Past Events

18 November 2022

Tokyo Story

Ozu Yasujirō’s Tokyo Story is universally acknowledged as one of the most significant Japanese films ever made, and regularly cited as one of the greatest films of all time in polls of leading critics and filmmakers around the world. Professor Alastair Phillips (University of Warwick), author of a new BFI Film Classic on Tokyo Story, will give an extended illustrated talk on the film. The presentation will combine a close analysis of the film’s key locations with discussion of its representation of Japanese society at a time of great cultural change. He will also situate Tokyo Story within various contemporary critical and industrial contexts and examine the multiple international dimensions of the film’s long after-life.

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1 November 2022

Symbols of Esteem: Courtly Gifts in the British Royal Collection

The royal and imperial families of Britain and Japan have enjoyed a dynamic relationship for over four centuries. Exchanging diplomatic gifts has been central to this interaction, and many of the works of art presented are replete with symbolism. From the 16-petalled imperial chrysanthemum, to cranes, phoenixes and the ‘three-friends-of-winter’ motif, emblems have been carefully selected to express political and personal friendship. This lecture will explore how courtly gift-giving drew on ancient symbols to forge new cultural links. It will examine the role of the Japanese landscape, East Asian mythology and European heraldry in giving visual form to courtly goodwill.

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19 October 2022

Film Screening in Edinburgh - KAMEJIRO: The U.S. Military’s Most Feared Man

Following the end of WWII, Okinawa remained occupied by US military forces for 27 years. Today, the archipelago continues to be one of the world’s largest hubs for US military bases. This military presence has sparked resistance and opposition from Okinawans. Kamejirо̄ Senaga was an opponent of US military control in postwar Okinawa. The US military tried various stratagems to suppress him, but with the support of the Okinawan people, Kamejirо̄ continued to fight. This film paints a picture of Kamejirо̄ and explains the political circumstances of his time, shedding light on the roots of present-day public opinion in Okinawa.

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17 October 2022

KAMEJIRO: The U.S. Military’s Most Feared Man

Following the end of WWII, Okinawa remained occupied by US military forces for 27 years. Today, the archipelago continues to be one of the world’s largest hubs for US military bases. This military presence has sparked resistance and opposition from Okinawans. Kamejirо̄ Senaga was an opponent of US military control in postwar Okinawa. The US military tried various stratagems to suppress him, but with the support of the Okinawan people, Kamejirо̄ continued to fight. This film paints a picture of Kamejirо̄ and explains the political circumstances of his time, shedding light on the roots of present-day public opinion in Okinawa.

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12 October 2022

Thinking out loud by Linda Havenstein

Linda Havenstein is an interdisciplinary artist whose work deals with language, signs and symbols, and how they shape our perceptions of reality. Starting with moving images, she works with installations, sculpture, painting and virtual contents, combining analogue and digital aspects in the same artworks. Her recent focus is on the use of code and encryption in order to distort and change notions of meaning, as well as applying new forms of decryption and decoding to establish new interpretations. In her talk, Havenstein introduced her artistic practice and the approaches she developed while staying in Okinawa and Korea, as well as her collaborative practice with Yuken Teruya.

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11 October 2022

US Military Bases in Okinawa: An Activist’s Response

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from the US to Japan. But even today, Okinawa has one of the heaviest concentrations of US military bases in the world. Okinawa represents 0.6% of Japan’s land area, yet it contains about 70% of all US military bases in the country. As a result, the people of Okinawa are subject to incidents and accidents caused by US troops, noise from US military aircraft, and environmental pollution caused by the bases. In this talk moderated by Dr Ra Mason, Jinshiro Motoyama, an activist who played a leading role in the referendum, talked about his recent activities and the response to them, his current initiatives, main challenges, and hopes for the future of Okinawa.

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6 October 2022

Private View: La Mer by Yuken Teruya

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is pleased to showcase Yuken Teruya’s first UK show, marking the 50th year of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan after the American occupation. Teruya is fascinated by human perceptions of the ever-changing moment. For him, the modest practice of drawing is a mighty tool not only to observe hierarchies, but to rebalance them. Teruya’s work utilises temporary, fragile materials: his cut-out pieces can be described as expanded drawings, but also as delicate sculptures. The sea is a constant presence in the Okinawan landscape and a recurring theme in Teruya’s work. The exhibition La Mer encapsulates Teruya’s perspective: historic and present references to the Okinawan condition, ecological systems within material cultures, and power relationships between countries.

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20 September 2022

What next for UK-Japan cybersecurity cooperation?

In this talk Mihoko Matsubara will share information on Japan’s recent cybersecurity efforts, especially those less well-known in English-speaking countries, in order to facilitate mutual understanding and future UK-Japan cooperation. Japan will soon release an updated version of its National Security Strategy to reflect technological changes as well as heightened tensions in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. With Japan and the UK deepening their security collaboration and sharing increasing amounts of intelligence over the last couple of years, cybersecurity will remain the linchpin of the partnership.

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19 September 2022

EVENT CANCELLED - Dan Snow in conversation with Setsuko Thurlow: The Threat of Nuclear Weapons

77 years ago, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, killing over 140,000 people. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped over the city of Nagasaki. In this webinar moderated by Dan Snow, Setsuko Thurlow, one of the survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, will share her experiences of the bomb and talk about her international activity promoting nuclear disarmament. She will share her message for future generations in the present context of escalating rhetoric, and rising risks that nuclear weapons will be used again.

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15 September 2022

Japan’s Effectiveness as a Geo-Economic Actor: Navigating Great-Power Competition

Geo-economic strategy has long been a key element of statecraft. In recent years, it has acquired even greater salience given the increasing willingness of both China and the United States to wield economic power in their strategic competition. While Japan’s post-war geo-economic performance often failed to match its status as one of the world’s largest economies, more recently Tokyo has demonstrated increased geo-economic agency and effectiveness. In this book, Yuka Koshino and Robert Ward draw on multiple disciplines – including economics, political economy, foreign policy and security policy – and interviews with key policymakers to examine Japan’s geo-economic power.

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14 September 2022

From Hiroshima and Minamata to today Socially engaged practices in post-war Japan

In this talk, Dr Justin Jesty and Namiko Kunimoto will discuss how artists like Iri Maruki and Toshiko Akamatsu and Noriaki Tsuchimoto engaged critically with the realities of post-war Japan and what their works do for us in the present. They acknowledged public fears, vulnerabilities and anxieties about people’s bodies being contaminated by invisible threats, and tried to keep the public focussed on the issues they addressed. This talk will be an occasion for us to consider the work of those artists and connect it to contemporary issues.

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