JAPAN FOUNDATION WORLDWIDE

From March 26 to April 6, 2010, The 8th Bangkok International Book Fair (BKKIBF) took place at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, and Japan presented itself as the Guest of Honor. Japan Book Publishers Association, Publishers Association for Cultural Exchange, Japan, and The Japan Foundation co-organized this honorable appearance.

The Guests of Honor in the last seven occasions of BKKIBF were China, Korea, ASEAN countries, UK, Taiwan, Germany, and France with Francophone countries. While other major countries of Asia and Europe had already been introduced to Thai, none of Japanese publishers has ever participated as exhibitors at BKKIBF, not to mention the nomination as the Guest of Honor. Throughout these years, the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand, the organizer of BKKIBF, had been eagerly appealing to Japan Book Publishers Association to place Japan as the Guest of Honor but to no avail. In 2010, they finally fulfilled their objective and Japan became the Guest of Honor at the 8th BKKIBF. Japan had already made honorable appearances at several international book fairs: Frankfurt in 1990, Taipei and Paris in 2002, and Seoul in 2009. BKKIBF was the first such occasion for Japan in Southeast Asia.

Guest of Honor’s activities included an exhibition of about 550 books on Humanities at the Japan booth, an exhibition of winners of book design competitions at a special exhibition area. There were also lectures and workshops by Japanese authors, publishers, and artists who were invited to Thailand, including Koji Suzuki, Hideyuki Matsubara (authors); Kyoko Kumagai (Manga artist); Milky Isobe (book designer); and Mariko Kinoshita (calligrapher).
Amazingly, 1.6 million people in total visited BKKIBF in 12 days, exceeding the previous fair’s record of 1.4 million visitors, despite political instability of Thailand caused by anti-government rallies and demonstrations.
According to Japan Book Publishers Association, Korea is the predominant country with the number of translations of Japanese books published, followed by China and Taiwan. Thailand comes in next to these countries with a high level of interest in Japanese publications. We hope that BKKIBF triggered further exchange in publishing between Japan and Thailand.

A year from 2009 to 2010 was the 400th Anniversary of Japan-Mexico Relations, and many relevant events were held. At El Colegio de Mexico (The College of Mexico), a series of events to explore the issues of Nikkei (Japanese descendant) diaspora entitled “The International Symposium for the 400th Anniversary of Mexico-Japan Relations ’Perspectives of Nikkei diaspora: Japan, Mexico and America’” was held.

The symposium started on March 23 with Part I “The methodology of migration research”. As the title suggests, the methodology of studies on the Japanese immigrants and the Nikkei diaspora was reviewed from a wide variety of perspectives including history, anthropology, demography, sociology, gender, ethnicity, communication, and culture, as well as in terms of an interdisciplinary collaboration. The three-part session continued until next afternoon and concluded with a discussion on a prospect of these studies in the future.

It was immediately followed by Part II “The States and Nikkei Community” in which several presentations were made on policies and legislation on Nikkei diaspora and issues in Nikkei communities in North, Central, and South America as well as in Japan today. These presentations revealed the complexity of the issues of Nikkei diaspora, and presenters discussed about these issues at the end of the session.

On March 25, a screening of documentary films entitled “Nikkei Diaspora in Film” took place. Three films on Nikkei immigrants in Mexico and Cuba were presented and panel discussions with directors were held. From March 16 to March 28, a photo exhibition “Pictures of the Nikkei” was also held at the Culture Hall of the Japan-Mexico Association.

This was an epoch-making project because it provided an opportunity for scholars who were engaging and made excellent achievements in researches and activities on Japanese immigrants and Nikkei diaspora in their countries and fields of interests to gather for presentations and discussions. Moreover, it was a rare occasion to review the issues of Nikkei diaspora from a wide range of perspectives including humanities and arts in addition to sociology.

We hope that participants in this project will broaden their network and enhance their studies and activities to contribute to the further development of the studies of Nikkei diaspora.

(c) Hokusei

In November 2009, the French translation of Takiji Kobayashi’s novel “Kanikosen” (The Factory Ship) was published. This is a story that workers on a crab-fishing and canning ship united to stand up to terrible working conditions and seek human rights. This is one of the most famous proletarian literatures in Japan that denounces the capitalism system through the factory ship. The novel published in 1929 was once again under the spotlight in Japan in 2008 because it appealed to many young readers.

On the occasion of publishing French translation of “The Factory Ship,” the Japan Cultural Institute in Paris (Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris: MCJP) hosted a film screening and conference entitled “Takiji Kobayashi’s “The Factory Ship”: Witness to the History, A Symbol of Today” in January 2010. Our aim was to introduce Japanese proletarian literature to the readers in France where this aspect of the history of Japanese literature had received little attention, and to think about the Japanese society today by reviewing reasons why Japanese people were reading with sympathy a novel written 80 years ago.

(c) Hokusei	(c) Hokusei

Prior to the conference, a film “The Factory Ship” directed by So Yamamura in 1953 was shown, so that the audience could visualize the contents of the novel. Professor Teru Shimamura of Ferris University pointed out the difference between the film and the novel, as well as the underlying antiwar ideas in 1950. At the following conference, Jean-Jacques Tschudin (Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris Diderot-Paris 7) explained Takiji Kobayashi’s life, activity, thought, and literary works. Evelyne Lesigne-Audoly, the translator of “The Factory Ship,” depicted that Kobayashi’s style of writing, many metaphors, dialects, and onomatopoeias and a story of the collective hero found in the novel were quite difficult to translate into French. The last presenter was Cecile Sakai (Professor at the University of Paris Diderot-Paris 7) who described social and economic backgrounds of Japan today that evoked sympathy with the novel. The young generation who were called “lost generation” or “working poor” saw “The Factory Ship” as a convincing story, because it depicted a situation similar to their own. She also pointed out that there was also the nostalgia for a time when the political commitment made sense.

On publication of French translation of “The Factory Ship”, many book reviews appeared on French media with reference to the book’s popularity in Japan. Moreover, an opportunity of seeing a film that was rarely shown in France attracted over 230 visitors, and they responded very favorably.

MCJP is a culture complex with an aim to introduce a variety of Japanese culture both traditional and contemporary to people in France. We were very proud to present a project like this because few other organizations could realize an attempt to discuss multi-layered themes including film, novel, translation, modern and contemporary Japan, and literature and society through one novel.