Events & Programmes Archive

The UCL-Japan Youth Challenge is back again! This is a prestigious annual summer school programme. In this summer school, pre-university students from Japan and the UK attend a series of university-style lectures on a wide range of subjects by academics from UCL, and engage in UCL Grand Challenge Workshop, which aims to investigate one of the social issues in the world and explore solutions to it through discussion between Japanese and UK-based participants. It is a great opportunity for young people interested in cultural exchange and in getting some unviersity experience. 2026 will be the 11th year of the programme. It will be held in three places in the UK: Rikkyo School in England, West Sussex; University of Cambridge, Cambridge; and UCL, London. Dates: Saturday 25 July – Sunday 2 August 2026 (9 days)* Fee for UK-based participants: 800 GBP *Not all dates are compulsory to attend. For full details and to apply, please visit the official website here: https://www.ucl-japan-youth-challenge.com/join-us/

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m., a 9.1magnitude earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami and a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Marking the fifteenth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, this event will explore what happens when disasters and crises occur and how individuals and communities respond to them. Each speaker will give a short presentation (approximately 10 minutes) drawing on their specific area of expertise, followed by questions from the audience. The presentations will explore themes such as the intersections between disaster preparedness and art in activities with children; new social connections created through disaster relief activities in Tohoku with marginalised communities in Tokyo; collaboration between labour unions in supporting temporary and precarious workers; and actions, including formal apologies, addressing Japan’s painful past of forced sterilisation. Collectively these talks will reflect on examples from Japan that show how individuals and organisations mobilise to respond to disasters, crises, and difficult historical legacies. About the Speakers:  Dr. Chika Watanabe Chika WATANABE is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. Her research and teaching focus on disaster preparedness, play, futurity, and humanitarian and development aid. She has two forthcoming books, Play to Survive: Disaster Preparedness Along the Ring of Fire (2026) and Patchwork Ethnography: a Methodological Guide (2027).  Professor Erica Baffelli Erica BAFFELLI is Professor of Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester (UK). She is interested in religion in contemporary Japan, with a focus on groups founded from the 1970s onwards. Her research projects and publication focus on religion in contemporary Japan; religion and media; new and minority religions; religion, gender and violence; and Buddhism and emotion. She is currently PI on a Leverhulme Research Project on "Fear and Belonging in Minority Buddhist Communities" (2023-2027).  Dr. Yuki Asahina Yuki ASAHINA is a lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester. Trained as a sociologist, his research interests include social inequality and political sociology, focusing on Japan and South Korea. Yuki has recently completed his first book manuscript, Meritocracy’s Children (2027), and an edited volume, The Digital Rise of the Far Right in Japan (2026). Dr. Aya Homei Aya HOMEI is a Reader in Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on the history of medicine and science in modern Japan and East Asia, with interests in reproduction, population, gender and diplomacy. Aya is the author of Science for Governing Japan’s Population (2023) and co-edited Medical Women in the Japanese Empire (2025). Most recently, she is working on a historical book examining Japanese family planning and healthcare diplomacy in Southeast Asia and involuntary sterilisation in Japan after World War II. Dr. Peter Cave : Introduction to Japanese Studies at Manchester Peter CAVE is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies and director of the Japanese Studies programme at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on education in Japan, both contemporary and twentieth-century. His publications include books on primary and junior high school in Japan, as well as articles about educational reform, history education, maths education, and club activities in Japanese schools.  This event is free to attend but registration is essential For IN-PERSON attendance, click here For ONLINE attendance, click here

Japan Foundation London Grant Programme (Japanese Studies & Intellectual Exchange) 2026-2027 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: 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. Projects must take place between 20 April 2026 and early March 2027. 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. Application Deadline: 6 April 2026  - 1st Call for applications   If you are interested in applying to this grant, please read the complete Application Instructions PDF. Once you have read the Application Instructions, please email the Japanese Studies team at LO_JapaneseStudies@jpf.go.jp, and CC Iona_Vos@jpf.go.jp (Assistant Programme Officer for Japanese Studies) and Natsumi_Abe@jpf.go.jp (Manager of Japanese Studies Affairs)

Dates: Thursday 26 - Friday 27 February 2026 Venue: University of Sheffield Registration for the 2026 iteration of the Japan Foundation/British Association for Japanese Studies PhD Workshop, "Navigating Your Future in Japanese Studies" is now open! If you are a PhD student conducting research related to Japan, why not come along for our workshop which aims to support the ongoing development and future of Japanese Studies in the UK? This time, we have decided to host the workshop over two days to allow more opportunity for insightful workshops and networking, enabling attendees to build valuable connections with Japanese Studies students and researchers across the UK. We have listened to feedback from previous workshops and concerns of postgraduate students in Japanese Studies, and have decided to focus this workshop on how to navigate the changing landscape and job market in Japanese Studies. Exact sessions at the workshop are yet to be finalised but the tentative timetable is below. *Please note: We are still in the early planning states and the following is subject to change* Thursday 26 February (Afternoon Start): 1pm - Registration opens Session 1: How to find and apply for jobs, writing applications and preparing for interviews. Session 2: Funding opportunities at different funding organisations in the UK. Session 3: Hearing from students who have completed their doctorates, and their experiences finding jobs both inside and outside academia. Drinks Reception. Friday 27 February (Morning Start): 9.30am - Start of Day 2 Session 1: Student presentations and feedback (in assigned groups). Session 2: Workshop on collaborative research Session 3: Roundtable with assembled academics to discuss Japanese Studies in the UK 5pm - End of Workshop. Please note: attendees to the workshop must be able to attend both days. Student Submissions: As an essential part of the workhop, PhD and MA students will be asked to present their research in small groups. Further information about this will be provided after the registration deadline has passed. However, if you have any questions please get in touch. Financial Support:  The following financial support is available to presenting attendees. Travel Grant: JF will offer a partial travel grant for student participants. Once an initial 30 GBP is covered by the student, JF will provide up to a maximum of 90 GBP for public transportation to the event. For any questions, please contact Iona Vos using the contact emails at the bottom of this item. Hotel Grant: BAJS will cover a one night stay up to a maximum of 90 GBP per attendee. If you have any questions about the hotel grant, please email the BAJS Secretary Mara Patessio at mp78@soas.ac.uk.   REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Wednesday 17 December 2025. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER   Please note: Attendance to this event is capped at 40 students on a first come, first served basis. As the number of participants is limited, please only register if you know you can attend both days of the workshop. Current Ph.D. students will be prioritised. MA students will be placed on a waitlist, with places being confirmed after the deadline has passed. If you have registered but can no longer attend, please contact us to cancel your place. If you have any questions about the workshop, please email Iona Vos (Assistant Programme Officer for Japanese Studies at JF London) at LO_JapaneseStudies@jpf.go.jp. Please CC Natsumi_Abe@jpf.go.jp (Manager for Japanese Studies) and Iona_Vos@jpf.go.jp.  

This webinar is intended for librarians, researchers, and other people outside of Japan who are engaged in Japanese studies. The goal of this webinar is to learn and improve basic skills for finding and using information related to research in Japanese studies. The advancement of digital technology has encouraged Japanese studies outside of Japan and made it easier to obtain a wide range of information on premodern Japan, not just classical literature. Consequently, innovative and authentic research is in progress in the field of Japanese classical literature.There is no denying that Japanese premodern books, wahon (和本), are the primary subjects or resources for conducting research in the field. In this lecture focusing on wahon, Dr. Sasaki TAKAHIRO demonstrates the basic knowledge required when using a vast number of digital images for research, as well as methods and precautions for utilizing these images, providing specific examples. Video available to watch on demand on YouTube. You must apply before watching the video. Date: Video available between Monday 2 February to  Monday 2 March 2026. Eligibility:  Librarians or researchers outside of Japan who are engaged in Japanese Studies. * This includes students and others who have a professional interest in Japanese studies. Librarians in Japan Language: Japanese (no translation or interpretation) Click here to apply to watch the video.   Applicants will be sent an email containing URLs needed to watch the video and download the handout  

In recent years, Japanese literature has been gaining attention in the UK. Reading literature offers much more than the enjoyment of a story; it provides a window into the social and cultural values that shape it. This session explores how literary works help us understand Japanese society and the wider world, and how we can make sense of Japanese literature's recent growth in popularity. We will also consider what happens when such works are translated from Japanese into English: how is the cultural context of the original text conyed, adapted, or transformed in the process? For example, we will consider how onomatopeic expressions used commonly in Japanese can be translated to be understood worldwide. To discuss these questions, we will bring together a literary scholar, a specialist in translation studies, and a professional translator working between japanese and English. About the Speakers Dr Michael Tsang is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies and Programme Director for BA Japanese Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. His research focuses on world literature, postcolonial literature, and popular culture with an emphasis on East Asia. He has published widely in journals and edited volumes, including Murakami Haruki and Our Years of Pilgrimage (co-edited with Gitte Marianne Hansen: Routledge, 2021). He is also a creative writer and has published tanka poetry in English. Professor Nana Sato-Rossberg is a leading scholar in the field with expertise in Japan and East Asia. She is currently Chair of the Centre for Translation Studies at SOAS, and the programme convener for the BA Translation pathway and MA Translation and Intercultural Studies. She is also an Executive Council member of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies and the co-founder of the East Asian Translation Studies conference series (since 2014). She is author of thre monographs and five co-edited books, including Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context (co-edited with Judy Wakabayashi, Bloomsbury, 2012) and 「翻訳と文学 (Translation and Literature)」(ed. Misuzu, 2021). Ms Joanna Dare is University Librarian at De Montfort University in Leicester. Alongside her work as a university librarian, Joanna Dare is active as an emerging literary translator and Coordinator of the East Midlands Regional Group of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. She studied Japanese at the University of Sheffield, and Translation Studies at Portsmouth University. She currently studies Japanese through the Languages at Leicester programme at the University of Leicester. In 2020, she won second prize in the 4th Japanese Literature Publishing Project International Translation Competition, followed by first place in the Institute of Translation and Interpreting Japanese Network Translation Competition in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Applications are now open for the "JF-CIJS-EAJS Fellowship" programme for Ph.D. candidates in Europe, and the "JF-GJS Fellowship Program" for post-doctoral researchers. Details on each programme and application information follows below. JF-CIJS-EAJS Fellowship Program Tohoku University's Center for Integrated Japanese Studies (CIJS), in collaboration with the Japan Foundation (JF) and supported by the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) has announced a research fellowship programme that allows Ph.D. candidates who conduct research related to Japan in the humanities or social sciences, and feel the need to visit Japan to complete their doctoral research to do so at Tohoku University. Dates and length of fellowship: The fellowship will last between 4 and 12 months, commencing between September 1, 2026 and March 1, 2027. Application Deadline: Applicants must send their application paperwork to JF-CIJS-EAJS@jpf.go.jp before Friday 21 November, 2025 (Japan Standard Time). Full eligibility details and application information can be found at: https://cijs.oii.tohoku.ac.jp/en/news/detail---id-69.html For any inquiries, please email: JF-CIJS-EAJS@jpf.go.jp.   2026 JF-GJS Fellowship Program In order to promote Japanese Studies overseas, this programme, jointly organised by the Japan Foundation (JF) and the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia of the University of Tokyo (Tobunken), provides post-doctoral researchers in the field of Japanese Studies with opportunities to conduct research in Japan while belonging to Tobunken. The Fellows will also be expected to gain experience as project facilitators through operation and management work at various meetings or workshops, and to form and expand networks with people involved in international exchange. Dates and length of fellowship: The fellowship will last between 6 and 24 months, commencing between September 1, 2026 and March 1, 2027. Application Deadline: Applicants must send their application paperwork to JF-GJS@jpf.go.jp before Friday 21 November, 2025 (Japan Standard Time). Full eligibility details and application information can be found at: https://gas.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/networking/2026-jf-gjs-fellowship/ For any inquiries, please email: JF-GJS@jpf.go.jp.

This talk event takes inspiration from Studio Ghibli’s renowned film Grave of the Fireflies, a powerful story of war and loss. We will begin with a screening of the film’s trailer, using it as a starting point for an open discussion with both the panel and audience. Each speaker will then give a short presentation (around 10 minutes) from their area of expertise, followed by interactive discussion and questions from the audience. The talks will explore themes such as the intersections of art and war, the ethics of representing wartime experiences through film and literature, Japan’s anti-nuclear movement, the dynamics of modern Japan–China relations, and the role of nationalism in twentieth-century Japan. Taken together, these perspectives invite us to reflect on how the themes depicted in Grave of the Fireflies connect to broader questions of memory, ethics, politics, and international relations. Note: As with past events, video clips and trailers will be shown during the live session but may be omitted from any online recordings. This event is free to attend but registration is essential! To register, click below or scan the QR code! For IN-PERSON attendance, click here Or scan: For ONLINE attendance, click here Or scan:   Organised by The Japan Foundation London Hosted by The University of East Anglia About the Speakers Dr Ra Mason (Sasakawa Associate Professor, School of Politics, Philosophy and Area Studies) is an internationally recognised specialist in the international relations of the Indo-Pacific, with a specific focus on Japan. His work draws on theories of risk, security and social construction to understand the complex relations between regional alliances, states and non-state actors. He is also interested in wider questions about global politics and conflict. Dr Sherzod Muminov (Associate Professor in Japanese History) is a multilingual historian working with sources in Japanese and Russian, and is also fluent in Turkish. His primary research is in modern Japanese and East Asian History, Japanese-Soviet/Russian relations, the Cold War in East Asia, the post-WWII, post-imperial migrations in East Asia, and the international and transnational history of the Soviet system of forced labour camps for prisoners-of-war. Dr Hannah Osborne (Lecturer in Japanese Literature) is Japan Foundation Lecturer in Japanese Literature at the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing and the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of East Anglia. She completed her doctoral thesis, Gender, Love and Text in the Early Writings of Kanai Mieko at the University of Leeds in 2015. Her research interests include: intersections between text, illustration and the avant-garde arts; gender and the body; and women's writing and translation in modern Japanese literature. Dr Eriko Tomizawa-Kay (Sainsbury Institute Associate Professor in Japanese Art History and Director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of East Anglia)’s research focuses on modern and contemporary Japanese art, with particular emphasis on nihonga and Okinawan visual culture. She explores their roles in identity, diplomacy, and memory, and her curatorial projects highlight collaboration with artists, museums, and communities. She received her PhD from SOAS, University of London, and has previously held positions as Art History Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute, Toyota Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, and Visiting Research Associate at the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. Dr Nadine Willems (Associate Professor in Japanese History) is an intellectual and cultural historian of modern Japan, whose research interests include historical geography, early 20th century agrarian movements, the anarchist critique of modernisation in a transnational perspective, and the literature of dissent. She is currently engaged in a project that examines the personal accounts and visual records produced by rank-and-file soldiers who participated in Japan’s military intervention in Siberia between 1918 and 1922. She obtained her PhD from Oxford University.

The Japan Foundation London is proud to partner with our friends at the University of East Anglia on their upcoming lecture, Okinawan Crafts: History and the Present with Professor Junko KOBAYASHI (Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts). This lecture by Professor Kobayashi will explore the history and contemporary relevance of Okinawan craft, addressing themes such as identity, regional heritage, and sustainability. The work of eight Okinawan artists will be reflected on, exploring their historical context, the evolution of Ryukyuan aesthetics, the preservation of identity through craft, and the adaptation of traditional practices in the modern era. The lecture is part of the accompanying programme for the exhibition ‘Okinawan Kogei: Crafting Continuity and Change’ that runs from Wednesday 29 October – Saturday 1 November, at the Crypt Gallery, Norwich. This lecture will be taking place in person, but will be available via livestream. Date: Monday 3 November, 5pm GMT.   Venue: Duke Street Lecture Theatre, Norwich University of the Arts To find out more about the lecture and exhibition, click here.

The Japan Foundation London has begun collecting information for the Japanese Studies Survey 2025.

The second round of applications for the Japan Foundation London Grant Programme FY 2025-26 has opened! Deadline: Friday 8 August 2025

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