Past Events

26 July 2021

Tokyo: Art & Photography

This beautifully designed book is a celebration of Tokyo: one of the world’s most creative, dynamic and fascinating cities. Visually bold and richly detailed, the publication looks at a city which has undergone constant destruction and renewal over its 400-year history and tells the stories of the people who have made Tokyo so famous with their boundless drive for the new and innovative – from samurai to avantgarde artists today. In this book launch, co-editors Lena Fritsch and Clare Pollard presented selected prints and photographs of the city, and discussed their research.

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15 July 2021

AI and the Ainu Language

AI is becoming ever more relevant in supporting the preservation of endangered languages, including Ainu, because of its capabilities for language transcription, translation, and search/retrieval. In this webinar chaired by Professor Roger K. Moore, Professor Tatsuya Kawahara, a leading researcher at Kyoto University, talked about his latest project developing automatic speech recognition and synthesis technologies to assist the preservation of the Ainu language. He was joined by special guest Sachiko Kibata (92), who shared her thoughts as one of the very few remaining speakers of the Ainu language, and presented some traditional Ainu folklore.

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13 July 2021

Mika Ninagawa in conversation with Dr Lena Fritsch

In this webinar chaired by Lena Fritsch, celebrated Japanese photographer and film director Mika Ninagawa spoke about her art practice, ranging from her iconic photographs of cherry blossoms and goldfish to her recent Utsurundesu series and portraits of Japanese Paralympics athletes. We also explored how she has adjusted her activities as a photographer during the pandemic, her feelings on social distancing and her view of the world today. Ninagawa’s work is currently on view at the Daiwa Foundation (15 June to 30 July 2021) and will soon also be displayed prominently at the Ashmolean Museum, as part of the Tokyo: Art & Photography exhibition.

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22 June 2021

Vaccines and Communication: the Global and Japanese Context listing image

Vaccines and Communication: the Global and Japanese Context

Wherever a new vaccine is introduced, there are always people who oppose it. It is more difficult to understand the benefit of not becoming ill, through vaccination, than the risk of becoming ill through an adverse reaction. But vaccine hesitancy appears in different forms for different vaccines, depending on the social context, and can be influenced by communication strategies. In this webinar, Natasha Loder discussed the status and challenges of the British COVID-19 vaccine communication strategy from a science journalist’s perspective, and Dr Riko Muranaka looked at the situation in Japan, based on two case studies, of cancer-preventing human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines.

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18 June 2021

Japan's Response to COVID-19

Although the impact of the pandemic has been much smaller in Japan than in other industrialised countries, there have still been substantial difficulties with Japan’s COVID-19 response. A third state of emergency has had to be announced in Tokyo, Osaka, and other prefectures to curb transmission. The vaccine roll-out has also been slow compared to other industrialised nations. In this webinar, Dr Hitoshi Oshitani analysed the Japanese response to COVID-19, and its current status and challenges.

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16 June 2021

Modern Human Society as seen by Primatologists

The dramatic transition to virtual interaction in recent times, brought about through advances in information technology and pandemic-necessitated social distancing, indicates a change in the rule of thumb for mankind for millions of years: that society is created through continued physical interactions. In this webinar, we looked at the evolution of human beings and explore modern human societies from the perspective of primate societies. Dr Juichi Yamagiwa talked about the parallels between ape societies and human societies while Dr Karen B. Strier talked about the parallels between New World monkey societies and human societies.

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14 June 2021

Private View: Beauty and Power by Mika Ninagawa

The Private View is a chance to have a first look at the exhibition Beauty and Power by the celebrated photographer and director Mika Ninagawa. Ninagawa was commissioned to take photographs of Japanese para-athletes, capturing their uniqueness, highlighting their power, and revealing their unexpected sides. This exhibition conveys the beauty of their inner strength and their remarkable abilities. Ninagawa brings a new perspective to her images of athletes by integrating them with the visual language of fashion, whether by framing them against her iconic intensified-colour backgrounds or by shooting them in action. By juxtaposing her emblematic studio images with filmic action shots, this exhibition celebrates equality, diversity, and inclusion. She shows that when we accept and embrace uniqueness, our individuality enriches society and makes the world a more fulfilling place.

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1 June 2021

Japanese politics and its challenges under the global pandemic

It has been eight months since the Suga administration took office, and there have already been significant challenges in both domestic and foreign policy, including the government’s management of the pandemic, the vaccination programme and the decision whether to go ahead with the Olympics and Paralympics. The Suga administration has also found it hard to position Japan amid ongoing tensions between the US and China. The lack of transparency in Japan’s system of government has given rise to increasing public discontent. In this webinar chaired by Dr John Nilsson-Wright, Professor Makihara explained what is currently going on in Japanese politics, covering both short-term challenges and fundamental structural issues.

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25 May 2021

Jeremy Thomas – Working with Japanese Film Directors

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.

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20 May 2021

Tokachi Millennium Forest: a Radical Natural Vision

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.

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6 May 2021

Suicide and the COVID-19 pandemic: Trends in Japan and around the world

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.

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27 April 2021

Photography after the Tsunami: Lieko Shiga in conversation with Yasufumi Nakamori

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.

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