China and Regional Security: How Should Neighbouring Powers Respond?

30 April 2013, 6:00 – 7:45pm

Commitee Room 14, The House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1 2TT

China’s continuing enhancement of its international presence is a result both of the country’s growing economic and military strength and its perception of a weakened US. This is in contrast to Deng’s policy of keeping a low profile, and appears at odds with ongoing talk of harmony and peaceful development. Since 2008, China has been increasingly assertive in its approach to territorial issues, not only with Japan, but also with other neighbouring countries. How are these nations to respond? Are there only two alternatives – counter-action or surrender? What about legal/ diplomatic options, including submitting the case to international arbitration? Can China and its neighbours still build stable and cooperative ‘win-win’ strategic relationships to deal with regional security issues such as North Korean nuclear aggression, boundary questions and navigation and resource rights? Or has the long-standing neglect of a historical problem combined with old disputes and new power configurations now set a course of conflict for the next generation? How do US interests play into these questions? Now that the political and economic focus seems to have shifted to the Asia-Pacific region, the attitudes of China and its neighbouring countries will have implications for Europe too. This seminar will examine these themes and consider them from a neutral British perspective, also addressing how the new leaders of China and Japan are dealing with the growing tensions in the region, and the negative attitudes towards each other fostered by the territorial disputes between them.

Professor Michael Clarke

Professor Michael Clarke is currently the Director General of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Until July 2007, he was Deputy Vice-Principal and Director of Research Development at King’s College London. He was the founding Director of the Centre for Defence Studies and of the International Policy Institute at King’s. He has taught international politics at the Universities of Aberystwyth, Manchester, Newcastle, and the Open University. He has been a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Defence Committee since 1997. In 2004, he was appointed the UK member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. In 2009, he was appointed to the Prime Minister’s National Security Forum and in 2010 to the Chief of Defence Staff’s new Strategic Advisory Group. His recent publications include: The Afghan Papers: Committing Britain to War in Helmand2005-06, London, RUSI/Routledge 2011; ‘Strategic Posture Review: United Kingdom’, World Politics Review, November 2011; ‘Does War Have a Future?’, in Lindley-French and Boyar (eds), The Oxford Handbook of War, Oxford, OUP, 2012.

Professor Barry Buzan

Professor Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Honorary Professor at Copenhagen and Jilin Universities, and a Senior Fellow at LSE Ideas. During 1993 he was a visiting professor at the International University of Japan, and from 1997-98 he was Olof Palme Visiting Professor in Sweden. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the British Academy. Among his books are:Security: A New Framework for Analysis (1998, with Ole Wæver and Jaap de Wilde); International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study of International Relations (2000, with Richard Little);Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security (2003, with Ole Wæver); The Evolution of International Security Studies (2009, with Lene Hansen); and Non-Western International Relations Theory (2010, co-edited with Amitav Acharya).

Sir David Warren

Sir David Warren was British Ambassador to Japan from 2008 to 2012. This followed a career in the Diplomatic Service that focused on East Asian affairs, in which he served three times in the British Embassy in Tokyo (1977-1981; 1993-1998; 2008-2012), and as head of the FCO’s China Hong Kong Department (1998-2000). He was also a member of the team that set up the Government’s business promotion agency, UK Trade and Investment, from 2000 to 2004, and Director of Human Resources for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (and a Board member) 2004-2007. He retired from the Diplomatic Service in January 2013, and has since become a Visiting Professor at Sheffield and De Montfort Universities, and is also Chairman of the Japan Society.

Rod Wye

Rod Wye is currently an Associate Fellow with the Asia Programme at Chatham House and a Senior Fellow in the China Policy Institute atNottingham. He was an analyst specialising in China and East Asia for over thirty years in the Research Analysts of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He also did two postings inChina as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Beijing in 1985-88 and again in 1995-99, and Deputy Head of the China Hong Kong Department in 1999-2002.

Dr Bobo Lo (Chair)

Dr Bobo Lo is an independent scholar and consultant. He was previously Director of the Russia and China Programmes at the Centre for European Reform; Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. Dr Lo writes extensively on Russian and Chinese foreign policy. His books include Russiaand the New World Disorder (Brookings and Chatham House, forthcoming in 2013), Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing and the New Geopolitics (Brookings and Chatham House, 2008). Other recent writings include ‘Kinder, gentler geopolitics’, Caixin Media, 22 January 2013, ‘A 21st century myth – authoritarian modernization in Russia and China’ (with Lilia Shevtsova), Carnegie Moscow Center Report, June 2012; ‘What can we learn from China’s modernisation?’, Diplomaatia,May 2012; ‘The Russia-China-US triangle and its post-Cold War fate’, in Robert E. Bedeski and Niklas Swanstrom (eds), and ‘How the Chinese See Russia’,French Institute of International Relations, Dec 2010.

Can “Abenomics” Lift Japan Out of its 15-Year Deflation?

18 April 2013

6:00 – 7:30pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:30pm

13/14 Cornwall Terrace, London, NW1 4QP

Organised by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

Japan has struggled with chronic deflation since its financial and real estate bubble burst 20 years ago, triggering a severe financial crisis in 1997-1998.  Since then, the Japanese economy has in fact grown in real terms, albeit sluggishly, as a result of extraordinary fiscal and monetary stimuli implemented in response to this crisis. Nonetheless, most Japanese now feel less well-off (unless they travel abroad to take advantage of the strong Yen) and Japanese industrial pre-eminence, especially in electronics, is being challenged by Korean competition. Against this backdrop, the LDP won the general election last December in a landslide, ushering into the limelight again Shinzo Abe (Prime Minister in 2006-7), who has since embarked on a new economic initiative, nicknamed “Abenomics, ” which has pushed equity markets up by more than 30%.  In this seminar the speakers address the question: ‘What is “Abenomics”, and can it achieve its goal of lifting Japan out of deflation?’  They also consider what its side-effects might be domestically, and what the implications could be for other advanced economies, especially the UK and Eurozone, which are experiencing their own prolonged period of economic troubles.

Yosuke Kawakami

Yosuke Kawakami was appointed Minister for Financial Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in July 2010, where he follows developments in UK fiscal, monetary and financial policies as well as in the London financial markets and represents Japanese interests in these areas. He is on secondment from the Japanese Ministry of Finance where he served as Director in the Financial Bureau, the Customs Bureau and the Minister’s Secretariat, as well as Deputy in the International Finance and Banking Bureaus.  He also has extensive overseas experience, having previously served at the IMF, OECD, and at the Embassy of Japan in Moscow in his 30 year career in public service. Since arriving in London, he has kept close watch on the near implosion of the Euro as well as the slow financial recovery and rising tensions in Europe, which has caused him to question the wisdom of the economics and finance professions, and thier ability to learn from past mistakes.

Andrew Smithers

Andrew Smithers started Smithers & Co. Ltd. in 1989 and now the firm provides advice on international asset allocation to more than 100 clients worldwide, covering the economies, stock, bond and currency markets of Japan, the US and major European countries. It is particularly well known for its work on the Japanese economy. Prior to starting his own firm, Andrew was at S.G.Warburg & Co. Ltd. where he ran the investment management business for some years.He read Economics at Cambridge, first visiting Japan in 1968 and living there from 1986 to 1989. He has been a regular contributor to the Nikkei Veritas Market Eye column (until Sept 2011) and to theLondon Evening Standard and Japan’s Sentaku magazine. His publications include: Valuing Wall Street with Stephen Wright, (McGraw-Hill, 2000) and Japan’s Key Challenges for the 21st Centurywith David Asher, published in Japanese by Diamond Press in 1999. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Centre for International Macroeconomics and Finance (CIMF) at Cambridge and a Fellow of CFA (UK).

Edward Carr (Chair)

Edward Carr joined The Economist as a Science Correspondent in 1987. After a series of jobs covering electronics, trade, energy and the environment, he moved to Paris to write about European business. In 2000, after a period as Business Editor, he left for the Financial Times, where he worked most recently as News Editor. He returned to The Economist in 2005 as Britain Editor, and was Business Affairs Editor for several years before taking up his appointment as Foreign Editor in June 2009.

 

Japanese from Scratch: Shodo – An Introduction to Japanese Calligraphy

13 March 2013 from 6.30pm

The Japan Foundation, London

 

Learn the basics of Japanese writing while creating your own calligraphy…

Japanese from Scratch is a Japanese language and culture workshop from the Japan Foundation London, suitable for those who are interested in learning Japanese but haven’t started yet, or those who have just started learning.

This month’s workshop theme is Shodō: An Introduction to Japanese Calligraphy

The course will teach you to:

• Uncover the basics of Japanese writing
• Learn the techniques of Japanese calligraphy
• Create your own beautiful piece of calligraphy

The course will be led by Hiroko Tanaka, Japanese Language Advisor at the Japan Foundation London. Instructions and explanations will be in English.

The course fee is £5.00, which includes all necessary calligraphy materials. This must be paid in cash on the day of the event – we regret that we are unable to accept credit cards or cheques.

Advance booking is essential. This workshop is limited to 20 people.

The deadline to apply is Friday, March 8th 2013.

 

Social Innovation and New Solutions to Youth Unemployment: UK & Japan’s Emerging Youth Policy

12 March 2013

6:00 – 7:30pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:00pm

13-14 Cornwall Terrace (Outer Circle), London, NW14QP

In the UK, young people with low or no qualifications make up 39% of all young people unemployed and not in education, and 47% of those inactive and outside learning, despite only accounting for a quarter of the youth population. Tony Wilson, Policy Director of Inclusion, which delivers research and new approaches to policy that promote social inclusion in the labour market, will talk about the UK’s policy of intervention and provision of training to improve the employability of  British youth. His recent publications include the BIS research paper (Number 101) Youth Unemployment: Review of Training for Young People with Low Qualifications (Dept. for Business Innovation and Skills, February 2013).

From the 1960s onwards, Japan’s rapid economic growth generated internationally low levels of youth unemployment. This changed in the 1990s however, and by the 2000s, youth unemployment was recognised as a serious concern. Japan’s Emerging Youth Policy (Routledge, 2013) is based on extensive fieldwork that draws on both sociological and policy science approaches, and is the first book to investigate in detail how the state, experts, the media, and youth workers have reacted to the rise of youth joblessness in Japan. The book argues that entrepreneurial youth support leaders in Japan can provide sustainable, attractive solutions to the dilemmas that virtually all post-industrial nations currently face but have not yet seriously addressed. Dr Tuukka Toivonen, the author of the book, will discuss Japan’s emerging youth policy and attempt to bring evidence from Japan into a dialogue with the realities in other advanced nations, such as the UK.

Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Dr Tuukka Toivonen is Junior Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Global Communications Centre (GLOCOM), the International University of Japan, Tokyo. He holds a DPhil in Social Policy from the University of Oxford, and is a graduate of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan. He has held visiting positions at the universities of Kobe, Tokyo, Kyoto and Keio. He is a sociologist by training and has published several articles in world-class journals that comparatively analyse policy-making processes, youth problems and social innovations. He is also the co-editor of A Sociology of Japanese Youth: From Returnees to NEETs (Routledge, 2012). Currently, he is carrying out fieldwork on the evolution of social entrepreneurship and related innovation communities in Japan. Alongside his purely academic work, he also engages in social innovation activities himself as the founder and representative of Kansai RISE, which promotes young people’s creative involvement in public improvement and policy-making at regional level.

Tony Wilson

Tony Wilson joined Inclusion as Director in October 2011. He has more than ten years’ experience of policy and research, project management and delivery across a range of roles in HM Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus. Since joining Inclusion, Tony has led on a range of projects including a feasibility study on developing a new employment programme in Northern Ireland, assessing approaches to tackling youth unemployment, the fragmentation of services for young people, and evaluations of programmes to increase employment among inactive groups. Most recently, Tony led on employment policy and delivery at HM Treasury: advising on labour market trends, policy responses to the downturn, delivery of welfare-to-work programmes and benefit reform. Prior to this he was responsible for the design and delivery of a number of Department for Work and Pensions employment projects. These included overseeing the development and introduction of the Future Jobs Fund, which created over 105,000 temporary jobs for long-term unemployed people. He was an expert policy adviser to David Freud on his independent review of welfare-to-work, published in 2007.

Organised by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

BOOKING FORM

Sa-kwa

Korean Film Nights

7pm February 28, 2013

Multi Purpose Hall

Sa-kwa

After seven years, Hyeon-jeong is dumped by Min-Seok. Broken and teetering on the brink of and emotional collapse she dedicates herself to finding a new suitor and to get married as soon as possible. She meets Sang-hoo, an awkward man, who Hyeon-jeong is attracted by his shy demeanour, and makes the conscious decision to marry him-until Min-Seok decides he’s made a mistake and wants to get back together with her.

Factional Politics: How Dominant Parties Implode or Stabilize

5 February 2013

6:00 – 7:30pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:00pm

13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle, London, NW1 4QP

Margaret Thatcher was thrown out of office in 1990 but the British Conservatives still won a fourth term in office in 1992. Academics claimed that the British political system was ‘turning Japanese’. Within a year, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was voted out for the first time in 38 years just as Italy’s Christian Democratic Party (DC) was imploding after four decades of hegemony. The Conservatives’ aura as the natural party of government was shattered in 1997 by Tony Blair’s New Labour but it took another 12 years for Japanese voters to vote out the LDP. Meanwhile, Canada’s Liberal Party had been in charge for some 80 years but came third in a 2011 election. Particular circumstances differed in each country but internal dissent and disorder were common. Particular circumstances differed in each country but internal dissent and disorder were common. In her book, Françoise Boucek explains how this factionalism precipitates the downfall of many political leaders but can also prolong office by containing conflict and hanging onto dissidents. In a survey of the British Conservative Party, the Liberal Party of Canada, the Christian Democratic Party of Italy and the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, Dr Boucek explores this paradox and the potential dangers of factional politics for dominant political parties.

Dr Françoise Boucek

Dr Françoise Boucek is Teaching Fellow in European politics and policy in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London, Visiting Professor at the University of Witten Herdecke (Germany) and Research Associate of the London School of Economics’ (LSE) Public Policy Group. She grew up in France, graduated in business administration (1973) and moved to London and then Canada where she worked as a research analyst for an investment bank. She gained her BA (1988) in political science from the University of Toronto and gained her MSc (1991) and PhD (2002) from the LSE. She was Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Modern History at London Metropolitan University (1991-93) and LSE (1994-97 and 2001-03). She has written widely about political parties, representative democracy and one-party dominance including in Japan and is co-editor of Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons (London: Routledge, 2010).

Professor Kensuke Takayasu

Professer Kensuke Takayasu (discussant) is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Law, Seikei University in Tokyo. He received his BA (1994) and MA (1996) both in political science from Waseda University. He read his doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), gaining his PhD from the University of London in 2003. He became a research fellow at Hokkaido University in 2004, before joining Seikei University as associate professor in 2006. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Department of Government, LSE. Professor Takayasu has written widely on both British and Japanese politics, and has published a book in 2009 titled The Power of Prime Ministers in Japan and Britain – Dynamics of their Relationships with the Governing Party (Tokyo: Sobunsha). His articles appear regularly in Sekai. In 2011, his paper ‘New Conventions Required: Ideas to Re-invigorate Japanese Party Politics’ was published in Asia-Pacific Review (Vol.18 Issue 2), while the website Japan Echo Web (No.7 August-September) carried his article ‘In Need of New Rules of the Game.’

BOOKING FORM

Director Talk: Isshin Inudo

4 February 2013 from 6.30pm

The Japan Foundation, London

Isshin Inudo is a Japanese director with a very colourful career. Renowned for his genre-spanning cinema, Inudo has been engaged with both art-house and larger-scale productions and shifting back and forth between the two, as well as directing a number of television commercials in Japan. Inudo’s films have stretched from films tackling social issues such as coping with disabilities in Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2003), homosexuality in La maison de Himiko (2005), in addition to a number of blockbuster films, including Inudo’s recent co-directed period drama epic The Floating Castle (2012).

Complementing the UK premiere of Inudo’s 1950s-set crime thriller Zero Focus (2009) as part of this year’s Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, Once Upon a Time in Japan, the Japan Foundation has invited Isshin Inudo to introduce his work and filmmaking style in this special talk. With Inudo’s Zero Focus being an adaptation of Seicho Matsumoto’s novel previously imagined in Yoshitaro Nomura’s 1961 film, Inudo will discuss the process constructing his world using an ever-popular source, creating his own interpretation and envisaging a period beyond one’s own experiences. In a discussion to follow, Inudo, joined by James Bell, Features Editor for Sight & Sound, will also talk about the advantages and disadvantages of directing and writing for art-house, mainstream cinema and even television commercials in Japan, regarding a variety of themes and sources, including manga and horror; sources which Inudo is very fond of.

A pair of tickets to the screening of Zero Focus on February 5^th
will be awarded to one lucky guest!

This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email your name and the title of the event you would like to attend to event@jpf.org.uk

sshin Inudo’s film Zero Focus will be screened at the ICA on February 3^rd (Sunday) at 5.00pm and again on February 5th (Tuesday) at 6.10pm, before touring at five further regional venues across the UK.

Art, events and bodies in 1960s Japan Talk by Peter Eckersall

30 January 2013 from 6.30pm, at the Japan Foundation, London

Through public and social events such as the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the 1970 Osaka Expo and the radicalisation of the student protest movement, the 1960s in Japan can be considered an era of embodied cultural acts; events all engaging with experience of the body, whether it be athletics, the crowds who gathered at Expo, and mass rallies that took over the city streets and railway stations.  So too can a relationship with the body be identified in the arts of the 1960s, ranging from its use in stage performance, art events and the fascination with the body in cinema.

From Nagisa Oshima’s films about the protest movement to the Black Flag stage performance art events, Peter Eckersall, Associate Professor of Theatre Studies in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne and Research Fellow at the Centre for Interweaving Performance Cultures, Freie Universität Berlin, will discuss the various connections between the body, politics and action in the 1960s in the broader cultural context and look into how the era can be considered a decade of embodied gestures and events.  This event will give an insight to the state of arts and culture in the 1960s, an era marking a milestone in Japan.

event@jpf.org.uk

 

Education and Social Class in the UK and Japan

29 January 2013

6:00 – 7:30pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:30pm

13/14 Cornwall Terrace (Outer Circle), London NW1 4QP

Organised by Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation

According to UNICEF, 12.1% of children in the UK are living in poverty, while the figure for Japan is 14.9% (Innocenti Report Card 10, May 2012). Since this report was produced, the economic situation has, if anything, deteriorated in both countries.  Inequality and social exclusion have become concerns again, and in a time of austerity for both the government and parents, the role of education needs reconsidering. Can education contribute to better social mobility? Are working-class groups still under-represented in higher education, and if so, why? Although higher education has become more inclusive in both countries in recent decades, if investing in education does not necessarily guarantee a job, then what is the incentive for young people to aspire to go to university? Professor Robert Cassen of LSE will look at social exclusion and education, and at government policies aimed at making life chances more equal, in pre-school, primary and secondary education. Issues of gender and ethnicity will also be explored. Professor Takehiko Kariya of Oxford University will analyse a new educational selection mechanism that has contributed to rising disparity in learning motivations after Japan’s education reforms in the 1990s, and will offer important insights for understanding similar problems in other countries.

Robert Cassen

Robert Cassen is Visiting Professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics. He held his first post at LSE in 1961, and subsequently was a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, and Director of Queen Elizabeth House and Professor of Development Economics at Oxford. He also served on the staff of the UK Department for International Development, the British High Commission in New Delhi, the World Bank, and the Brandt Commission. His books include Does Aid Work? (with associates, Oxford University Press, 1994); with Tim Dyson and Leela Visaria,  21st Century, India: Population, Economy, Human Development and the Environment (Oxford University Press, 2004); and with Geeta Kingdon, Tackling Low Educational Achievement: a Report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2007. In 2008 he received an OBE for services to education. He is currently working on a new book, with Anna Vignoles and Sandra McNally:Making a Difference: What Works in Education and What Doesn’t, to be published by Routledge in 2014.

Takehiko Kariya

Takehiko Kariya is a Professor in the Sociology of Japanese Society, at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford and he is a Faculty Fellow of St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. His research interests include the sociology of education, social stratification, school- to-work transition, educational and social policies, and social changes in postwar Japan. Before he joined Oxford University, he had taught sociology of education at the Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo for 18 years. He is co-editor of Challenges to Japanese Education: Economics, Reforms, and Human Rights (Teachers College Press, 2010), the author of Education Reform and Social Class in Japan (Routledge, 2012) and Japanese Education and Society in Transition: A Sociology of Education Reforms, Opportunities and Mass Education during the Lost Decades (Routledge, forthcoming), and he has published more than 20 books in Japanese.

BOOKING FORM

A Good Lawyer’s Wife

January 31, 2013

Korean Cultural Centre UK

The story involves dancer Eun Ho-jeong (Mun So-Ri), wife of the unfaithful Yeong-jak (Hwang Jeong-min) and mother to a seven-year-old son. She meets a teenage boy and named Shin Ji-un (Bong Tae-gyu) and the two share an intimate friendship despite their age difference. When Ji-un’s father discovers their relationship, he threatens to tell her husband. Meanwhile, her father-in-law (Kim In-mum) dies and her mother-in-law (Yun Yeo-jeong) quickly starts up another relationship. A Good Lawyer’s Wife was screened at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

Winnebago, Carpets, Onsen, Potter by Peter McDonald

Monday to Friday, 9:30am- 5:00pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House, 13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle, London, NW1 4PQ 

Peter McDonald depicts colourful scenes inhabited by people engaged in everyday activities. Images of teachers, artists, hairdressers or carpet sellers are constructed with an elementary graphic language. By making use of archetypes, symbolism and our incorrigible tendency to make the strange seem more familiar, McDonald’s alternative world reads like a parallel universe.

The artist describes the exhibition as a view of his painted universe, showcasing his paintings and works on paper, revealing the influence of everyday experiences upon his practice. For example the diptych, Looking for a Carpet(2009) was based on an experience during a trip to Morocco. Some of the works on paper reflect his stay in Japan during and after his year-long project Visitor, in Kanazawa, whilst the Noh drama series of works were based on his memories of traditional theatre performances and collaborations with the Kanazawa Noh Museum duringVisitor.

Peter McDonald was born in Tokyo in 1973, studying sculpture at Central St. Martins School of Art and painting at the Royal Academy Schools. He has had solo exhibitions at Kate MacGarry, Londonand also at Gallery Side 2, Tokyo, amongst others. He was awarded the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize (2008). Art on the Underground commissioned McDonald to produce Art for Everybody a large scale billboard installation at Southwark station (2009). As artist-in-residence at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2011–12), he worked on a year-long project called Visitor, which included workshops and work-in-progress shows.

United Red Army and the Legacy of Koji Wakamatsu Talk by Jasper Sharp

23 January 2013 from 6.30pm, at the Japan Foundation, London

Koji Wakamatsu, a controversial and iconoclastic filmmaker tragically passed away in October 2012 aged 76. A self-taught director and producer, Wakamatsu produced over 100 films in his career, gaining notoriety for his soft-core ‘pink’ and exploitation films before delving into a more politically-charged cinema. Wakamatsu’s most ambitious and celebrated film is United Red Army, a docu-drama depicting the rise and fall of 1960s left-wing radicalism, will be screened as part of this year’s Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme.

Complementing this screening, Jasper Sharp, writer and film curator, will briefly go through Wakamatsu’s prolific career and contribution to the nation’s cinema. Focusing particularly onUnited Red Army, this talk will look into how Wakamatsu came to make the film about a brutal and bloody history that had almost been forgotten, and how it stands out as the best among the films depicting Japan’s epic historical radicalism activities in the 1960s.

Korean Culture Forum: A Bridge to the Future

Wednesday 30^th Jan 2013, 5PM

Multi-purpose Hall, KCCUK

The Korean Cultural Centre UK is pleased to host a Forum on Korean Culturefeaturing four cultural experts. Each speaker will talk on their specialised cultural sector, the present and future of Korean culture’s presence in the UK and of course the possible future direction of the KCCUK itself.

 

*Guest Speakers and Abstract

The KCCUK – A look back at the first five years

Philip Gowman (Founder and Editor of London Korean Links)

Korean culture in London did not start with the opening of the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) in 2008. But the establishment of a cultural venue at a high profile location with a regular government-funded budget has undoubtedly helped take the presentation of Korean culture in the UK to a new level. Full-time staff can obviously deliver projects that are beyond the reach of voluntary organisations. But going beyond the organisation of events – stressful enough in itself – the KCCUK has been able to build relationships with premier arts organisations in London such as the South Bank Centre and the Institute of Contemporary Arts which has enabled Korean cultural events to be presented at mainstream venues and thus reach a more generalist audience; and a flourishing relationship with London City Hall has enabled the Korean Village to become a central attraction of The Mayor’s Thames Festival. What is surprising though is that, contrary to some expectations, the entry of the Korean government into the promotion of Korean culture has not squeezed out private sector and individual initiatives. This talk will look back at the KCCUK’s achievements in its first five years and consider them alongside some of the complementary private sector projects during that period.

 

The Korean Wave in the British Context

Dr. Hyunsun Yoon (Ph.D. Cardiff University, Senior Lecturer in Advertising, School of Arts and Digital Industries, University of East London)

The flood of the Korean popular culture – films, pop music and especially TV dramas – into the rest of Asia around since the late 1990s became to be known as the Korean wave, and this has also been swiftly making its presence felt in other parts of the world such as Europe. This paper examines the ways in which the Korean wave has been, and is discussed in the mainstream media in the UK for the last decade. Considering the wide range of examples from Old Boy to Gangnam Style,this paper poses a question of whether or not the Korean wave found its way in seemingly impermeable British culture.

 

Korean Art:  A Self Portrait

Jeremy Akerman (Artist and Curator, Co-director of Akermandaly.com)

Adopting the position of an observer I’d like to talk about my experience of art school and how I see art school in the UK working for a Korean art student. I will refer to the visits I’ve made to Korea as a tourist, curator and artist and why I find Korean people’s attitudes to Korea paradoxical and stimulating. Especially here I’d like to mention some Korean artists and an art collection that changed my mind about how I understood the country. A further point is to express the metaphor of self-portraiture within young Korean art and to suggest ways in which KCC can support and engage this vital new work.

 

Connecting UK & Korean Performing Arts

Sioned Hughes (Director, SRH Arts Management, specialises in international professional development of people across the arts and creative industries). 

 I will share the experience of a 2-year research exchange programme for Korean and UK performing arts managers that promoted and supported collaborative exchange between Korean and UK arts producers; developed performing arts professional networks between Korea and the UK and encouraged the development of artistic collaboration.

 

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Anime… : Talk with Hirokatsu Kihara and Michihiko Suwa

The end of the world did not materialise … so I’d like to invite the readers of this Blog to this interesting event.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Anime… : Talk with Hirokatsu Kihara and Michihiko Suwa

29 January 2013 from 6.30pm

The Japan Foundation, London

Japanese animation has enthralled audiences worldwide and through its stories, concepts and visual splendour, the enchantment of the likes of Studio Ghibli and abundance of television series continue to captivate the imaginations of many. But how did such ideas come about, what is it that makes anime so distinct and original, and how has animation developed over the decades to become such a worldwide success?

The Japan Foundation has invited two of the most renowned figures in the industry behind this phenomenon, Hirokatsu Kihara and Michihiko Suwa, to introduce the real world of creating Japanese animation. Through Kihara’s involvement with early Studio Ghibli productions and the current subculture scene and manga, and Suwa’s role as Chief Producer at the Animation department of Yomiuri TV for anime franchises including Detective Conan (aka Case Closed), City Hunter and Inuyasha, they have helped realise a number of world-famous anime television series and movies during their illustrious careers. Despite their differing experiences, productions and working styles, Kihara and Suwa both hold a huge passion, understanding and vision for the medium, expressed through their work and activities.

Having witnessed the Japanese animation industry’s rise to the worldwide phenomenon, Kihara and Suwa will be joined by Helen McCarthy, journalist, author and anime expert, to explore the different sources of anime – both manga adaptations and originally crafted stories – and discuss their position in the Japanese animation industry, suggesting what the future holds for the medium. With Kihara’s experience of the celluloid-era of animation, and Suwa’s experience of its transition to digital, this event will also provide a fascinating insight into the ‘behind the scenes’ of anime production, telling the real story and history around the animated images.

 This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email your name and the title of the event you would like to attend to event@jpf.org.uk

Rolling Home with a Bull

Korean Film Nights

 

6.30 PM, December 20, 2012

Apollo Cinema Piccadilly

 

Formerly known as “How to Travel with a Cow”
A bachelor poet lives in a remote area of Kang-won province. He goes to sell a cow but the price is too low. He gets a call from his former lover, who married his friend seven years ago. His friend has died, and she asks him to come to the funeral. He goes to the funeral with the cow. The man, the girl, and the cow leave on a journey.