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“You are old, Father William, the young man said, and your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head – Do you think, at your age, it is right?” Way back in 1865 Lewis Carroll captured admirably our societies’ blend of veneration and astonishment at the achievements of great old age in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

It was one of those events for which I suspect all of us can remember what we were doing or where we were when we heard the news – or, for those in Japan, when you felt the tremors. I had a small reminder of it over Christmas when, while clearing out some old files, an envelope fell out containing potassium iodide pills.

Watch the recording of our webinar when Japan Society Chairman Bill Emmott was joined by Matt Alt for a conversation about pop culture in Japan.

The "Basic Policy" for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is as clear as it is uplifting. “When people look back on the Tokyo 2020 Games in 50 or 100 years’ time”, the policy says, “the Games should be seen to have been a catalyst for change in culture, society and values leading to the realisation of a more sustainable, spiritually richer, happier society”.

Watch the recording of this special event when Lord Howell joined Japan Society chairman Bill Emmott in a conversation spanning themes and observations from his over 40 year involvement in UK Japan relations.

Watch the recording of our webinar on Thursday 4 February when Japan Society chairman Bill Emmott was joined by David Henig and Pernille Rudlin to review the first month under the new arrangements of the Brexit UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Watch the video recording of the lecture by Antony Best who provided an overview of the trajectory of Britain’s relations with Japan since their modern opening in 1854 until the end of the alliance in 1922.

Watch the video of our webinar on Wednesday 20 January 2021 when Japan Society Chairman Bill Emmott discussed the strategies to achieve net carbon zero with two energy and climate change experts, Professor Naoko Ishii and Lord Adair Turner.

It is mid-January and the temple bells have long since fallen silent, but it still feels appropriate to say Shinnen Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu to you all, for 2020 had so many downs alongside the ups that we all need congratulating for having arrived at the new year, although that too has started with some downs of its own.

Join us on Thursday 4 March for a special talk introducing the Soroban (Japanese abacus) and explaining how it can be used as a classroom tool to help children visualise numbers and understand the decimal system, with soroban teacher Tomoko Hoult.