Past Events

5 June 2013

Sake Tasting and Japanese Canapés

This event brings together Natsuki Kikuya, independent sake sommelier, and Masa Noguchi, Chef at luxurious Japanese restaurant Zuma, London. They will discuss their respective fields, exploring the attraction of the Japanese traditional drink, and discussing life in the kitchen of a top-class Japanese restaurant. After the talk, there will be tasting of specially selected sake and a demonstration of how to make exquisite ‘tsumami’ (Japanese-style canapés) with ingredients easily found in supermarkets in the UK. Rie Yoshitake will also introduce sake and her organisation Sake Samurai. Yosuke Kawakami from Embassy of Japan in the UK will act as M/C.

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30 May 2013

Butoh Through the Lens

This film screening and talk, which introduced short films about Butoh dance and was presented by Florencia Guerberof, performer and founder of Asian Performing Arts UK. Firstly, she showed her own film recordings ‘Impressions’ featuring Yoshito Ono and ‘Duration’ which reflect her own impressions during her research on Butoh dance in Japan during 2009. The screening continued with the documentary ‘Still Move’ by Marieke Schroeder. The film portrays Japanese dancer and choreographer Saburo Teshigawara who creates a fusion of Butoh principles and postmodern elements. This event aimed to portray a different side of Butoh dance.

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21 May 2013

Energy Security in the Middle East and North Africa

The security of energy supply remains the most important objective of current energy policy in the UK, Japan and for countries across the globe. For this reason, nations often work to reduce their reliance on energy imports. Any disruption of energy supplies as a result of political turmoil and/or terrorism in oil- or gas-producing nations can have serious economic, political and security implications for many countries.

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16 May 2013

A Catalogue of Errors by Chris Wainwright

The late Chris Wainwright worked with semaphore as a semi-obsolete signalling system for a number of years, incorporating it into a series of photographic performances and actions. These works were made at night and sited adjacent to places which had experienced natural disasters or at environmentally fragile sites caused by human intervention and exploitation. Much of the work in the exhibition was made in the Tohoku Region of Japan prior to and after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

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2 May 2013

Excavated Reverberations

Hiraku Suzuki discussed he recent works and the pieces that he is displaying at the Daiwa Foundation Japan House Gallery. The discussant was Dr Simon Kaner, Head of the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures.

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30 April 2013

China and Regional Security: How Should Neighbouring Powers Respond?

China’s continuing enhancement of its international presence is a result both of the country’s growing economic and military strength. Since 2008, China has been increasingly assertive in its approach to territorial issues. 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? This seminar examined these themes and considered them from a neutral British perspective.

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18 April 2013

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

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. Against this backdrop, the LDP won the general election last December, ushering into the limelight again Shinzo Abe 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?’

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9 April 2013

The Ise Shrines: Cyclical Narratives in Architecture

Located in the city of Ise in Mie Prefecture on the eastern coast of Japan, the Ise Shrines are among Shinto’s holiest sites and a place of pilgrimage. The Shinto shrines are dismantled and rebuilt from scratch on an adjacent site to exact specifications every twenty years, in a process called ‘Shikinen Sengu.’ Chiara Hall told the story of the ‘Shikinen Sengu,’ accompanied by her drawings.

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4 April 2013

Life as a Classical Musician in the UK and Japan

This event brought together two professional pianists and writers – one British and one Japanese – to compare notes on life as a classical musician in the two countries. Japanese classical music has traditionally been an elite pastime, but the Japanese enthusiastically adopted Western classical music in the second half of the 19th Century. Since then, the piano has become Japan’s most popular musical instrument. Classical music has deeper roots in the UK, but the environment for musicians is tough in both countries.

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2 April 2013

Haroon Mirza in Conversation with Dr Sook-Kyung Lee: The Daiwa Foundation Art Prize 2012

Haroon Mirza, winner of the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize 2012, had a solo show at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE in Tokyo earlier this year as part of the Prize, exhibiting his installation Falling Rope. In this talk, the artist focused on how his experiences in Japan have inspired his artistic practice. Dr Sook-Kyung Lee acted as discussant, investigating the shifting position of media art in contemporary art history.

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28 March 2013

Shifting Values in Higher Education

In both Japan and the UK, university graduates face intense difficulties finding high-quality employment. In Japan, increasing numbers of young people are classified as ‘freeters’ (people who move frequently between low-paid casual jobs), NEETs (“Not in Education, Employment, or Training”), or hikikomori (young people who have withdrawn from society altogether). In the UK, the trebling of university tuition fees and the associated rise in student indebtedness has added to the pressure for higher education to provide clear routes to employment. But shouldn’t universities also have a broader mission? In difficult economic times, the balance may be shifting.

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