News and Reports Archive

For the very first time, the Japan Foundation London has held an 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 20th and…

The Japan Foundation was delighted to present this book launch and talk on the highly-regarded new publication, Aesthetic Strategies of the Floating World.  We were joined by the book’s author, Afred Haft (British Museum), who examined how the Floating World responded to the authority of Japan’s classical tradition, and made…

The Japan Foundation are delighted to announce the launch of a new website especially for beginners of Japanese language, called MARUGOTO+. Free and very easy to use, MARUGOTO+ (MARUGOTO Plus) enables users to learn about Japanese language and culture through nine separate topics. The emphasis on the website is to…

The Japan Foundation delighted to report that the UK government published a new draft national curriculum on 8th of July 2013 that includes several amendments that are beneficial to teachers and students of Japanese as it gives schools a free choice of which language to teach. The national curriculum applies…

The Nihongo Cup Japanese Speech Contest for secondary school students was held at the Embassy of Japan in London on June  29th 2013. The 18 finalists, who had been selected from 203 applicants from 22 different schools across the UK, all demonstrated great creativity, thoughtfulness and outstanding ability in Japanese…

How to speak Japanese like a young girl, an old man or a bossy mother were some of the topics covered in the summer course of the Japan Foundation’s Japanese Plus course for advanced Japanese learners, which ended on June 26th. Running for four weeks and attended by 30 participants,…

The Japan Foundation, in collaboration with the Royal Mint Museum, was delighted to present this special public seminar (held on 13th June) exploring the rich history of exchange between Japan and the UK in the area of mint.  Yoshiake Shinhara, President of the Japan Mint, gave a detailed and informative talk focussing on…

Ishinomaki is a city in Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture, and is one of the areas that suffered severe damage due to the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Exactly one year later, the children of Ishinomaki published Ishinomaki Hibi Kodomo Shinbun; a newspaper created by the children…

On May 25th 2013, approximately 40 people attended a seminar on Kanji and Kanji Vocabulary Learning based on JF Standard’s Can-do Statements, jointly run by the Japan Foundation London and the Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ). This seminar was run by Toru Sakaida, Senior Japanese Language…

On May 17th 2013, 28 volunteers attended the second  training day of 2013 for the Japan 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…

The Hakuho foundation is now accepting applications their Japan Experience Program for Overseas Children. This fantastic programme consists of three parts, training in Japan, followed by hosting Japanese school visit and culminating in a trip for some of your students to Japan! The programme consists of three parts (chronologically): One teacher…

Participants who had never before studied Japanese learned how to write beautiful Japanese characters such as 「夢」(yume, “dream”)　「和」(wa, “harmony”)　and「愛」(ai, “love”) at our latest “Japanese from Scratch” workshop for beginners in Japanese language studies. The workshop, which focused on the art of shodō (Japanese calligraphy), was held on March 13th at…