The Japan Society Review

By Minoru Kasai and Basil Scott A fascinating book, recommended to anyone, but especially to those interested in reflecting on the complex facets of reconciliation between countries with a history of enmity in the past. The two authors [...] Review by Revd Ikuko Williams

By James Buckler James Buckler’s debut novel follows Alex Malloy who escapes to Japan to get away from the disgrace that he feels as a result of a deeply traumatic family incident involving his outwardly respectable brother over [...] Review by Trevor Skingle

By Hiromi T. Rogers In late August 1619 William Adams, now aged 55, returns to Hirado after a successful trading voyage to Indochina. This book is for the general public in Britain and Japan, as well as for experts. It is highly [...] Review by Nicolas Maclean

Directed by Ogigami Naoko The movie has been well-received at a series of international festivals this year. Using a pioneering story-line, it has also done something contemporary filmmakers overlook: it flatters its audience. Review by Roger Macy

Directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi “It seems likely that Kumakiri will continue to probe the darker corners of society and experience.” The film starts with a mêlée of jump-cuts depicting a very angry man in his thirties who is seen to be drunk [...] Review by Roger Macy

Edited by Timothy Clark Anyone who managed to visit the Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum will find in this volume, with its wealth of colour illustrations and the scholarly essays that accompany them, a valuable reminder [...] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

Performed by Joji Hirota & The London Taiko Drummers Going by the music displayed here, the years of discipline have definitely paid off. Hirota and his team capture a real depth of sound that, for all its natural percussiveness, never feels like it’s pounding its way [...] Review by Laurence Green

By Robert Morton Japan was a small element of Mitford’s life, but his occasional writings on the country reached a wide audience in Britain and helped to fuel the enthusiasm for things Japanese in the 1870s and 1880s. Review by Sir David Warren

Directed by Katabuchi Sunao 72 years after US airforces dropped The Little Boy nuclear bomb, former Ghibli employee Katabuchi Sunao explores this devastating historical event through a wonderfully vivid new story. Adapted from Fumiyo's [...] Review by Poppy Cosyns

Edited by Hugo Read Readers should not be put off by the tittle of this book. ‘All ambition spent’ suggests a disappointed man and a dull life in a far off corner of the globe. In fact the book contains much of interest to historians or [...] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi