Course begins Wednesday 9 May 2012                  6.30 to 8.00pm

Toray Industries
Verulam Gardens
70 Gray’s Inn Road
London WC1X 8NH

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULLY BOOKED

The Spring 2012 course in pre-intermediate Japanese will begin in May and run for ten weeks, until Wednesday 11 July. This course will be taught by teachers from the SOAS Japanese language teacher training programme.

This is a pre-intermediate level course. Students need approximately Level Three of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test: basic grammar, approximately 300 kanji, approximately 1500 vocabulary items; an ability to carry out conversation in everyday situations and to read and write simple sentences. The focus of the course is on communication in daily life. The classes will start from Lesson 8 of Minna no Nihongo Chukyu Ⅰ.

Classes take place from 6:30pm on Wednesdays at the offices of Toray Industries, Inc. At 8.00pm the lesson will end and participants move to a nearby pub to practise Japanese conversation in a more relaxed setting.

Places on the course are limited to 12 people.

We are grateful to Toray Industries, Inc. and SOAS Language Centre for making it possible to continue these very popular classes.

*Please note that we only offer this pre-intermediate level course. This course is only open to members of the Japan Society. To find out more about becoming a member please email info@japansociety.org.uk

We are unable to advise on Japanese courses at other levels. Many can be found on the Hot Courses website.

Monday 21 May 2012                           6.45pm

The Oriental Club
Stratford House
11 Stratford Place
London W1C 1ES

Free – booking recommended

A pay bar is available before the lecture
Please note: Oriental Club rules require gentlemen to wear jacket and tie

When the protests against the 1960 Japan-America Security Treaty (Anpo) erupted and sixteen million people nationwide took to the streets, photographer Hamaya Hiroshi was among them, documenting the mayhem, hope, and ultimate defeat of the opposition. Julia Adeney Thomas will explore the purpose served by his photographs, asking whether they opened up a new civic space or memorialized its closure.

Using images and drawing on contemporary theories of photography, this lecture considers the nature of the photograph as a political space. It will show how Hamaya’s 1960 images fit into a history of Japanese photography, and argues that the photographic movement of ‘realism’ begun during the war and extending into the 1950s came to an abrupt end in 1960 when photography – and many other forms of social action – were excluded from the process of constructing the postwar political reality by the increasingly dominant LDP.

This abrupt change shows that photography as a practice capable of enhancing and even producing a democratic public sphere (as opposed to photography as an art, as a commercial enterprise, or as a strictly personal commemorative exercise) requires not just the permission of the state where ‘reality’ is understood as molded collectively and contested visually. Once the decision had been made to create a bureaucratically directed Japan dedicated not to participatory democracy but to economic growth, the political capacities of the camera were undermined. Hamaya and many of his generation of photographers (and younger practitioners as well) turned away from society to nature and aesthetic expression. This is the story of an end to certain postwar hopes told through the camera lens.

Dr Julia Adeney Thomas writes about nature, politics, historiography, and photography in Japan and comparatively. Her interest in how we grapple with the natural world has led to work on the Korean DMZ, a comparison of Maruyama Masao’s ideas with those of Frankfurt School philosophers, a manifesto on the future of environmental history for Munich’s Rachel Carson Centre, and Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology (winner of the 2002 John K. Fairbank prize from the American Historical Association) as well as the forthcoming edited volume Japan at Nature’s Edge with Brett Walker and Ian Miller. Articles on Japanese photography during and after the war have appeared in The American Historical Review, History and Theory, and The Journal of Asian Studies among others. Trained at Princeton, Oxford, and Chicago, she has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and, currently, the University of Notre Dame where she is associate professor of history.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.

In association with:

Tuesday 22 May 2012                 7.30pm

THE GLOBE THEATRE PERFORMANCE IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR THE POST-PERFORMANCE RECEPTION.

Under the direction of Motoi Miura, one of Japan’s most imaginative artists, this Kyoto-based company has gained a strong reputation for its interpretation of Chekhov in particular. Working together with actors, stage artists, lighting artists and others, Chiten performances explore the dynamics of expression with words, movement, lighting, sound and video. Celebrated for their innovative minimalist vision and restructuring of original playwrights’ works, they will present their interpretation of Shakespeare to England for the first time at the Globe to Globe Festival. Coriolanus will be performed in Japanese with scene synopsis in English.

The Globe to Globe Festival is part of the World Shakespeare Festival and London Festival 2012. 37 Plays. 37 Languages. All of Shakespeare’s plays will be performed, each in a different language, each by a different international theatre company. Every day for six weeks, the world will celebrate performing Shakespeare in London within the architecture Shakespeare wrote for.

‘Shakespeare is the language which brings us together better than any other, and which reminds us of our almost infinite difference, and of our strange and humbling commonality.’ – Dominic Dromgoole & Tom Bird of the Globe Theatre

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.ukor submit the online booking form.

Tuesday 22 May 2012 10.15pm

Tsuru Bankside
4 Canvey Street
London SE1 9AN

£20 per person

Booking deadline – Thursday 17 May

Following their much anticipated performance of Coriolanus in the Globe to Globe Shakespeare Festival, the stars of the show will be heading to a post-performance reception at Tsuru Bankside.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the members of the company and their select Globe Theatre guests while enjoying drinks and food prepared in a traditional Japanese style, just a short walk from the Globe Theatre.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.

Free for members of the Japan Society and those introduced by JNTO and JETRO
£10 for non-members

Booking deadline – Thursday 24 May

In this seminar Ryoichi Matsuyama will give an update on the state of Japanese tourism, covering the latest trends and challenges for the industry’s future. The updates from last month’s The Global Summit of World Travel & Tourism Council, in Sendai and Tokyo, will also be mentioned.

Ryoichi Matsuyama, President of the Japan National Tourism Organization in Tokyo, will be paying his first visit to London since his appointment last October. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1972. Formerly employed across the globe with Mitsui & Co, from Milan to New York, Mr Matsuyama also served as the Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Botswana from 2008 to 2010.

Martin Barrow, honorary Ambassador of Visit Japan, will introduce Mr Matsuyama and act as chairman for this Japan Society seminar.

There will be an opportunity for audience questions and joint discussion on the branding of Japan overseas. UK and Japanese travel industry professionals, as well as others interested in any sector relevant to the topic, will benefit from gaining knowledge about the tourism relationship between the UK and Japan.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.

In association with:

Friday 1 June 2012 7.15pm

Barbican Theatre
Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS

FULLY BOOKED
Booking deadline – Wednesday 25 April

Prices include 20% group discount for Japan Society Members

‘Yukio Ninagawa’s Japanese Shakespeare productions have been among the experiences of a lifetime’ The Guardian

Internationally renowned for his visually powerful adaptations, celebrated director Yukio Ninagawa returns to the Barbican Theatre with Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy, Cymbeline. Starring two of Japan’s most talented and successful actors, Hiroshi Abe and Shinobu Otake. The play will be presented in Japanese with English surtitles.

Ninagawa’s previous directorial credits at the Barbican include the samurai tale Musashi, Hamlet, Coriolanus and the sell out Kabuki performance of Twelfth Night. Cymbeline is part of the World Shakespeare Festival produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for London 2012 Festival. For more information click here.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.ukor submit the online booking form.

Image from the Ninagwa Company’s production of Coriolanus. © Hirotaku Shimizu

Saturday 2 June 2012  10.00am

Horse Guards Parade
Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS

£5 per head for Japan Society Members, £10 for non-members

FULLY BOOKED

One of the great annual sights in London is the Queen’s Birthday Parade on Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall on Her Majesty’s Official Birthday. All available Foot Guards, Household Cavalry and King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery march past Her Majesty starting at 11.00 am. The event will close at approximately noon.

The Society has arranged tickets for 30 good seats for the dress rehearsal, held two weeks before the real parade. Apply early!

The Household Division are the Footguards and Household Cavalry which make up the personal guard for The Queen. It is important to remember that these are also fighting troops; many of those on parade will be veterans of various campaigns including Afghanistan and Iraq. About 1,000 men in bearskins, tunics and full uniform will be on parade; there will be a Massed Band, a Mounted Band, and a large number of cavalry. The troops will be reviewed and then will march past twice. The Queen will not be present on the 2nd of June, but the Dress Rehearsal parade will be taken by the General in command of all Household Troops.

Members should be seated by 10.00 am, but we are arranging to meet at 9.15 am for coffee and a short talk (optional). This will cover the conduct of the parade, its history and tradition. Full details will be sent to those who book.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form

Tuesday 5 June 2012            6.30pm
(and every first Tuesday of the month)

The Old Explorer (Lower Ground Floor)
23 Great Castle Street
Oxford Circus
London, W1G 0HY

Standard Admission ￡5.50,
£1 Discount for: JS Members/Students/Regulars

The Japanese Conversation Group provides a friendly and informal atmosphere for Japanese speakers of all nationalities to come together and speak Japanese. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month at The Old Explorer, a central London pub. They begin at 6.30pm with a pay-as-you-go bar, and finish around 10.30pm.

You will receive all discounts for which you qualify. The Regular Attendee Discount will apply if you attended at least 50% of meetings during the previous calendar year, or once you attend six meetings in the current year.

Please visit the Japanese Conversation Group website http://jcg.org.uk for further details on their programme, which may be subject to change.

Thursday 7 June 2012                                               6.45pm

Chelsea College of Art & Design
16 John Islip Street
London SW1P 4JU

Free – booking recommended

A collective of gardeners (niwashi 庭師) named Niwa Japan has been involved in a great variety of projects, from restoring ancient gardens to landscaping festivals.

In 2011 Takeshi Nagasaki realised that gardeners could play a vital role  in the rebuilding process in Tohoku. So he called Niwa Japan, and they began a new project, ‘The Japan Quake Recovery Project Niwa Japan,’ aimed at remoulding the devastated landscape left by last year’s earthquake and tsunami.

Beyond clearing the debris left behind by the disaster, Niwa Japan plots and plants new greenery that can flourish in the empty spaces left by the tragedy. Embracing all manner of individual projects, the work is both practical and symbolic, from the replanting of a single tree in a house in Sendai City, to rebuilding entire neighbourhood’s green spaces.

The Niwa Japan mission is simple –  to restore people’s connections to nature. Working from the same mud that has inundated and destroyed so much, the project is a hands-on regenerative process. Nagasaki sees the potential for a natural disaster to be followed by a natural rebirth, an opportunity for planting the seeds of Tohoku’s future. Giving new life to the region’s gardens, Niwa Japan is rebuilding a central element of the Japanese household.

For more information about Niwa Japan, please visit their blog (Japanese only).

Takeshi Nagasaki was born in 1970 in Nara, Japan. After studying atTokyo University of the Arts, he took a two-year sabbatical in Spain where he learned oil painting. On returning to Japan in 1992, he began woodcut printing and sculpture and started learning gardening independently. In 1997, Nagasaki formed the company N-tree, to foster a new vision of landscape design. Based in London from 2007 to 2010, Nagasaki relocated to Japan in 2011.Travelling and publishing widely, his design inspiration is firmly rooted in the landscapes and inspiration of Japan.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.

In association with:

Monday 11 June 2012                                            7.00pm

5th View
Waterstones, Piccadilly
203-206 Piccadilly
London W1J 9LE

Free for Japan Society Members

Titled ‘Vessel of Sand’ in the original Japanese edition, this classic Seichō novel opens with a brutal, rail-side murder and takes the reader on a spiralling journey deep into the heart of Japanese society.

The protagonist, Detective Imanishi, follows an investigation that stretches  across rural and urban Japan, visiting far-flung places all across the nation. False trails and further deaths heighten the tension as Imanishi engages in an intellectual battle with the elusive murderer.

The novel focuses on the many contrasts in 1960s Japanese society, between city and country, pre-war and post-war, and an old culture battling with the new.

Seichō Matsumoto was born in what is now Kokura Kita Ward in the city of Kitakyushu. An only child from humble origins, he found work with the Asahi Shinbun after graduating from elementary school, designing newspaper layouts. After many years, Seichō’s long-held aspirations to be a writer were encouraged by winning third prize in a short fiction competition run by the paper. Realising he could make money from his hobby, Seichō’s reknowned work ethic took over – in the course of the career that followed he penned over 450 works of fiction, sometimes working on up to five novels at any one time.

During his lifetime, Seichō accumulated a broad sweep of Japanese literary trophies, including the much coveted Akutagawa Prize. Seichō was a life-long activist and his political engagement is evident throughout his writing. An obsessive reader from an early age, Seichō’s enraged father destroyed his son’s entire library because of the revolutionary texts it contained. Later in life the author travelled to Cuba and Vietnam following political causes.

Since his death in 1992, Seichō’s reputation has grown to iconic status.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330, email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.

Tuesday 12 June 2012          6.00pm

Embassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London  W1J 7JT

Registration essential

The Japan Society Annual General Meeting 2012 will be held on Tuesday 12 June 2012 at 6.00pm at the Embassy of Japan, London.

We hope to see many members at this year’s AGM. Please remember that the Embassy of Japan’s security policy means that you need to let us know in advance if you are planning to attend by email to events@japansociety.org.ukor by telephoning 020 7828 6330.

Please also bring with you to the meeting a form of photographic ID.

All documentation concerning the AGM will be accessible from this webpage shortly, including the formal  Notice of AGM and Proxy Voting Form, Trustees Report and  Japan Society Accounts ending 31 December 2011.

In addition to the formal business of the AGM, the meeting this year will include a presentation on progress in Tohoku as communities recover from the devastation of the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and, in particular, on the Society’s collaboration with the Sanaburi Foundation in distributing funds. For additional information on the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund (Rose Fund) visit the Earthquake section of our website to learn more about Distributing Funds and Supported Projects.

The meeting will be followed by an informal drinks reception.

Tuesday 12 June 2012                2.00pm

JETRO
MidCity Place
71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6AL

Free

Booking essential (places are limited)
Booking deadline – Friday 8 June

This Japan Society Business Lecture will start with a brief presentation by Jun Arima of JETRO on the recovery of business and trade in Japan from the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Sue Kinoshita, Director of Trade and Investment at the British Embassy in Tokyo, will then give an update on the health of UK-Japan trade. She will cover the latest trends and opportunities as well as some of the regulatory, policy and governance considerations. They will then both be joined by representatives of UKTI and the event will conclude with a joint discussion and audience questions.

This event will be of particular interest to UK companies looking to develop their business in the Japanese market and to Japanese companies seeking British government support for their operations in the UK.

After a short break for tea and biscuits, the panel will divide and, with other colleagues, conduct workshops and one-to-one discussions with companies or individuals who have concerns or issues to raise, either privately or in groups.

Programme:

2.00pm Chairman’s Introduction

2.05pm Jun Arima on Japan’s recovery from the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

2.30pm Sue Kinoshita on trends and opportunities for UK-Japan trade

3.00pm Audience questions and discussion with Sue Kinoshita, Jun Arima and other representatives from JETRO and UKTI

4.15pm Tea

4.15-5.30pm Workshops and one-to-one discussions

Members and others who have particular questions are asked to email them to internship@japansociety.org.uk at least 48 hours before the event so that the best use can be made of discussion time.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.

In association with: 

Cost – £5.50,

£1 Discount for – JS Members/Students/Regulars

The Japanese Conversation Group provides a friendly and informal atmosphere for Japanese speakers of all nationalities to come together and speak Japanese. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month at The Old Explorer, a central London pub. They begin at 6.30pm with a pay-as-you-go bar, and finish around 10.30pm.

You will receive all discounts for which you qualify. The Regular Attendee Discount will apply if you attended at least 50% of meetings during the previous calendar year, or once you attend six meetings in the current year.

Please visit the Japanese Conversation Group website http://jcg.org.uk for further details on their programme, which may be subject to change.

Monday 9 July 2012                                            7.00pm

5th View
Waterstones, Piccadilly
203-206 Piccadilly
London W1J 9LE

Free for Japan Society Members

Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan chronicles the life of a true explorer, William Adams, and the epic tale of his travels and life in Japan.

Born in a humble fishing town in Kent, the ambitious Adams learns the seaman’s trade and rises to become the captain of his own ship. After several years working trade missions to North Africa and Europe, Adams marries and seems to have settled on his native soil. Then, rumours of a Dutch fleet sailing for the East Indies and beyond lures him from his wife and home. The voyage would define the course of his life and never see him return to England again.

Milton charts Adams’ hazardous journey to Japan, across both the Atlantic and Pacific, leaving a trail of dead men and sunken ships, recounting the incredible hardships of 17th century exploration. On finally landing in Bungo, Japan, it takes the personal favour of the rising Tokugawa Ieyasu, to save Adams and his surviving crew from the Portuguese Catholics already entrenched in Nagasaki. Over the next thirty years the Englishman slowly turns Japanese, mastering the language and adopting every custom, eventually being invested with the title of samurai and a Japanese estate. By the time other English trade missions arrive, Adams is barely recognisable.

An historical novel based on extensive research, Samurai William paints a compelling portrait of the first Englishman in Japan. Historical accuracy does not entail any sacrifice in narrative pace, and Milton’s story brings to life a great explorer with Robert Louis Stevenson-style gusto, reimagining an era at the crux of pre-modern Japan. Adams’ tale is all the more remarkable considering that, after his death, Japan was to close its doors to the world for over two hundred years.

Giles Milton is an author obsessed with the lesser-known stories of history’s lost adventurers and pioneers. His books have been published in seventeen languages worldwide and are international best-sellers. Meticulously researching the buried details of long forgotten lives, Milton revisits the drama of the past and the formation of countries and peoples that have gone on to define the modern world.

The book club is held on the second Monday of the month. There is no restriction on the nationality of the authors read, but books should be available in translation in both Japanese and English. The discussion is conducted mainly in English, but you can choose the language in which you read the book. The intention is simple: to explore the themes of the book, express personal opinions on the style and content, discuss how the book has changed (or not) in translation and to have a relaxed discussion with others who have similar interests.

Please email the office if you would like to attend or submit the online booking form.

Thursday 19 July 2012                              8.30am

Donnington Grove Country Club
Grove Road
Newbury RG14 2LA

£70 – All-in price for the day

Booking essential (places are limited)
Booking deadline – Friday 13 July

The Japan Society Annual Golf Tournament, for the Asprey and Garrard Plate, will be held this year at Donnington Grove Golf Club, Newbury, West Berkshire.

The Donnington Grove Estate is set in a delightful and secluded position on the outskirts of Newbury and is overlooked by the historic Donnington Castle. The club is situated just off Junction 13 of the M4 and will take about 70 minutes by car from Central London.

Any number of players will be accepted and members are welcome to bring friends and colleagues. Tee off will be from the 1st and 10th Tees commencing 9.30am. The 18 hole game will be played according to the stableford scoring system.

A light breakfast will be provided from 8:30. The day also includes 18 holes of golf and a three course lunch in a private room on completion. The all-in price for the day is £70.00.

For more information about Donnington Grove, click here.

Please contact the Japan Society office on tel: 020 7828 6330 or email events@japansociety.org.uk to book a place on any of our events. When emailing, please include the event title in the subject line. Alternatively you can book online via our online booking form.
Please provide your handicap when booking.

Cost – £5.50,

£1 Discount for – JS Members/Students/Regulars

The Japanese Conversation Group provides a friendly and informal atmosphere for Japanese speakers of all nationalities to come together and speak Japanese. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month at The Old Explorer, a central London pub. They begin at 6.30pm with a pay-as-you-go bar, and finish around 10.30pm.

You will receive all discounts for which you qualify. The Regular Attendee Discount will apply if you attended at least 50% of meetings during the previous calendar year, or once you attend six meetings in the current year.

Please visit the Japanese Conversation Group website http://jcg.org.uk for further details on their programme, which may be subject to change.