Past Events

In this lecture, Dr Anna Vittinghoff will explore the impact of disability and women's liberation activists coming together in the 1960s and 1970s.

This lecture reviews the work of textile artists Samiro Yunoki (1922~2024) and Keisuke Serizawa (1895~1984) and their involvement with the Mingei movement.

In this lecture, Professor Ian Gow will discuss first contacts by Scots with Tokugawa Japan during the English East India Company period in Hirado (1613-23).

In this lecture, Christopher Hayes will explore some of the strategies that have been employed to diversify tourism in Japan in the recent years, with a particular focus on the country’s hosting of major international events, drawing on his research on the tourism impact of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

While prints of the Edo period (c. 1615–1868) are known for their depictions of floating world beauties, this does not capture the full diversity of women depicted in Japan’s graphic arts. Prompted by a puzzling set of luxury prints by artist Yashima Gakutei (1786–1868), this talk takes up the subject of retsujo, exemplary women.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese education attracted global attention for its excellence. In recent decades, however, Japan’s economic woes seem to have cooled international enthusiasm for learning from the country. Is Japanese education still a beacon of excellence?

The Last Ring Home is a book and documentary film telling the true story of Lt. Minter Dial, a WWII POW in the Philippines, and the fascinating journey of his Annapolis Naval Academy ring that miraculously made its way home 17 years after his death.

We are delighted to welcome the British Ambassador to Japan, Julia Longbottom CMG, to address the Japan Society after two years in post.

With its origins mainly from Chinese traditional medicine, Japan established its own traditions and systems of treatments in an array of different situations over the course of its several time periods. These were further influenced by the indigenous belief system of the Japanese called Shinto as well as the arrival of Europeans into Japan, particularly Rangaku or “Dutch Learning.”

Very few scaled the heights to reach the level of Minister to Japan or especially Minister to China – the most important British official east of India. This means that Alcock’s story would inevitably have been out-of-the-ordinary, but there were things about him that made it more than that.