The Activities of the Japan Foundation

Yokai Parade: Supernatural Monsters from Japan Exhibition

The Japan Cultural Institute in Rome presented a new international traveling exhibition that was produced under the supervision of YUMOTO Koichi, Director Emeritus of the Yumoto Koichi Memorial JAPAN YOKAI MUSEUM. Although preventive measures against COVID-19 were still in place, the exhibition attracted wide media attention, and a large number of visitors of all ages enjoyed the mysterious world of yokai (Japanese folkloric imaginary monsters) which evolved over time. To make the exhibition more accessible from other parts of Italy, the Institute produced an introductory video in Italian with Mr. YUMOTO's explanation, available on the Institute’s YouTube channel.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiSOiLWAeHQ&t=1s

MIYAZAWA Kenji Month

As part of the activities marking 160 years of Japanese-German Friendship, twelve multidisciplinary events, including in the fields of Arts and Culture, Japanese-Language Education and Japanese Studies, were held in close proximity in March under the title of "MIYAWAZA Kenji Month" introducing the charm of the world of MIYAZAWA's literature in Germany where it is not yet well known. The events included readings, cello concerts, Japanese Studies lectures, workshops and translation seminars about original onomatopoeia, and film screenings based on MIYAZAWA's works such as Gauche the Cellist, Yamanashi and Night on the Galactic Railroad.

Grendizer Retrospective Exhibition

UFO Robo Grendizer, a TV anime based on a work by NAGAI Go, was broadcast in France in the late 1970s under the name Goldorak and became exceptionally popular. The Goldorak-XperienZ: 1975-2021 Retrospective exhibition organized in autumn 2021 featured exhibits of the production process and figurines. It was packed with people from the broadcast generation with their children and the event was so popular that long lines formed on the weekends before the venue opened, with many people visiting who were normally not familiar with Japanese culture.

Online Kokeshi Painting Workshop

As a planned event related to the NINGYO: Art and Beauty of Japanese Dolls international traveling exhibition, we held a kokeshi (Japanese wooden doll) painting workshop co-organized with Miyagi Prefecture where we connected a kokeshi craftsman in Miyagi with the venue in South Korea over the internet. Many of the participants expressed the desire to visit the actual workshop once the coronavirus crisis was over.
It was a meaningful opportunity that deepened understanding of Japanese doll culture and craftsmanship culture through a cultural exchange at the grassroots level while also increasing interest in visiting Japan.

FY2021 National Secondary Education Japanese-Language Teacher’s Conference

Together with the People's Education Press, an affiliate of the Ministry of Education in China, we organized an online training event for Japanese-language teachers at the secondary level school in China. To cope with needs in the field as a result of a rapid increase in the number of students selecting Japanese in the National College Entrance Examination in China (Gaokao), the latest trends in education policies were shared, information about new teaching materials and activities was exchanged, and teachers were also able to network with each other. 1,769 persons completed the training. There were about 7,000 viewers of the stream, and the videos were accessed over 40,000 times.

Online Illustration Class

In collaboration with Wacom Indonesia, we invited illustrator and YouTuber SAITO Naoki to give a lecture on digital illustration over YouTube Live. Mr. SAITO held an illustration correction class using one artwork selected from over 400 entries submitted by the Indonesian public. Following the lecture, a Q&A session was held with more than 1,600 live viewers.

Leader Japanese-Language Teacher Training in Secondary Education

We organized training in Bangkok to kick off the "Leader Japanese-Language Teacher Training Project," a project co-hosted with Thailand's Ministry of Education, and 14 Thai Japanese-language teachers from junior and senior high schools around Thailand participated. For the next two years, they will participate in a program intended to nurture them into leader teachers. Due to the effects of the spread of COVID-19, opportunities for teachers to meet directly had greatly reduced, so the real-life discussions were very lively and generated many attractive teaching plans.

SULONG (Moving Forward)

We address themes that respect diversity through a variety of activities. The Philippines is said to be a country with a society that has historically accepted many different cultures and is open to LGBTQ and persons with disabilities. SULONG (Moving Forward) is a short film planned and produced by the Japan Foundation, Manila, about three Filipino athletes who participated in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Through the legacy of this competition, we are sending a message encouraging the creation of an inclusive society via the visuals of the athletes overcoming disability and succeeding.

The Look East Policy 40th Anniversary Event: Min'yo - Music Concert of Japanese Folk Songs

In 2022, the Malaysian Government’s Look East Policy, which has contributed to strengthening bilateral ties between Malaysia and Japan, marked its 40th year. As the opening event to celebrate the anniversary year, in March the Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur, invited KUMAGAI Daisuke (percussionist) to serve as musical director and held a concert of Min’yo, Japanese folk songs, arranged in a modern style with Alena Murang, a player of a Malaysian folk music instrument known as Sape', as the guest musician. It was the first concert in Malaysia with performers invited from overseas since the COVID-19 pandemic, so it attracted a lot of attention and was wellreceived by the audience.

Tanabata Event Wishing for Peace for the People of Myanmar

Since the political turmoil in Myanmar, the whole country has been in a state of unrest, and for a while it was impossible for us to hold events even online. In those circumstances, to coincide with the Tanabata festival in Japan, we had people in Myanmar write their thoughts and wishes on tanzaku (rectangular strips of paper), which were hung on bamboo, and we released a video on YouTube showing a management specialist who had returned to Japan after evacuation offering the bamboo at a shrine in Japan. We also received a strong response when we held an online workshop introducing the story of Tanabata and making origami decorations for Tanabata.

Thinking about Life and Peace through Online Kamishibai

An online storytelling event of kamishibai, a storytelling drama of Small Voices (Chitchai Koe) was organized by the Japan Foundation New Delhi, together with the Bookaroo Trust on August 6th. American-born poet Arthur Binard created the kamishibai, based on Genbaku no zu (The Hiroshima Panels) pictures drawn by MARUKI Toshi and Iri, which depict the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
At the event, kamishibai was performed with a Hindi translation for about 700 children participating from various regions of India, followed by Mr. Binard's speech about the tragedy in Hiroshima and his thoughts behind making this work. The program provided the children with an opportunity to think about life, environment and peace.

Japan-Australia Independent Animation Exhibition

The Continuum exhibition was held between February and July 2022. Curated by YANO Honami and Deborah Szapiro and supervised by YAMAMURA Koji, the exhibition showcased animated works from 15 independent creators in Japan and Australia. The delicate, complex and beautiful stories from both countries challenged observers to think about the importance of regaining a sense of connection between fellow humans and between humans and the world in a highly divided modern era.

Introducing OverDrive, the Digital Library Service

In order to maintain safe and continuous library services, we launched a digital library service (OverDrive, Inc.) in 2021. By providing an online environment for accessing Japan-related e-books and audiobooks, people across Canada can now access information about Japan. In FY2022, we expanded the digital library to the U.S., with JF's three North American offices (New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto) now jointly operating the library.
*https://jf.overdrive.com/

50th and 20th Anniversary Events in the U.S.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Japan Foundation, JFNY organized a variety of events at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference in Hawaii in March 2022, including a Japanese Studies symposium, a roundtable, and a reception. Japanese Studies scholars from across the U.S. and around the world attended. In addition, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Japan Outreach Initiative (JOI) Program, we held a symposium in Tennessee in October 2021 where we reviewed past results and future prospects with coordinators and hosts from across the country.

Over 500 Children at Elementary Schools in San Diego County Start Learning Japanese

The first Japanese-language program ever in the city of Poway, San Diego County, was launched at two of its elementary schools simultaneously, and a little over 500 students at both schools have since started learning Japanese. The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, provided comprehensive support through a financial grant, as well as valuable information from the conceptual stages to actual implementation in collaboration with the local school district, sister-city associations and the diplomatic mission. A Japanese-language program will be established in the school district’s junior high schools as well starting in FY2022, thereby creating a long-term, continuous Japaneselanguage learning environment.

Special Japan Event to Celebrate 200 Years of Mexico's Independence

On the occasion of Mexico's 200th anniversary of independence, Japan was a specially invited country in the state of Aguascalientes, where we held various kinds of Japanese culture events. Despite the restrictions put in place because of COVID-19, the Japan Foundation, Mexico, was able to organize a variety of face-to-face activities such as a kamishibai performance depicting relations between Japan and Mexico, Japanese-language mini-lessons, a Japanese music workshop, film screenings and PR booth exhibits. The venue was bustling day after day at the first large-scale event in a long time, showing the unique appeal of in-person cultural exchanges.

Irodori Portuguese Version Created × Languages Without Borders

To accompany the release of the Portuguese version of Irodori: Japanese for Life in Japan (Starter (A1), Elementary 1, Elementary 2 (A2)), we made it available for free on the internet from March 2022. It was immediately adopted for use by the Languages Without Borders Program, a Japaneselanguage course launched in 2016 and implemented at five federal universities in Brazil and met a very warm welcome from the almost 260 students. Apart from Brazil, it is also being used in Japanese-language education for Brazilians living in Japan and in other Portuguese-speaking countries such as Angola.
*https://fjsp.org.br/irodori/

The Largest Japanese Touring Film Programme in the UK Returns to the Silver Screen

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme returned to the silver screen in 27 cities in the UK. The programme showed excellent and much talked-about films such as Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction and Life: Untitled. Many members of the audience were thrilled at the sights and sounds of the big screen for the first time in a long while. The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for guests to visit the UK, but we played special messages from directors before the films. We also hosted an online conversation between WAJIMA Kotaro, director of The Lone Ume Tree, and a British journalist, which provided a platform for considering the universal issue of autism through the medium of film.

Boom En España Japanese Film

“There is a long queue all the way to Calle de Alcalá...” That was the scene when the Director NARUSE Mikio Special Feature organized in the major cities of Spain was held in Madrid. We directly experienced the excitement for Japanese film in Spain. There were a little over 20,000 attendees at film events organized by the Japan Foundation, Madrid this fiscal year. That is a fivefold increase compared to ten years ago. Additionally, excitement among the Spanish people at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia reached a fever-pitch when Director HOSODA Mamoru, winner of the Grand Honorary Award, addressed the packed movie theater.

Cinema Kabuki Screenings

Cinema Kabuki screenings were held for four days in March 2022. To familiarize the audience with the traditional Japanese art of kabuki and help them to better appreciate its depths, we also had an expert in kabuki deliver a lecture before the screenings. Opportunities to watch kabuki performances are almost non-existent in Hungary, so enjoying the show on the large screen of the movie theater gave the large number of visitors (approximately 730 people) a chance to deepen their interest in Japan.

The Buying Mittens Picture Book Cover Exhibition from Russia

During the long period of self-imposed curfews, we began distributing videos of readings of Japanese picture books with Russian-language subtitles. A picture book cover competition based on Buying Mittens (Tebukuro wo kai ni), one of the books distributed, received a strong response. To the joy of the Japanese and Russian judges, there were 593 entries. The exhibition of prize-winning works that was held in Moscow in September 2021 was also held at the Nakanohigashi Library in Japan in February the following year, meaning that the work had returned to its hometown of Nakano (Tokyo), the place where author NIIMI Nankichi wrote Buying Mittens.

Japanese-Language Education Symposium for an Online Age

The Japan Foundation, Cairo, organized the Japanese Language Education Symposium in the Middle East & North Africa JLEMENA 2022: From “Teaching" to "Learning”—Autonomy, Dialogue and Collaboration—. It was held in a new format for an online age, consisting of sessions made up mainly of pre-recorded video presentations, as well as a mix of other sessions such as keynote speeches, workshops, and question and answer sessions and discussions based on the video presentations. Over 400 people registered for the whole program, and it contributed to the sharing of information, external dissemination, an improvement in teaching skills and the building of networks concerning Japanese-language education.

First Ever Elementary and Secondary School Japanese-Language Teacher's Forum in Vietnam

In response to the trend towards spreading Japanese-language education at elementary and secondary education institutions and organizing their curriculums in Vietnam, we held an online Japanese-language teacher's forum co-hosted by the Interdisciplinary Institute for Culture, Language and Education Fostering, a local organization. The aim of the forum was to allow Vietnamese Japanese-language teachers to share information, enhance their knowledge and network with each other. 107 people participated, including elementary and secondary education Japanese-language teachers and others involved in Japaneselanguage education. We shared the latest information and exchanged opinions on topics such as the state of Japanese-language education and Vietnam's foreign language policy with each other.

Manga Exhibition in Asian Literature Project

To raise awareness of the importance of a reading culture among the youth of Cambodia, the Phnom Penh Liaison Office organized a Japanese manga exhibition and a stage event about anime cosplay and related topics. In addition to a display of manga on giant panels, other events such as a cosplay show on stage, a talk event by a Cambodian author and a mini-concert by a famous singer were held in the special event space at a shopping mall in the center of Phnom Penh over a five-day period, with a total of 35,000 visitors.

DigiCon6 ASIA-2nd Laos Contest

In August 2021, the Japan Foundation, Vientiane Liaison Office, organized the 2nd Laos Regional Contest ahead of the DigiCon6 ASIA Awards, a film festival organized by TBS Holdings for Asian countries and regions. We began accepting applications from April 2021 and received a total of eleven submissions, the majority of which were animated although there were some live-action entries. The judges met in August to select the Gold, Silver and Next Generation Awards, and the award-winning works were entered into the Asia’s SUPREME SHORT MOVIE CONTEST in Tokyo (November 2021) to compete for various awards with works from other countries.