Japan

This screening event is part of the “Comic Legacies on the Japanese Silver Screen” film series taking place from February through April. See here for a list of screenings. All films are screened in Japanese with English subtitles. This event will conclude the film series, and include a panel discussion and Q&A, featuring Director Naoko Ogigami, Curator Mika Tomita of the National Film Archive of Japan, Professor Aaron Gerow, Yale University, and Xavi Sawada, PhD Candidate, East Asian Languages &...

This screening event is part of the “Comic Legacies on the Japanese Silver Screen” film series taking place from February through April. See here for a list of screenings. All films are screened in Japanese with English subtitles. Second film begins at 8:45pm. Please view a pamphlet about the film series here, authored by Professor Aaron Gerow, Xavi Sawada, David Baasch, Eugene Kwon, Adam Silverman, Ania Tropnikova, and Chloe Yan. Oh...

This screening event is part of the “Comic Legacies on the Japanese Silver Screen” film series taking place from February through April. See here for a list of screenings. All films are screened in Japanese with English subtitles. Second film begins at 8:45pm. Please view a pamphlet about the film series here, authored by Professor Aaron Gerow, Xavi Sawada, David Baasch, Eugene Kwon, Adam Silverman, Ania Tropnikova, and Chloe Yan....

The Council on East Asian Studies is pleased to present the 24th Annual John W. Hall Lecture in Japanese Studies. A reception will follow from 6:00pm to 7:00pm in the Luce Common Room (2nd Floor). In the 1960s, Adachi Masao was ubiquitous on the Japanese film scene. He made stunningly surreal experimental films. He exploited the soft-core pink film to political ends. He wrote scripts for the likes of Oshima Nagisa and Wakamatsu Koji, and played bit parts in their films. He also wrote important essays on political cinema. In the 1970s, Adachi made a documentary with the Popular Front for the...

In April 2021, President Biden and his Japanese counterpart made global headlines when they jointly “underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”—the first such reference in a joint summit-level statement since the U.S. and Japanese governments switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in the 1970s. In the nearly three years since, such language has been repeated dozens of times. Meanwhile, discussions within Tokyo about a so-called “Taiwan Strait contingency” have been mainstreamed to an unprecedented degree. Amidst a rapidly changing regional...

In the late 1960s, a new style of “non-political” social movement emerged in Japan. Despite aiming at social reforms, these movements—including environmental, consumer protection, and local improvement movements—embraced a rhetoric of “anti-politics,” disclaiming “ideology” in exchange for a focus on “issues.” These paradoxically “non-political” organizations achieved great success in the political arena, and by declaring that “anyone can join,” these movements succeeded in achieving a number of policy goals. I trace the history of Japan’s “non-political” political activism from the mid-1960s...

By most ordinary measures, Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868) offered a decidedly unfriendly environment for business. Not only did it lack corporate law, support for free trade, and a predictable system of contract enforcement, it was also governed by a hereditary ruling class of warriors and organized according to a strict status system that placed little value on commercial wealth. And yet, many of Japan’s largest and most successful businesses today, including global giants such as Mitsui and Sumitomo, first became powerful economic players during the Tokugawa period. How, then, did large-scale...

With help from the Japan Society in New York, we are pleased to present rarely screened films by two of the leaders of the postwar avant-garde in Japan: Terayama Shuji and Matsumoto Toshio. Terayama was a multi-talented artist, blazing a trail in 1960s and 1970s Japan as an award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, and filmmaker (Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets). Matsumoto was one of the intellectual leaders of the Japanese New Wave, penning theoretical works that influenced many filmmakers, while as a filmmaker pursuing what he termed “avant-garde documentary,” feature film (...

The yearslong stalemate between Japan-South Korea has been thawing in the past year, with the leaders of both countries working toward rapprochement and greater trilateral cooperation with the United States. Chinese ambitions, North Korean threats and the Russian war have rallied the three allies toward greater cooperation, leading to a historic leader-level summit at Camp David in August 2023. The U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials are now working to create enduring structures that they hope would endure shifting political dynamics in the three countries. But challenges remain,...