News and Reports Archive

Yokohama Triennale 2014, the fifth edition of the Yokohama Triennale, will open from 1 August to 3 November 2014, and welcomes the artist Yasumasa Morimura as its artistic director. This year’s exhibition “ART Fahrenheit 451: Sailing into the sea of oblivion”, which takes its title from Ray Bradbury’s science fiction…

On July 3rd 2014, the Japan Foundation London Library was delighted to welcome 22 pupils and two teachers from Newstead Wood School. The pupils were all Year 8 students and are studying Japanese language. The Library and Resources Officer, Miho Takamura, introduced the library to the pupils using simple Japanese…

The Japanese Language Department are delighted to be joined by a new Assistant Language Advisor, Mio Tsunematsu: 「はじめまして、国際交流基金ロンドン日本文化センターに日本語指導助手として参りました、常松未央と申します。私は、タイで１年、その後は日本で日本語教師をしてまいりました。ロンドンへは観光で一度来たことがありますが、住むのは初めてですのでこれからの生活が楽しみです。」 “My name is Mio Tsunematsu and I am an Assistant Japanese Language Advisor at the Japan Foundation, London. I taught Japanese language in Thailand for one year and then I taught in…

The Japan Foundation London held its second exclusive beginners’ Japanese class for participants of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, in which graduates from English-speaking countries go to Japan to teach English and promote cultural exchange. The course took place over July 19th and 20th, and 17 JET participants in…

The Japan Foundation, London is inviting travel agents based in the UK to submit bids for the service of coordinating an organised group study tour to Japan in this autumn. The necessary procedures and specifications can be downloaded below.   Please be advised that all the relevant documents concerning this…

There’s been some exciting new changes to the structure of the Marugoto supplementary webpages which now means you can easily find the relevant Marugoto websites all in one place! Marugoto Plus (https://marugotoweb.jp/) used to only feature content about the Starter (A1) course, but it is now the Global Homepage, with…

The Nihongo Cup Japanese Speech Contest for secondary school students was held at the Embassy of Japan in London on June  21st 2014. The 18 finalists, who had been selected from 205 applicants from 25 different schools across the UK, all demonstrated great creativity, thoughtfulness and outstanding ability in Japanese in…

On June 26th 2014, 18 current and prospective volunteers attended a Training Day for theJapan Foundation’s Japanese Taster for Schools (JTS) Programme, in which native and fluent Japanese speakers conduct free Japanese taster sessions in UK schools. After an overview for new volunteers about the Japan Foundation and the JTS programme…

The Japan Foundation is delighted to announce that artist Chiharu Shiota will represent Japan at the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, to be held from 9 May to 22 November 2015. Shiota will present the exhibition entitled ‘The Key in the Hand’, curated by Hitoshi Nakano, Curator…

The Japan Foundation has organised Japan’s national participation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which will be held from 7 June through to 23 November 2014. This year, for the very first time, all of the national pavilions at the biennale have been invited to adopt…

On Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th May 2014, the Japan Foundation ran Learn & Teach Primary Japanese, a course for primary school teachers looking to teach Japanese to their pupils. This forms part of the Japan Foundation’s Primary Japanese Campaign, which aims to bring Japanese language learning to primary school…

Last month, we said sayounara to Yuko Murata, Deputy Director of the Japan Foundation London and head of the Languages department for over five years, who has been transferred to the Japan Foundation headquarters in Tokyo. In her place, we are delighted to welcome Tomoki Akazawa, who was formerly a…