Monday, 5th October 2009
Embassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London W1J 7JT
6.30pm

Free (booking essential – rsvp to politicslecture@jpembassy.org.uk)
Deadline for bookings: Friday, 2nd October 2009
Please print and bring your confirmation email and photographic identification with you as those without may be denied entrance.

The Embassy of Japan and the Japan Society are delighted to invite you to this Lecture by Asahi Shimbun Columnist, Mr Yoshibumi Wakamiya.

After over half a century of rule by the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, the Democratic Party of Japan, led by Yukio Hatoyama, obtained a large majority in the House of Representatives as a result of its landslide victory in the general election on 30 August 2009. What circumstances lead to such a phenomenal victory? What will be the future direction of Japan’s policies? Join us for an evening with a journalist who has been following Japanese politics for many years.

Born in 1948, Yoshibumi Wakamiya graduated from Tokyo University, joined The Asahi Shimbun in 1970, and has observed Japanese politics and diplomacy for a long time. He was chairman of the editorial board from 2002 until 2008.  He became a columnist for the Asahi Shimbun and a guest professor at the University of Tokyo in April 2008.

In 1982, he studied Korean at Yonsei University in Seoul, and in 2001, he experienced 9/11 in the United States while a guest scholar at The Brookings Institution. He is a member of the “Japan-Korea Forum” and the “Tokyo-Beijing Forum.” His major publications include the English edition of The Postwar Conservative View of Asia. (LTCB International Library) as well as the Chinese and Korean editions of Reconciliation and Nationalism. His monthly column Fukoukei is translated into English as Japan Notebook for the Herald Tribune Asahi.