JAPAN FOUNDATION WORLDWIDE

The Japan Foundation, Manila in cooperation with Goethe Institute (Germany), Instituto Cervantes (Spain), French Embassy and Italian Embassy, from July 30 to August 8 have organized the 3rd International Silent Film Festival.

Silent Film is accompanied by a live performance of an orchestra, band and other music resources, whereas in Japan a katsudo benshi (motion picture narrators) narrates the lines on the film. The screening of the International Silent Film engaged on the characters seen on the film which served as a cue, and because of the element of a foreign film, it is inserted with English subtitle, serving as a guide to Filipino musicians as they execute their live performance.

Different cultural institutions and embassies from different countries having participated on this film festival counting the 3rd time, have employed chorale group, rock bands and others, being elaborate on their choices of bands to make their film exciting. This year, audience witnessed accompaniment via rap, house music and a DJ. Young crowd swayed their bodies to the rhythm of the rap, to watch black-and-white silent film, in spite of being an alien at a glance yet a combination of skillfully harmonized film and music, the whole place unexplainably gave birth to a mysterious ambiance.

The Japan Foundation, Manila has shown “Jirokichi the Rat” (directed and written by Daisuke Ito, lead actor Denjirou Okochi) adapted from the novel “The Rat”. Kalayo band created such rich atmosphere with their use of Philippine traditional musical instruments to go with the film, that afterwards the film draw loud applause from the jam-packed audience. Also, Mr. Larry Greenberg from Digital Meme, a company responsible for the collection, restoration, digitalization to DVD form of Japanese Silent Films, has been invited for a lecture about the history of Japanese silent film.

With the collaboration from various cultural institutions and embassies for the planning of this event, henceforth an endeavor for continuation and implementation will carry on.

The Province of British Columbia (hereinafter B.C.), situated on Canada’s vast Pacific coast, is the most active region in Canada in terms of Japanese language education. More than half of Canada’s Japanese learners and Japanese language institutions can be found in B.C., and in a Japanese language education survey carried out by the Japan Foundation, it was found that the number of Japanese learners in that province rose from 11,200 in 2003 to 13,321 in 2006, with a concurrent climb in the number of educational institutions offering instruction in the language from 83 to 106. A trend toward an increase in Japanese language education, therefore, can be seen in B.C.

From August 25 through 27, in the Greater Vancouver Area, around 40 teachers from various locations around Vancouver, across B.C., and as far away as Alberta attended the ‘B.C. Japanese Teachers’ Summer Seminar 2009’, geared chiefly toward teachers of the Japanese language in secondary schools, as well as at those teaching the Japanese language to young Japanese Canadians. The seminar was co-hosted by the Japan Foundation and Nihongo BC (headed by Sachiko Renovich), the Province’s association of teachers of the Japanese language.

At this seminar, Mr. Makoto Netsu, a lecturer at the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Urawa, offered wide-ranging workshops on Japanese language instructional methodology based upon his experiences teaching at the Institute. The participants were particularly interested to hear Mr. Netsu’s remarks on instructional methodology focused on reading, as well as his tips for the efficient use of the DVD resource “Erin’s Challenge! I Can Speak Japanese”.

In addition, Ms. Ayumi Nagatomi, a Japanese-Language Education Advisor dispatched by the Japan Foundation to Alberta Education, offered lectures and workshops on themes that would prove helpful to the participant teachers’ actual work in the classroom, such as the use of Internet resources in Japanese language instructional methodology, and so forth.

We invite you to learn more about this seminar online, at the Nihongo BC website: http://sites.google.com/site/nihongobc/

This event marked the first time that the Japan Foundation, Toronto has conducted a 3-day intensive Japanese teachers’ summer seminar in the Vancouver area, and it was very successful. The response from the participant teachers was so enthusiastic that the Japan Foundation, Toronto hopes to hold similar seminars in cooperation with teachers in regions across Canada in the years to come.

Last year, in 2008, the Japan Cultural Institute in Rome hosted many events related to the millennium of the Tale of Genji. This year, under the theme of “Pop Culture”, the Institute is organizing a variety of events to introduce both contemporary and traditional cultures of Japan.

On July 7, the Institute hosted a Japanese culture event entitled “Japanitaly” in the Tiber Island in Rome, in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Italy and other organizers. This event featured presentations of Japanese pop culture, films, foods and sake, and Mr. Taro Aso, Japanese prime minister at that time visiting Italy for G8 summit, attended the event as the guest. In a talk show on fashion, two KAWAII Ambassadors appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote Japanese pop culture appeared in their eye-catching outfits. Also, a cosplay (costume play) show soared spirits of numerous Italian youngsters who have great interests in Japanese pop culture. 

At the Institute, a Futurist chamber music concert was held as a part of the Mediterranean International Festival of Literature and Arts 2009. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Futurist Manifest and many relevant projects are organized in Italy. This concert was a landmark event that introduced Japanese Futurist music to Italian audience. At "Gauche the Cellist" concert, Hikaru Hayashi’s orchestral work based on the story by Kenji Miyazawa was played.

On the other hand, there were events of Japanese traditional cultures, including a lecture on Japanese sake and a sumie (ink painting) exhibition.

At the lecture on Japanese sake, Italian visitors loved tasting of sake from local brewers around Japan. Since Italy is famous for wine and grappa, Italians were very curious about Japanese sake, asking people from the breweries question after question while tasting cups of sake.   

The sumie exhibition showed works by a dozen of Italian students who had been learning at a sumie studio in Rome for years. It proved that Japanese culture has been deeply rooted in this country. In addition, works by fellow Italians seemed to prompt many local visitors to be interested in Japanese cultures.

The Institute’s spring-summer season of 2009 was concluded successfully with Leonard Eto "Blendrums" concert. Taiko drums are quite popular in Italy. The superb rhythm of taiko drums in collaboration with a guitar and tap dancing received a thunderous ovation from the audience.

In the fall season of 2009, the Institute will continue to organize events to let Italian people know the diversity of Japanese cultures, in particular pop culture.