What's On

When the Meiji government came into power in 1868 it recognised the pressing need to produce a credible and reliable currency which would aid the modernisation of Japan. Thus, in 1871 it established the Japan Mint in Osaka where high-quality coins would be produced.   Japan developed its mint by combining traditional Japanese techniques with knowledge acquired through exchange of technology and human resources with the UK.  Upon its establishment, the Japan Mint purchased machinery from the Hong Kong Mint and hired a series of British experts including Thomas Kinder and William Gowland to oversee its operations.  In addition, four of the famous Chōshū Five, who studied at University College London, would at various times become Head of the Japan Mint during its early years.  This exchange with the UK played a central role in the initial development of Japan’s mint but the extent and importance of this exchange is perhaps not widely known.

The Japan Foundation, in collaboration with the Royal Mint Museum, is delighted to present this special public seminar exploring the history of exchange between Japan and the UK in the area of mint.  Yoshiake Shinhara, President of the Japan Mint, will look at the UK's contribution to the establishment of the Japan Mint and the close ties that developed between Japan and the UK in the area of mint in the late 19^th century.  Shinhara will be joined by Graham Dyer OBE FSA from the Royal Mint Museum who will provide a British perspective on these ties, and Dr Helen Wang (Curator of East Asian Coins, British Museum) who will delve into the British Museum's vast collection to introduce some of the coins that were in circulation in Japan and the UK around the time of the Japan Mint's inception. 

Booking:

This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please contact event@jpf.org.uk with your name, details and those of any guests.

Happy Family Plan (2000) is the story of the Kawajiri family. Fujio, the father of the family, is suddenly advised that his job no longer exists due to a company restructure. With no apparent prospects of re-employment for Fujio, the family loses sight of all their hopes and dreams. Until they unexpectedly receive an invitation to be contestants on the popular TV game show "The Happy Family Plan" for the chance to win 3 million yen and make their dreams come true...

In this Japanese Plus course for advanced Japanese language learners, participants can enjoy learning colloquial Japanese by watching the movie Happy Family Plan. The aims of the course are for participants to:

• Recognise different styles of spoken Japanese according to gender, relationships, personality etc.
• Develop language skills in listening, reading and speaking of Japanese.
• Gain confidence and broaden their knowledge of Japanese language, culture and society.

Participants will also receive their own copy of the Happy Family Plan DVD to watch for their own personal study and enjoyment at home.

Essential Course Details:

• Date and Time:  4th June – 26th  June 2013 (4 weeks), Tuesdays or Wednesdays, 18:30 – 20:30
• Payment details: The participation fee for this course is £30.00, which includes a copy of the Happy Family Plan DVD. Payment must be made in person at the first session and cash only will be accepted.  We regret that we cannot refund your fee once payment has been made and the course has begun, except in cases where Japan Foundation cancels the course. 
• Course Leader: Dr Seiji Fukushima, Chief Japanese Language Advisor at the Japan Foundation London.
• Course Level:  This course will be held in Japanese.  It is for non-native Japanese language learners with an advanced level of Japanese (JLPT N2/level 2 and upwards). Learners will be encouraged to engage in lively discussions in Japanese with fellow course participants, and practice interpreting techniques within the class itself. If you are unsure whether or not the course level is suitable for you, please complete a Self-Assessment Test here. Please mark the level test yourself using the answers here. 
• Please note: Content in this course will overlap considerably with the Happy Family Plan Talking Contemporary Japan course held in 2011.

How to Register
To register, please click here to use our online application form.

*The registration form uses Google Forms and is subject to Google's standard terms and conditions of use. Alternatively, you may register by downloading and printing the PDF application form below, completing it by hand and sending it to the Japan Foundation. Your registration will not be considered complete until you have paid the £30.00 course fee in cash on the first day you attend the course.

Click here to book your place

Deadline: May 28th 2013

About Japanese Plus

Japanese Plus is designed for adult learners of Japanese interested in updating and refreshing their knowledge about Japan whilst practising their Japanese language skills in a series of evening classes at the Japan Foundation London. The course is aimed at non-native Japanese language learners with a Japanese level of approx.  JLPT Level 2/N2 and above. For more information and to read about past Japanese Plus courses, please click here.

The Japan Foundation are once again delighted to be exhibiting this July at HYPER JAPAN- the UK’s biggest J-Culture event.

Come and visit our stand to learn how the Japan Foundation can help you get more connected to the Japanese Arts & Culture scene in the UK, learn Japanese language or simply get involved in events and activities related to Japan.

We’ll also be giving away some exclusive free gifts, as well as holding a Japan Quiz with some fantastic prizes!

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

We are delighted to announce that we will shortly be opening for enrolment on our 2013 Refresher Course for Teachers of Japanese!

This will be a free 2.5-day intensive language course for teachers who want to improve their Japanese. It will be open to all non-native speaking teachers of Japanese, as well as teachers and PGCE students who have the chance to offer Japanese in future. 

Intermediate-level Course Dates:   August 19th (10:00-17:00), 20th (10:00-17:00) and 21st (10:00-13:00)
Advanced-level Course Dates:  August 21st (14:00-17:00), 22nd (10:00-17:00), 23rd (10:00-17:00)

We will be open for bookings shortly, so please save the dates!
Click here for more information and reports from previous Refresher Courses

This event is now fully booked. All further applications will be placed on a waiting list.

Bookings now open on the BATJ website

The next British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ) seminar will be held by Toru Sakaida, Senior Japanese Language Advisor at the Japan Foundation Budapest, and will examine methods for studying kanji and kanji vocabulary. It will consist of two parts:

Part 1:  Kanji / Kanji Vocabulary Learning Based on Can-do Statements for Communicative Language Activities in JF Standard for Japanese-Language Education (JF Standard)

For reading and writing activities in Japanese it is important and necessary to master Kanji and Kanji vocabulary. How can Japanese language teachers make an efficient plan for Kanji learning with Can-do statements?

In the first part of the seminar, we will examine what kind of Kanji vocabulary and Kanji characters should be picked out for reading and writing activities based on Can-do Statements for Communicative Language Activities in JF Standard.

Part 2: Excel 3 Steps for Kanji vocabulary – Training method for the accurate understanding of Kanji vocabulary with typing by using Excel

Once students are familiar with how to write Kanji by hand, they should also be able to write compositions correctly even when using a computer. This is perhaps the most desirable goal of Kanji learning, but it requires a lot of time and effort. As it is now commonplace to create Japanese compositions using computers, there should be efficient methods to learn how to use computers when writing Kanji. 

In the second part of the seminar, focusing on the accurate understanding of Kanji vocabulary, Mr. Sakaida will introduce a training method using the RUBI function in Excel. If you own a laptop with Excel installed, please bring it with you, as participants will have the opportunity to try this method for themselves.

Participation fee: £3.00 for both BATJ members and non-members.
This event will be held in Japanese. 

For Japanese language version, further details and speaker biography, please click here

Applications now open on the BATJ website - click here for more details...

This event is now fully booked. All further applications will be placed on a waiting list.

Date:	25 May 2013 from 1.00pm
Venue:	The Japan Foundation London
Download BATJSeminar05-2013-Kanji Vocab

This 8-week online course is for teachers with a basic level of Japanese who would like to build up their language skills. Through the course, you will develop a basic working knowledge of Japanese grammatical structures and build up your confidence and skills in using Japanese effectively in your classroom.  This course is provided by the Japan Foundation Sydney.

Course fee: approx. £90 - £132 (Depending on language level and exchange rate)

Who can sign up?
Any teacher residing in the UK, Australia or New Zealand who has a basic knowledge of Japanese, and can read hiragana and katakana.

What level of Japanese is it suitable for?
Four stages are available. We recommend you take the “level check test” to make sure you choose the best level for you. Stage 1 (the easiest) is suitable for those who know hiragana and katakana.  Stage 4 (the hardest) is about the same level at N5 (old Level 4) of the JLPT.

How does the course work?
Every week a new unit is uploaded. You will work through the unit at your own pace, and then complete your homework by the end of each week. Your homework will be marked and returned to you with helpful advice and comments from our Japanese Language Advisor. 

Feedback from previous participants:

“I have really enjoyed it, the course content is useful as covers all areas of the Japanese language i.e. speaking, listening, reading, writing – lots of writing practice which is a challenge but good practice!”

“I really, really like the Production task, especially as you get some prompt feedback from the Language Advisor. Brilliant!”

Term 2 Dates

Enrolment Dates: Monday 1st April - Wednesday 24th April

Term Dates: Monday 6th May - Sunday 30th June

Term 3 Dates

Enrolment Dates: Monday 10th June - Wednesday 3rd July

Term Dates: Monday 15th July - Sunday 8th September

 For more information, future term dates and to enrol, please go to http://www.jpf.org.au/jbasic

Here's what one of Term 1's participants had to say about this course:

"I liked the pace of the course, and was surprised we learned hiragana and katakana [Japanese writing] so quickly. As it was an introductory course, I felt the balance was right for people who were complete beginners, and self-studying students like myself who had a little bit of language under my belt already." - JP Rutter

• Term 2 Dates: 23rd April 2013 – 25th June 2013 (every Tuesday), 19:00 - 21:00
• Course Leader: Ms Hiroko Tanaka (Term 2), Japanese Language Advisor at the Japan Foundation London
• Course Tutor: Mr Shinichiro Okajima, SOAS Language Centre
• NEW Venue: The Japan Foundation, London
• Course Fee: £250 per term, plus £20 for course textbook and materials 

Please note that applicants who did not attend Term 1 are welcome to apply, but you will need to take an assessment test before you can be accepted on to the course. SOAS will send you more details of this when you apply.

Booking for Term 2 is now closed.

For more information and course timetables please click here to visit the SOAS website.

Date:	23 April 2013 - 25 June 2013 from 7.00pm
Venue:	The Japan Foundation, London
Download JpLanguageCultureCourseFlyer
Download Application Form & Payment (March 2013)

Centre Européen d'Etudes Japonaises d'Alsace (CEEJA) and the Japan Foundation invite applications to participate in ‘Japanese Studies Seminar – Postwar (Sen-go)’, which will take place at CEEJA, in Kientzheim, France on 8 and 9 September, 2013. The official language of the seminar will be JAPANESE.

This seminar aims to encourage networking among young researchers on Japan in Europe and to further promote Japanese Studies in Europe. Participants will join a two-day intensive workshop in the cosy and intimate atmosphere of CEEJA's facility in Kientzheim where they will present and discuss their current research projects in Japanese to fellow post-graduate students as well as a guest mentor from Japan.

The theme of this year’s seminar is “Postwar (Sen-go).” We are calling for applications from young Japanese Studies scholars in Europe specialising in the social sciences, language, or the arts.

The deadline for applications is June 18^th, 2013.

For further information on the seminar including application procedures, please download the document below.

Date:	8 September 2013 - 9 September 2013
Venue:	Centre Européen d'Etudes Japonaises d'Alsace, Kientzheim, France
Download Japanese Studies Seminar_Postwar (Sen-go)

SOAS, University of London, will hold an international symposium on Japanese Modern Art and its History on June 19-20, 2013. The aim is to give insights into the changing boundaries and concepts of Japanese and wider East Asian art in the 19th century. In particular, the symposium aims to review prevailing assumptions such as the caesura between Edo and Meiji, the birth of Modern Art and the Historiography of Japanese Art as a whole, and the fragmentation of Japanese from East Asian Art in the 19th century. Questions of what kind of methodology should be used to re-construct an Asian art history will also be addressed.

For further information including the full programme, please click here to visit the SOAS website.

Cultural Hijack is an exhibition exploring the role of art and the artist in contemporary society, providing an opportunity to rethink the growing field of intervention in relation to cultural activism and social change. Through a survey exhibition, programme of ‘live-interventions’ in which artists ‘agitate and infiltrate’ the urban territory and a number of public programmes, the exhibition address what it means to intervene and insert cultural experiments without warning and consent.

Cultural Hijack also includes work by Tatzu Nishi, pictured above alongside his installation at Bedford Square as part of the exhibition. The installation is no longer on site; however it is now documented and displayed in the gallery space.

For further information, please visit the Architectural Association School of Architecture website.

This year’s Meltdown festival at the Southbank Centre will be curated by Yoko Ono, celebrating her achievements in music, visual arts and activism and coinciding with her 80^th birthday. The festival, now in its 20^th year, will feature performances by a number of artists from around the globe, including Japanese artists and performers such as Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cibo Matto and Ikue Mori. Reflecting Ono’s cross-genre dedication to the arts, the opening will launch an extensive film programme at the BFI Southbank and will open and close with two event-packed weekends as part of the festival.

Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu, the BFI Southbank has programmed a selection of popular and era-defining Nikkatsu films from the 1950s and 1960s.

The season includes films by internationally renowned directors such as Shohei Imamura’s post-war Yokosuka-set Pigs and Battleships and Seijin Suzuki’s cult classic Branded to Kill, and will also showcase a number of films by directors little-known outside of Japan, providing a fascinating insight into the history of Nikkatsu through a variety of styles and genres.

The season begins on 1 June 2013 with Yuzo Kawashima’s Suzaki Paradise: Red Signal and continues throughout the month, with an introduction by season curator Jasper Sharp taking place on 3 June 2013.

The full programme can be found on the BFI Southbank website

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 will be designed by multi award-winning Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Widely acknowledged to be one of the most fascinating and important upcoming architects, Fujimoto is the youngest architect to accept the invitation to design the temporary structure for the Serpentine Gallery.

Fujimoto’s semi-transparent, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles will occupy some 350 square-metres in Kensington Gardens in front of the Serpentine Gallery, and will be a flexible, multi-purpose social space. The structure will include a café inside and will provide a space for visitors to enter and interact with the Pavilion in a number of different ways.