The Japan Foundation, London Office
Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London WC1B 5EH
Tel: 020-7436-6695
Fax: 020-7323-4888
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The
Japan Foundation is associated with Japan-UK 150, celebrating 150
years of relations between Japan and the UK. |
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The Japan Foundation Touring Exhibition: out of the ordinary/extraordinary: japanese contemporary photography
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Takano Ryudai, Long hair nesting on pink cloth, from the series "In My Room", 2002
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Following its success and popularity in 2006, The Japan Foundation touring exhibition out of the ordinary/extraordinary will once again visit several venues across the UK during 2009. Featuring 11 Japanese artists, mostly from the younger generation, out of the ordinary extraordinary questions things in the world accepted as ‘obvious’ and reconstructs their meaning by reassessing the ‘relationship’ between the artists and the diverse elements of our ever-changing world. The exhibition includes pregnant men posing in a fertility clinic, strangers photographed from outside the windows of their homes and a young woman dressing up in various teenage fashion trends to explore the superficial concept of “youth”; all providing a fascinating take on society as captured through the lens.
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Date:
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24 January 2009 - 8 May 2010
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Venue:
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Various nationwide (see below)
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24 January to 28 March 2009 - Oldham Gallery, Oldham.
16 April to 23 May 2009 - Millais Gallery, Southampton.
30 June to 26 August 2009 - Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Rugby.
5 September to 17 October 2009 - Oriel Wrecsam, Wrexham.
19 March to 8 May 2010 - The Civic, Barnsley.
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Japan Webpage Contest for Schools
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Enter the Japan Webpage Contest for Schools and win up to £1,000 worth of prizes for your school!
We know that many schools are teaching Japanese or doing other projects about Japan, and we want to hear more about it.
Open to:
Any UK primary or secondary school that is teaching Japanese or doing any kind of project related to Japan. Your school does not need to be teaching Japanese to enter.
To enter:
- Make a webpage about the work that your school is doing with Japanese or Japan.
- This can be a blog, wiki, or a page on your school’s website.
- You can enter an existing webpage or create a new webpage from scratch.
- It can be made by just one teacher, or by teachers and students working together.
The contest is supported by ALL, the British Council, CILT, the Embassy of Japan, the Consulate-General of Japan in Edinburgh, and the Japan Society.
Visit the contest website for full details:
www.japanwebpagecontest.org.uk
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Girls on Film: Females in Contemporary Japanese Cinema Preview Talk by Jasper Sharp
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Kamome Diner (Kamome Shokudo) Dir: Naoko Ogigami, 2006
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Before the 2010 Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme Girls on Film kicks off around the UK, the Japan Foundation has invited programme advisor Jasper Sharp to give a talk about this year’s programme. In this event, as well as introducing the six directors and films included in this year’s schedule, Jasper will discuss the importance and relevance of the theme of cinema featuring, and made for and by, women in Japan,
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Date:
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4 February 2010 - 4 February 2010 from 6.30pm
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Venue:
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The Japan Foundation, London
Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London
WC1B 5EH
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This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email event@jpf.org.uk giving your name and those of any guests, as well as the title of the event you would like to attend.
For further details and to view the full line-up of the 2010 Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, please click here.
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Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme Girls on Film: Females in Contemporary Japanese Cinema
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The Japan Foundation’s 2010 touring film programme looks at contemporary Japanese cinema made about and, in some cases, by women. Touring to five venues during February and March, the programme is composed of works from the past few years and showcases how Japanese contemporary filmmakers, from the very established, such as the late Jun Ichikawa, to young and promising filmmakers, like Satoko Yokohama, approach the issues facing women and adolescents. This season also includes works by female directors, reflecting the exciting trend of a marked increase in the number of female directors working in the Japanese film industry. This is a unique collection of films not to be missed!
Film line-up:

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Date:
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9 February 2010 - 21 March 2010
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Venue:
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Various nationwide, see below
9 to 17 February – <a href=\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"http://www.ica.org.uk/Girls%20on%20Film%3A%20Women%20in%20Contemporary%20Japanese%20Cinema+23562.twl\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\">ICA, London</a>
22 February to 4 March - Showroom, Sheffield (Except German plus Rain)
5 to 9 March - Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast (Except Non-ko)
10 to 14 March - Filmhouse, Edinburgh
13 to 21 March - Arnolfini, Bristol
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Calling for evaluators:
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to act as an evaluator in London and Sheffield, all places are now full for screenings at the ICA and Showroom.
We still require a few individuals to act as evaluators of this year’s touring film season in Belfast, Edinburgh and Bristol. In exchange for a complimentary ticket, you will need to attend two screenings and answer an extended questionnaire giving your opinions on the season and films you have seen. If you are interested in acting as an evaluator, please email info@jpf.org.uk, telling us your full name and which is your closest venue.
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StepOutNet Training Day
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This event is a chance for StepOutNet volunteers to receive new ideas for classroom activities, hear about recent visits to schools and network with other teachers of Japanese.
Click on the attachment below for more information and an application form.
If you would like to become a StepOutNet volunteer, please click here.
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Date:
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9 February 2010 - 9 February 2010 from 12.30pm
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Venue:
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Japan Foundation London Language Centre
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Download additional info.
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CHIKARA Workshop for GCSE Japanese
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This event is aimed at teachers of GCSE Japanese and the workshop will focus on the CHIKARA resources for GCSE Japanese. The aims of the workshop are to help you improve your skills in making new resources and to give you an insight into how the GCSE in Japanese is changing.
One workshop will be held in Japanese on 18th February and another will be held in English on 19th February. The content will be almost the same on each day, so there is no need to attend both.
Click on the link below for more information and an application form.
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Date:
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18 February 2010 - 19 February 2010 from 10.00am
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Venue:
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Japan Foundation London Language Centre
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Download additional info.
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Japanese Music and Composers Series: Sound and Musical Instruments Depicted in Ukiyo-e
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Children Playing at a Festival by Kikukawa Eizan © Ota Memorial Museum of Art
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Japan has always abounded with a multitude of interesting and colourful sounds, with Japanese musical instruments also being rich in their variety of shapes and timbres. These qualities, and a rich sensibility for sound, have led to a unique musical culture in Japan. In the culmination of our Japanese Music and Composers series, the Japan Foundation has invited Kiyoko Motegi, Musicological Professor of Ariake College of Education and the Arts, to take part in two special events.
In the first of two lectures by Prof. Kiyoko Motegi here at the Japan Foundation, she looks at the relationship between ukiyo-e and musical instruments. Japanese musical instruments have often been included in Ukiyo-e prints, some of which have come to serve as very valuable and interesting sources documenting Japanese sound and some lost aspects of its culture. In this lecture, Prof Motegi will guide us through the world of sound as experienced by Japanese people of the Edo period and unearthed by looking at Ukiyo-e.
Introduced by Prof. Timon Screech, Department of Art and Archaeology, SOAS
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Date:
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23 February 2010 - 23 February 2010 from 6.30pm
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Venue:
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The Japan Foundation, London
Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London
WC1B 5EH
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This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email event@jpf.org.uk giving your name and those of any guests, as well as the title of the event you would like to attend.
For details of Prof. Motegi's second lecture Unexpected Gems - Exploring the Sources of Japanese Sound Culture, please click here.
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Japanese Music and Composers Series: Unexpected Gems - Exploring the Sources of Japanese Sound Culture
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Examples of small sound objects
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In the second of two lectures by Prof Kiyoko Motegi, she will discuss the sounds which form the roots of Japanese music and Japan’s versatile sound culture, with special attention to sound sources such as toys and other everyday objects. She will also touch upon the accounts of everyday sounds and musical instruments collected by Edward S. Morse during the 19th century in Japan. Prof Motegi will bring some examples of sound objects from her collection for the audience to see and try.
Introduced by Dr David Hughes, Research Associate, Department of Music and Japan Research Centre, SOAS
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Date:
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24 February 2010 - 24 February 2010 from 6.30pm
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Venue:
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The Japan Foundation, London
Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London
WC1B 5EH
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This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email event@jpf.org.uk giving your name and those of any guests, as well as the title of the event you would like to attend.
For details of Prof. Motegi's first lecture Sound and Musical Instruments Depicted in Ukiyo-e, please click here.
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Fifth Japanese Speech Contest for University Students
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This event, co-organised by the Japan Foundation and BATJ, provides an opportunity for students of Japanese to demonstrate their high level of spoken Japanese acquired in Japanese courses at higher education institutions in the UK and Ireland.
The contest will be held at SOAS on 27th February 2010.
There are two categories for the speeches and also a new category this year for group presentations.
The application deadline has now passed but the event is open to the public so please come along to watch.
Click on the attachments below for further information.
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Date:
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27 February 2010 - 27 February 2010
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Venue:
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Khalili Theatre, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
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Download additional info.
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Japanese Music and Composers Series: Taishogoto - Introduction & Workshop by Akane Suenobu
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Taishogoto
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Taishogoto is a relatively new instrument invented in Japan during the Taisho period (1912-1926). A zither-type instrument, it is very easy to play, especially in contrast to the traditional Koto, and has rapidly become very popular in Japanese homes.
As part of our Japanese Music and Composers series, the Japan Foundation has invited Taishogoto master, Akane Suenobu to demonstrate the mechanism of this unique instrument and give a brief introduction to how to play it, before allowing participants to try for themselves.
No previous musical knowledge is required to take part in this event and it promises to be a fun and memorable experience.
This event is available to a maximum of 20 participants.
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Date:
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1 March 2010 - 1 March 2010 from 6.30pm
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Venue:
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The Japan Foundation, London
Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London
WC1B 5EH
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This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email event@jpf.org.uk giving your name and the title of the event you would like to attend.
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Talking Contemporary Japan
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‘Talking Contemporary Japan’ is a series of evening classes designed for adult learners interested in updating and refreshing their knowledge about Japan whilst practising their Japanese language skills. Classes are conducted in Japanese and participants should have Japanese language ability equivalent to JLPT level 2 or above.
Applications are now open for the next Talking Contemporary Japan course, entitled Getting down to business! - Language and etiquette in Japanese Society'.
The course comprises 4 evening sessions between 2nd and 25th March. Participants can attend the course on either Tuesdays or Thursdays (content is the same on both days).
Please click on the attachment below for more information and an application form.
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Date:
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2 March 2010 - 25 March 2010 from 6.30pm
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Venue:
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Japan Foundation London Language Centre, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5EH
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Download additional info.
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Cultural Heritage? in East Asia Conference
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This one-day conference to be held at University College London will be open to the public, following on from an academic workshop the previous day at the University of East Anglia. Consisting of 10 presentations of position papers in the morning, followed by general discussion in the afternoon, the conference will be addressing questions such as 'What aspects of cultural heritage in China, Japan and Korea are explored in current public discussions?' and 'Is there any distinctive characteristic in the cultural heritage of East Asia?'. There will be an expert panel of speakers from Universities in Asia and the US as well as from the UK and Europe.
This event is co-sponsored by The Japan Foundation along with theSainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures and the International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology, as well as supported by the UCL Institute for Archaeology and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Date:
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13 March 2010 - 13 March 2010 from 9.00am
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Venue:
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UCL Institute of Archaeology, G6 Lecture Theatre
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This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email event@jpf.org.uk giving your name and the title of the event you would like to attend.
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Head Start 2010
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'Head Start' is a free one-day course on introducing Japanese at your school, plus a Japanese language taster.
The event is aimed at secondary heads of MFL, primary language coordinators, senior managers from schools and local authority language advisors.
Please click on the attachment below for more information. An application form and programme will be available soon.
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Date:
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17 March 2010 - 17 March 2010 from 10.00am
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Venue:
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Japan Foundation London Language Centre, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5EH
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Japan Foundation Award Celebration Lecture by Professor Arthur Stockwin: Does changing the government mean changing the system? Reflections on Japan's new politics.
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Professor Arthur Stockwin
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Celebrating his receipt of The Japan Foundation Award for Japanese Studies & Intellectual Exchange, Professor Arthur Stockwin will give a lecture looking at the performance and implications of the new Democratic Party Government in Japan.
As the founding Director of the Nissan Institute for Japanese Studies and Fellow of St Antony’s College at Oxford University, Professor Stockwin has made a great contribution to the field of Japanese Studies in this country, through his writing on modern Japanese politics and promotion of intellectual exchange between the UK and Japan.
This event is co-hosted by The Japan Foundation and The Embassy of Japan.
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Date:
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18 March 2010 - 18 March 2010 from 6.30pm
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Venue:
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The Embassy of Japan, London
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This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email event@jpf.org.uk by the 17th March, giving your name and the title of the event you would like to attend. You will be asked to present a print-out of an invitation, which will be sent to you upon registering, along with photographic identification upon entry to the Embassy of Japan.
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Hiroshi Suzuki – Silver Waves
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Dual-Rivulet VIII, 2006 – hammer-raised, double-skinned Britannia silver vessel
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This new exhibition of stunning silver vessels celebrates the remarkable career of contemporary silversmith Hiroshi Suzuki, with the title Silver Waves referring to the many waves, creases, rivulets, ripples and curves in the silver that are so synonymous with Hiroshi’s work. In the ten years since graduating Hiroshi has taken the silversmithing world by storm and his rise to prominence has been as remarkable as his extraordinary hand-raised silver vessels. Avidly collected, he now has works in 27 major public collections across the globe including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London – a testimony to the high esteem in which his work is considered. The range of Hiroshi’s work included in this exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall gives clear visual evidence of his development as a silversmith.
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Date:
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8 February 2010 - 6 March 2010
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Venue:
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Goldsmiths' Hall,
Foster Lane,
London EC2V 6BN
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For more information, please click here.
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The Gift from Beate: Film Screening & Panel Discussion
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Ms Beate Sirota Gordon, who drafted Article 24 of the postwar Japanese Constitution establishing the basis for equality of the sexes in Japan, will be present for this screening of the film The Gift from Beate, by the director Tomoko Fujiwara. Ms Sirota Gordon will take part in a panel discussion to follow the film.
This event has been organised in association with the London Branch of Tsuda College Alumni, is sponsored by The Japan Foundation and the GB-Sasakawa Foundation, and supported by The Embassy of Japan.
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Date:
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9 March 2010 - 9 March 2010 from 6.30pm
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Venue:
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Khalili Lecture Theatre
Basement, Main Building, SOAS, Russell Square
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For more information, please click here.
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The event is free but registration is required.
Contact: Centres and Programmes (REO) events@soas.ac.uk or 020 7898 4892/3
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