What's On

Toco Nikaido is a celebrated Japanese theatre director, actress, singer, and choreographer. With her extensive knowledge of Japanese subculture, Nikaido started Banana Gakuen Junjo Otome-gumi (Banana Academy Pure-hearted Girls Group) and moulded her unique creative style that mixes perspectives from her own generation and those of 1960s and 1970s Japanese student movements. In 2013, Banana Gakuen Junjo Otome-gumi disbanded and reformed under the new name Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker. Enthusiastically received by audiences around the world, Nikaido continues to produce theatre with a frenzied combination of dance, music, and video that feature elements from pop, anime, idol live performance, and more.

Celebrating the group’s first performance as part of LIFT (22 June - 2 July 2016), Nikaido will talk about the unprecedented approach applied in her own brand of performance, as well as discuss the formation of her companies, presented in both Banana Gakuen Junjo Otome-gumi, and Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker. This talk will also examine where this unique troupe’s performance style and subject matter fit in the context of the current state of Japanese theatre and Japanese pop culture scene, and explore what the future could bring.

Nikaido will be joined in conversation by Dr Nobuko Anan, Birkbeck, University of London.

The Japan Foundation and Centre Européen d'Etudes Japonaises d'Alsace (CEEJA) are now accepting applications for participation in Japanese Study Seminar: Women and Men (女と男) scheduled for 26th and 27th September, 2016 at CEEJA, in Kientzheim, France. The official language of the seminar will be JAPANESE.

This seminar aims to encourage networking among young researchers in Europe specialising in Japan related topics, and further promote Japanese Studies in Europe.

Participants will join a two-day intensive workshop in the cozy and intimate atmosphere of CEEJA's facility in Kientzheim where they will present and discuss their current research projects with fellow participants and guest mentors from Japan.

The theme of this year’s seminar will be “Women and Men (女と男).”  We are calling for applications from young researchers in Europe specialising in politics, history, sociology, literature, arts, language, philosophy, economics, architecture, religion, etc. 

The deadline for applications is 30 June, 2016.

For further details including eligibility and application procedures, please visit the Japan Foundation Tokyo website here.

The Japan Foundation are once again delighted to be exhibiting this July at the Hyper Japan Festival- the UK’s biggest J-Culture event!

Come and visit our stand to learn how the Japan Foundation, where you can:

• Learn about Japanese language and culture,
• Get information about Japanese language classes
• Take part in our Japan Quiz
• Make a wish on our “Tanabata” bamboo
• Get a free little gift!

For more information about Hyper Japan and to buy a ticket, please click here to visit the official Hyper Japan website. Tickets on sale now!

As part of the Department for Education funded MFL Progress progamme, Howes Primary School will be hosting a TeachMeet on 21st June 2016. The Japan Foundation London will be helping with their Japanese Language enrichment event:

Japanese Language Enrichment Event
1:15 - 3:00 PM (Drop-ins welcome)
Come along and observe the caurosel of Japanese activities which will be run by: the Japanese intern at Howes Primary School, the staff from the Japan Foundation; staff and students from Tile Hill Wood School and Language College, and Japanese trainee teachers from Warwick University.This event will be suitable for teachers who are considering adding Japanese into their curriculum or for those looking for ideas to enrich their language provision.

Main Programme for the rest of the TeachMeet:
4:00 PM 
Arrivals, Resources Fair, Refreshments
Come along and chat to the suppliers at the resources fair and see what they have on offer!
4:30 PM
Teach Meet Presentations
Japan Foundation - Introducing Japanese
Goethe-Instut - German resources for Primary MFL
ICT resources for MFL
6:00 PM
Networking
Resources Fair
Refreshments

For further information about both the Japanese language enrichment event and the TeachMeet, please click here. 

Carden Primary School in Brighton are hosting a Japanese Day, where children and teachers/senior leaders are warmly invited to come along and learn more about the Japanese language, culture and traditions.  Schools are invited to bring along up to 4 students for either a morning or afternoon session to take part in activities such as calligraphy, dance, singing, origami and manga.

Date: 24^th June 2016
Morning session: 9:30 - 12.15.  
Afternoon session: 1:30 - 3:15.

Please RSVP to the school either by email (admin@carden.brighton-hove.sch.uk) or by phone 01273 293677 to confirm your places. 

The Japan Foundation is pleased to support a major new commission by Japanese artist Koki Tanaka held at The Showroom, London, which will be his first solo exhibition in the UK. Tanaka’s project departs from his interest in the local histories of The Showroom’s neighbourhood in Church Street, London. Through a series of communal actions and proposals in the lead up to and during the exhibition, involving a range of contributors, Tanaka suggests a composite approach towards how to read the present through the past, and about how these can be starting points for new social possibilities.

This year’s Japan Foundation-supported Edinburgh Film Festival will feature an exciting selection of Japanese films. In addition to new releases such as Satoko Yokohama’s The Actor and Eiji Uchida’s Lowlife Love, the festival will also be showing two classic Japanese films based on manga as part of the “POW!!! Live Action Comic Strip Adaptations” strand, Golgo 13 directed by Junya Sato (pictured), and Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance directed by Kenji Misumi.

For the full lineup, please visit: www.edfilmfest.org.uk

This year’s London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT), a biennale festival pioneering new forms of theatre and presenting spectacular performances, will present Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker, a performance orchestrated by Tokyo-based artist and pop-idol Toco Nikaido. Featuring choreographed medley of dance, music, bellowed slogans and video clips, and paying homage to otagei (ritualised dancing and chanting by groups of fans), the performance captures Japan's unique subculture in all its multi-coloured, cacophonous, frenetic glory.