Introducing Japan’s Rich Arts and Culture to the World

We introduce people around the world to the richness of Japanese arts and culture through a variety of ways in a broad range of areas from traditional to contemporary arts, including exhibitions, stage performances, translation and publication, and films.
In FY2023, we continued our online initiatives begun during the COVID-19 pandemic to bring Japanese culture to wider audiences. At the same time, we fully resumed in-person events featuring Japanese artists performing before live audiences overseas and face-to-face exchange programs enabling direct dialogue between people.

Laying the Foundations for Exchange:
Creating Opportunities for Professional Dialogue

Building bonds and sustained exchange between specialists across national, linguistic, and cultural boundaries is essential for creating new art together. In FY2023, we fully resumed our arts and cultural specialist exchange programs that had been necessarily suspended during the pandemic, conducting exchange and dialogue programs across various arts and cultural fields.
In the visual arts, we invited five museum curators each from Oceania and Europe in October-November 2023, providing opportunities to observe contemporary art sites across Japan, gather information, and build networks.
In the performing arts, six directors of influential festivals and theaters from five countries visited Japan in December 2023, coinciding with the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting (YPAM). They intensively viewed Japanese stage productions to select artists to introduce in their countries and presented their own activities.
In the field of literary arts, we hosted 11 publishing editors from 11 Central and Eastern European countries from February to March 2024. During their 10-day stay in Japan, they gained up-to-date information and expertise on Japanese literature and publishing while creating opportunities for networking and negotiations with Japanese publishers. Results are already emerging, with more than 20 projects for the Japanese literature translation and publication launching across their respective countries since the participants returned home.

Photo of participants sitting on the staircase bookshelf at the Waseda University International Literature Center (Haruki Murakami Library)
Invitation Program of Literary Editors from Central and Eastern Europe
(visiting the Waseda International House of Literature)

The Fruits of Professional Exchange —
Tsuyoshi Hisakado: Polite Existence Exhibition in UAE

Photo of art works on display at the “Tsuyoshi Hisakado:Polite Existence” (2023)
Tsuyoshi Hisakado: Polite Existence (2023), Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai.
Courtesy Art Jameel. Photography by Daniella Baptista.

Seeds sown during the 2022 UAE curator invitation program, commemorating 50 years of diplomatic relations, bore fruit as an exhibition in 2023.
The exhibition ‘Tsuyoshi Hisakado: Polite Existence’ was held from May to September 2023 at the Art Jameel Centre in Dubai, the Middle East’s first contemporary art center. Curators from Japan and the UAE who had built networks in the previous year developed the exhibition plan, creating an ambitious project to spotlight Japanese contemporary art —which had previously had few opportunities for exposure in the Middle East— in Dubai, a city that attracts people from around the world.
The outcome of this professional exchange received significant acclaim locally, with comments such as “The delicate sculptures and sound effectively filling the entire venue demonstrated the importance of cultural exchange between both countries” and “One of the best exhibitions seen in Dubai… I was deeply impressed by the quality of works and their universal message.” Art professionals from both countries continue to deepen their exchange toward future collaborations, building on the exhibition’s success.

Japanese Film Screenings Around the World

We showcased Japanese films in 80 countries and regions, reaching an audience of approximately 240,000.
In Turkey, a Japanese Film Festival was held as an opening event marking the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations. KAWATSURA Shinya, director of The House of the Lost on the Cape, presented this film depicting recovery from disaster.
In the United States, we held a special program commemorating the 120th anniversary of director OZU Yasujiro’s birth. In Mexico, we screened works by director TANAKA Kinuyo as part of a female directors’ feature, accompanied by a three-way dialogue with Japanese studies and film history scholars.
The Japan Foundation organized the Japanese Film Festival (JFF) in ten countries—eight ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Laos) celebrating the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation in 2023, plus Australia and India—showcasing the diversity of Japanese culture and society. In India, coinciding with the Indian release of director SHINKAI Makoto’s latest work, Suzume, we held a fan premiere screening in Mumbai, creating opportunities for interaction with Indian fans through stage greetings and autograph sessions with Shinkai, as well as autograph sessions and workshops with AMASHIMA Denki, the author of the manga adaptation.

Photo of director SHINKAI Makoto
JFF Side Event: SHINKAI Makoto at Suzume film’s premiere in India

Photo of director KAWATSURA Shinya sitting on a chair in front of the screen and speaking with a microphone in his hand.
Q&A session with Director KAWATSURA Shinya after the screening of The House of the Lost on the Cape in Turkey, marking the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations

Photo of the venue with the screen in the background and two figures standing offstage, one in front of a stand microphone in the center of the stage and the other with a hand microphone in his hand.
Scene from the Japanese Film Festival in Prague, Czech Republic

Photo from the view of audience from an angle.
Audience at the Japanese Film Festival in Indonesia

Free Online Streaming Program JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA

The Japan Foundation conducted a worldwide streaming program, “JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA,” which focused on small independent cinemas (mini-theaters) in regional Japanese cities that screen excellent Japanese films while maintaining strong ties with their local communities. This program ran from December 2022 to June 2023 and August to October 2023.
For the second program, the special website received approximately 270,000 unique visitors and 710,000 page views from August 2023 to the end of March 2024. The streamed films were watched in 132 countries and regions, with about 62,000 total viewers and approximately 93,000 plays. Videos introducing the mini-theaters received 15,000 views.

Image of “JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA 2023”

Image of a scene from the movie “And Your Bird Can Sing”
And Your Bird Can Sing

Image of a scene from the movie “LONELY GLORY”
LONELY GLORY

Image of a scene from the movie “A Girl in My Room”
A Girl in My Room

Photo of the view of Ueda Eigeki (Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture)
Ueda Eigeki (Ueda-shi, Nagano)

Photo of the view of Cinekoya (Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa)
Cinekoya (Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa)

Photo of the view of Cinema Onomichi (Onomichi-shi, Hiroshima)
Cinema Onomichi (Onomichi-shi, Hiroshima)

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