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Watch the video of the tenth in our Webinar Series in which our chairman, Bill Emmott, was joined in discussion by Michael Mainelli, Executive Chairman Z/Yen, and Hiroshi Nakaso, Chairman FinCity Tokyo, as we to the futures of our two national and financial capitals.

If recent events have taught us anything, it is that in these British Isles we are rather nicer to our famous past writers than we are to the historical figures whose statues have been ending up toppled or vandalised.

Watch the video of the ninth in our Webinar Series in which our chairman, Bill Emmott, was joined in discussion by Jun Arima and Nick Butler, as we focused on energy and the possible long-term consequences of the pandemic.

In cricket, that English national sport which arrived in Meiji Japan a good decade before baseball but sadly was superseded, there is a saying called “the commentator’s curse”.

Watch the video of the eighth in our Webinar Series in which our chairman, Bill Emmott, was joined in discussion by Professor Lynda Gratton to discuss the impact of the pandemic on the workplace in both our countries.

There can be no doubt that the pandemic and associated lockdown has at times been a test for our imaginations, although the idea of taking a nearly 60-mile drive to test your eyesight did rather take the imaginative biscuit this week.

Watch the video of the seventh in our Webinar Series in which our chairman, Bill Emmott, was joined in discussion by Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies at Kings College London, and Akio Takahara, Professor of contemporary Chinese politics and diplomacy at the University of Tokyo.

China’s rising role in the world and America’s decline is one of those seemingly accelerated forces. Another is the changing nature of work, towards remote working and management-by-video-conference.

Watch the video of the sixth in our Webinar Series in which Japan Society chairman, Bill Emmott, was joined in discussion by Dr Kiyoshi Kurokawa, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, and Peter Piot, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

One enjoyable memory from my time when posted to Tokyo is of a weekend visit in what I think must have been 1985 to Ito-shi, out on the Izu peninsula, for the Anjin Festival.