The Japan Society Review

Directed by Yōjirō Takita Okuribito (Departures), winner of the 2009 Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film,” opens with a mesmerising winter scene in the photogenic Shōnai area of Yamagata Prefecture and doesn’t fail to continue impressing, amusing and tugging at the heart strings. Review by Susan Meehan

Directed by Jonathan Man, Performed at the Southwark Playhouse, 19 February 2009 Review by Susan Meehan

By Susumu Nagara Japan Publications Trading Company, 2008, 383 pages Paperback £22.99. ISBN-13: 978-4889962345 Review by Roberta Ignirri

The Business, Life and Letters of Frederick Cornes: Aspects of the Evolution of Commerce in Modern Japan,1861-1910 By Peter N. Davies Global Oriental, 2008, 514 pages including index and appendices, plus a CD of the letters, Hardback £75. ISBN 978-1-905246. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Robert Twigger Phoenix Publications, 1999, 320 pages. Hardback £7.99. ISBN: 9780753808580 Review by William Farr

Directed by Wei Te-Sheng The story features Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, Japan’s surrender in World War II in 1945, a Japanese school teacher’s love for a Taiwanese girl, and his departure from Taiwan. Review by Fumiko Halloran

Directed by Satoshi Miki Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers is an off-beat, urbane comic gem, about loneliness, normality, friendship, and spies, with a magnificent, low-key performance by Juri Ueno, which makes that all somehow work wonderfully. Review by Simon Cotterill

By Andrew Cobbing Global Oriental, 2009, 240 pages. Hardback, £55.00. ISBN-13: 978-1905246182. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Sir Hugh Cortazzi The Japan Society, 2008 ISBN 978-0-9559977-0-9, pp91 – Illus. The Treaty of Yedo, signed by Lord Elgin and the representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate, stands as one of the hallmarks of the long relationship between Japan and Britain. Occurring at a time of great diplomatic and economic dynamism, the treaty presented […]

Edited by Ruth Taplin Routledge, September 2007, 244 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0415428910. Hardback £75 Review by James Brewer