25 May 2021
In this webinar, chaired by film producer Shozo Ichiyama, legendary Oscar-winning auteur and film producer Jeremy Thomas discussed the cultural influences surrounding Japanese cinema and what drew him to work with Japanese directors and actors, and explored creative approaches to scripted projects that break through with international audiences.
Fully bookedMore info20 May 2021
Thirty years ago, Japanese media entrepreneur Mitsushige Hayashi bought 400 hectares of land in the Tokachi region of Hokkaido, with the aim of offsetting the carbon footprint of his newspaper business, Tokachi Mainichi. Ten years later he invited British landscape designer Dan Pearson and Midori Shintani, now Head Gardener at Tokachi Millennium Forest, to help design an ecological public park on the site, with the aim of safeguarding this place for a thousand years. In this talk, chaired by British garden designer and writer Sophie Walker, they discussed the design and development of the forest and gardens, and how a naturalistic strand of European garden and planting design came to find a new natural home in Japan.
Fully bookedMore info6 May 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis with both physical and mental health consequences. There are concerns that it may lead to an increase in suicides. In the first part of this webinar, we discussed global trends in suicides in high-income and upper-to-middle income countries in the early months of the pandemic. The second half of the webinar focused on the case of Japan, which experienced a notable increase in female suicides during the pandemic. We discussed the likely causes of this increase in suicides and the implications for other countries.
Fully bookedMore info27 April 2021
Lieko Shiga is a Japanese photographer based in Misato, Miyagi Prefecture, in North-East Japan, whose work focuses on documenting the lives of local people in her community. On 11 March 2011, the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami destroyed her village of Kitakama, taking the lives of many. After surviving the immediate aftermath, Shiga has recorded local events, capturing the overarching significance of the tragedy, and tracing the transformation of her community. In this webinar chaired by Yasufumi Nakamori, Lieko Shiga spoke about how her art practice and activities became meaningful in capturing and expressing the significance of a devastating event that she experienced directly.
Fully bookedMore info22 April 2021
In this talk, Adrienne Hart, Artistic Director of Neon Dance, discussed the new contemporary dance work ‘Prehension Blooms’ with her collaborator Dr Hemma Philamore from the University of Bristol’s Robotics Lab. The work combines dance with robotics to explore loneliness, companionship, and belonging. The creative duo shared early-stage prototype designs and Professor Takashi Ikegami (University of Tokyo) commented on the project as well as offering an insight into his own cutting-edge research centered on complex systems and artificial life. The speakers ended this webinar by sharing their thoughts on how emerging technologies might influence dance in the future.
Fully bookedMore info16 April 2021
The rise of “fake news” and other forms of misinformation are eroding trust in real news, generating concern in democratic systems worldwide. Fake news has also become an integral part of the political debate and political campaigning. The spread of inaccurate beliefs and misinformation have the potential to undermine democracies and create an atmosphere of uncertainty and confusion. In this webinar, chaired by James Harding, we discussed the current situation in the UK and Japan, the effects of social media on journalism, and the impact of the age of fake news on democracy.
Fully bookedMore info9 April 2021
Gender balance in politics can improve the quality and responsiveness of public policy, increase public trust in government and provide a better reflection of society. Despite the benefits of greater inclusion of women in politics, women in Japan and the UK still face barriers which restrict them from attaining full participation in political life. While the UK has shown significant progress in this regard, female representation in the Japanese Diet is at only 9.9%. This webinar discussed the importance of women in politics, the current situation in the UK and Japan, the barriers and obstacles to female participation, and gave recommendations to deal with them.
Fully bookedMore info31 March 2021
Classical Japan was scene of a great cultural flourishing, an era of literary and artistic output unrivalled anywhere in the world. Women, though living in an otherwise highly oppressive patriarchal society, were just as significant in this literary environment. In this webinar we explored this extraordinary era of women’s writing with reference to the seminal works of Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon: Professor Haruo Shirane posed the question “Why did a woman write the Tale of Genji in the 11th century?”, while Dr Jennifer Guest discussed literary education for women, including how early women writers interacted with Chinese texts, using the Pillow Book as her main example.
Fully bookedMore info26 March 2021
英国人園芸家のコリングウッド・イングラム（1880-1981）は20世紀初めに日本の桜の虜になり、明治・大正・昭和期に3度訪日して桜の穂木を持ち帰り、ケント州の自庭に植えて素晴らしい「桜園」を創りました。最盛期には130種類近くが植樹され、イングラムはそれらを英国や欧米社会に紹介し、広めました。 イングラムにとって一番大切だったのは桜の「多様性」です。ところが日本では当時、伝統の桜が忘れられて多数の品種が絶滅の危機に瀕していました。明治以来の近代化政策によって、人々は多品種を生んだ桜文化を忘れてしまったのです。日本で絶滅した「太白」桜は、イングラムが1932年、日本に里帰りさせ、イングラムは多様な桜を大事にするよう、日本人に警告を発します。しかし、その後日本はクローンの「染井吉野」に席巻され、まっしぐらに軍国主義の道を歩みます。
More info25 March 2021
Since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, Japanese people have started to encounter unfamiliar words and deeds such as ‘volunteering’ and ‘charity’ on the TV news and in magazines and newspapers. Before that disaster, the existence of charity in Japan was rarely noticed, although of course that does not mean that there was no indigenous tradition or practice of charity. Professor Shusaku Kanazawa will talk about the peculiarity of Britain in terms of charity through the lens of some Japanese observers in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Fully bookedMore info23 March 2021
The “invisibility” of poverty in Japanese society has long been one of the reasons for the underestimation of this social issue by the authorities. Nevertheless, data from the OECD reveals that the poverty rate in Japan (15.7% in 2018) is actually higher than that in the UK (11.7%). In this talk, Dr Aya Abe described how Japan “discovered” the problem of child poverty and how social science informed policymakers. Then, Dr David Gordon discussed the UK’s experience of child poverty, its anti-poverty policies, and some of the lessons that have been learned from poverty research.
Fully bookedMore info18 March 2021
Queer cinema has evolved significantly over the past few decades, becoming a new mainstream cinema option, and raising awareness of the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community worldwide. There has been a remarkable increase in the number of queer films produced recently by activists and other related communities. Queer film festivals nowadays play an important role not only in screening non-commercial films but also in supporting the LGBTQ+ community. In this webinar, Professor Karl Schoonover discussed how queer cinema has evolved globally. Dr Yuka Kanno then explored the relationship between activist films and queer communities in Japan.
Fully bookedMore info
