and able to travel to the volunteer locations.
If you can volunteer, please email ujyc@japanatuk.com to register your interest.
To find out more about the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge, visit: ucl-japan-youth-challenge.com.
The Japan Foundation, London is holding a Refresher Course for Japanese teachers online over a few weeks from late June to mid-July. This is to help non-native-speaker-level Japanese teachers brush up their Japanese level and network with other Japanese teachers.
The in-person Final Day of the Refresher Course will be held in London and is open to all school teachers, even if they have not participated in the Refresher Course.
Why not join us in London for a chance to meet fellow teachers of Japanese, participate in workshops, and hear from expert speakers? The event is free, and lunch will also be provided.
You can find information on the Final Day event below:
Basic Information
- Date: Saturday 19th July
- Venue: The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, 13/14 Cornwall Terrace (Outer Circle), London, NW1 4QP
- Fee: Free
- Languages Used: English with some Japanese
- Application Deadline: 10th July 2025 (Thursday), 15:00
*Applications will close once the maximum number of participants has been reached.
Eligibility (Any one or more of the following)
- Japanese teachers who teach at secondary and/or primary schools, including teaching extra-curricular activities such as school clubs.
- PGCE students who are aiming to become Japanese teachers.
- SCITT trainees/candidates
*Your application may not be accepted if it does not meet the eligibility criteria.
Schedule (TBC: Please note that this schedule is subject to change)
- 10:40 Venue opens
- 11:00 Opening
- 11:10 Session 1 (Seminar about GCSEs/A-Levels)
- 11:40 Break
- 11:50 Session 2 (Workshop about teaching methodology)
- 13:20 Break
- 13:30 Buffet lunch
- 15:00 End
Speakers
Ms Fiona Pryce at Pearson Edexcel
Fiona Pryce is a Senior Qualification Manager at Pearson Edexcel, with a portfolio of 16 GCSE and 15 A Level language qualifications. Fiona has extensive experience as an MFL teacher, teaching Spanish and German up to KS5 and French up to KS3. As a HOD she supported students taking additional language qualifications, including Japanese GCSE. She also ran a primary MFL business for 6 years. Fiona joined Pearson in 2022 and led on the development of the GCSE 2024 Spanish Edexcel and AQA course resources.
Ms Anne Rajakumar
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, A-Level and International Baccalaureate Japanese programmes. Until giving up classroom teaching in 2020, Anne was the Head of Japanese at Hockerill Anglo-European College and since then she has focussed on teaching online. For the past fifteen 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.
Click here to register to attend
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 a light on the to the research being conducted at various universities around the UK to the general public!
We took the opportunity when partnering with Lancaster University’s Anime symposium that took place earlier on the 4th July (read the event report about that symposium here) to host a separate lecture that same evening.
This event was the first in our new seminar series, and was titled Ghibli in the Machine: AI Controversies and the Appropriation of Anime, with Dr Zoe Crombie (Associate Lecturer in Film Studies at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University) and Prof Rayna Denison (Professor of Film and Digital Arts and the University of Bristol).
The event was a hybrid event, and the general public were encouraged to attend, as well as university and sixth form students with an interest in Japanese Studies.
We were joined by a sizable online and in-person audience, with a total of approximately 60-70 audience members!
Dr Crombie started the seminar by providing the background on the topic, giving the audience an in depth history of Studio Ghibli before contextualising the topic by exploring AI and its wider use in society, before looking at its recent impact on the animation studio when a recent AI filter that transformed existing images into “Ghibli”-fied versions. Dr Crombie questioned how successful the filter was, as well as the potential repercussions for the animation studio. She also brought up the ethical, cultural, aesthetic and economic implications of using Artificial Intelligence tools, and how appropriation can end up misrepresenting the original creator’s intentions.
Prof. Denison then provided examples of AI “trailers” for films, and further questioned the legality of using original material. It was a fascinating exploration of the use of AI and potential future use of AI by production companies, and the impact this could have on workers. She considered that AI is not considered as a solely negative thing, being used already in the industry, and that it has some positive attributes that are worth bearing in mind. However, we were left to consider what the future holds for Anime, and what the human and environmental cost of Artificial Intelligence might be.
Dr Crombie then gave an introduction to what Japanese research looks like at an institution like Lancaster University, that does not have a dedicated Japanese degree programme, but still attracts and employs academics and researchers who have an interest in Japan.
We ended with a Q&A session that invited many questions from the audience, both in-person and online. Questions ranged from copyright issues, the distribution and selling of AI materials, the ethical and material difference between human-created work and AI-created work. It was an incredibly interesting discussion that provided much food for thought, and is a topic that we were left to consider long after the lecture finished.
We would like to sincerely thank Dr Zoe Crombie and Prof Rayna Denison for their cooperation and hard work in creating and delivering the seminar.
We would also like to thank Dr Zoe Crombie a second time for her hard work in helping us host the seminar, and Lancaster University for all of their cooperation.
We will be hosting another lecture in the Exploring the World of Japanese Studies Seminar Series later on in the year, so keep your eye out on our website and social media pages for updates!
We look forward to seeing you at a future event!
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: A Symposium | The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies
Event Report
We were proud to partner with Lancaster University on this one day symposium, “Transnational Perspectives on Anime” that took place on Friday 4 July.
This symposium brought together experts in their field, academics and students, to discuss and contemplate Anime and its impact around the world and on different aspects of society.
The day started with a keynote speech from Dr Jonathan Clements who gave us an insight into the history of animation in China and its fluctuating relationship with anime, not only in terms of the audience market but also its impact in production, the politics of distribution, and the impact of the government on the animation industry.
This led us neatly into the first panel, ‘Anime, Nation and Race’. Zizhou Zhang (PhD candidate, University of East Anglia) delved into ‘Donghua’, or Chinese animation, and how the Chinese animation industry has started to develop its own culturally distinct identity. Khushboo Bansal (PhD candidate, University of Delhi) spoke about the role of Indian broadcast censorship in shaping Anime Narratives for Domestic Viewers. Cerise Jackson (PhD candidate, University of Oxford)’s talk on New Frameworks for ‘Black Anime’ and Beyond considered the depictions of black people in anime and what constitutes ‘Black Anime’, as well as the clear need for further research on the topic.
After a short break for tea and coffee, we entered the second panel of the day, New Approaches to the Transnational Anime Text.
Helen McCarthy (independent researcher) raised the dilemma of an ageing generation in Japan, and the impact that this might have on anime in terms of its popularity and the target market, whether this might mean that the target market shifts or new countries arise as leaders in the genre. Dr Dorothy Finan (University of Leeds) discussed Virtual YouTubers (VTubers) and hololive, and the phenomenon of fan relationships with animated characters with agency. Dr Simone Shu-Yeng Chung (Université Grenoble Alpes) brought an architectural viewpoint to the discussion, by showing us how animators portray space to enable viewers to ‘feel’ motion and movement.
We then paused for lunch, before returning for Prof Rayna Denison (University of Bristol)’s keynote talk, ‘The Transnational History in Anime‘ which considered the impact on anime of historical events such as the Meiji restoration and the move from isolation to transnationalism.
Panel 3, Ghibli (and Pre-Ghibli) Transnational Interactions began with Dr Manuel Hernández-Pérez (University of Salford) who examined the spread and influence of Heidi, girl of the Alps (1974) in Francoist Spain, and how it laid the foundations for the perception of animation as a legitimate cultural product. Nick Anderson (PhD candidate, Eastman School of Music) discussed the European songs used in Porco Rosso and The Wind Rises and how crossing borders musically can produce cinematic hauntologies. Dr Shiro Yoshioka (Newcastle University) delved into the transition from ‘Anime’ to ‘Ghibli/Miyazaki Anime’, and the conscious move away from ‘anime’ by Studio Ghibli in the pursuit of commercial and critical success.
The final part of the day, Panel 4, Adapting History and Culture, began with Prof. Livia Monnet (University of Montreal) who demonstrated that Yuasa Masaaki’s animated film Inu-Oh (2021) and how it reenvisions animation and performance as subversies philosophies. Antonio Rivera Arnaldos (PhD candidate, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)’s talk analysed Gisaku (2005) as an exercise in cultural diplomacy and transnational media adaptation, appropriating anime to visualise Spain’s historical and cultural identity. Maria Chiara Oltolini (Universita Cattolica) ended the panel by examining the Japanese anime adaptation of The Swiss Family Robinson , entitled Family Robinson castaway story: Flone of the mysterious island (1981). Maria considered how the series engaged with and revised different narrative archetypes, as well as paying attention to representations of female and male characteristics in the anime.
Each panel was followed by an enthusiastic Q&A session where the attendees asked interesting and thoughtful questions to each speaker. The day was full of interesting discussion about the transnational nature of anime, with participants from around the world discussing the impact of anime on different cultures and countries. It was very interesting to reflect on the history of anime, as well as what the future of the genre might look like as it continues to evolve, take on new definitions and innovations!
The Japan Foundation London is grateful to have attended and partnered with Lancaster University on this event which was a true representation of how exciting and varied research on Japan can be, and aligned with the Japan Foundation’s mission to encourage intercultural exchange.
We would like to thank Lancaster University, especially the organiser of this event Dr Zoe Crombie, for their hard work in carrying out this one-day symposium.