Latest News

What news item struck you most over the past week or two? There has certainly been plenty going on both in Japan and the UK, what with the COP26 United Nations climate negotiations in Glasgow, a Lower House election in Japan which the opposition flunked and from which Prime Minister Kishida came out well and a dramatic U-turn by the British government over the enforcement of Parliamentary standards.

Watch the recording of our webinar when Japan Society chairman Bill Emmott was joined by activist Kimiko Hirata and energy and climate consultant Christopher Huhne to examine the ambitions and actions of the Japanese and UK governments in advance of the Glasgow Climate Change Conference on 31 October 2021.

We are excited to announce the launch of the JAL Foundation 17th World Children’s Haiku Contest on the theme of Towns. The contest is a chance for those aged 15 and under to flex their creative muscles and we invite all young people to send us their original haiku and artwork before Monday 28 February 2022.

Japan Society retained the Collar Cup in a very close fought match with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Hendon Golf Club on Saturday 16 October 2021. The victory came by the narrowest of margins with final scores of 277 and 276 respectively, with conditions taxing after heavy rain.

If you’ll forgive the pun, it has been a noble week for some of the values shared by the UK and Japan. Since I am a long-time Grub Street Hack, as journalists and other writers were termed in 19th-century Britain, it will surprise no one that I was especially delighted to see the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to two brave journalists, battling to hold authoritarian governments to account.

Tsunagu/Connect is a project from New Earth Theatre documenting the lives of dozens of women who were born in Japan but have settled in the UK since 1945. As part of the project New Earth Theatre is creating a short intergenerational film of young people interviewing their Japanese mothers or grandmothers about their lives in Japan and here in the UK and are looking for young people of Japanese heritage (age 8 - 16) to take part.

Watch the recording of our online talk with author and photographer John Lander as he takes us on a journey along the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Watch the recording of our webinar when Japan Society chairman Bill Emmott was joined in conversation by Robert Whiting, author of the recent book Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys... and Baseball.

Choosing the winners for our Yuru-Chara Design Contest was extremely difficult, however, after much careful deliberation, we are delighted to announce the results! We were thrilled to receive entries from children and adults from across the UK, spanning from Cornwall to Orkney, and were blown away by all the impressive and thoughtful designs!

Our friends at New Earth Theatre invite Japan Society members and friends to listen to their first-ever podcast Earth 2 Air dedicated to amplifying and championing stories of East and South East Asians in the UK.