Overview

Japan Society’s Lecture Program explores the most vital issues and trends in Japanese culture, with germane and engaging themes that range from an exploration of Japan’s role as a “green leader,” to ranging the changing role of fashion in contemporary Japan. Our programs bring together leading thinkers and practitioners to provide provocative discussions on diverse topics including social issues, aesthetics, consumer culture and technology.

The Lecture Program is known for its popular and important lecture series, including an Architects Forum, which features leading Japanese architects, Authors on Asia, showcasing the latest written works about Japan, and the Distinguished Lecture Series and Centennial Speakers Series, providing a forum for many of the most prominent individuals in Japanese American cultural relations.

Speakers have come from all industries and specialties, including fashion designer Hanae Mori and nobel prize winning author Oe Kenzaburo. We have also presented historical figures such as Beate Gordon, who drafted the women’s equality clause in Japan’s Postwar Constitution, and Sadako Ogata, the president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Donald Keene, one of the most influential scholars and translators of Japanese literature during the postwar era, will speak here as part of the Centennial Speakers Series on January 30.

The Lecture Program periodically organizes lectures and symposia in Japan. On March 8, 2008, Delivery of Creation in a Digital Age, a symposium exploring how changes in technology have changed the creative process, will be held in Tokyo in cooperation with the Asahi Forum. The forum will feature a keynote dialogue between Julie Taymor and Amon Miyamoto, focusing on how digital technologies have changed the manner in which they express themselves artistically, especially the vanishing border between “live” and “reproduced” art. Taymor, whose recent credits range from producing Disney’s The Lion King to choreographing a Metropolitan Opera production of The Magic Flute to directing the hit movie Across the Universe, and Miyamoto, the first Asian ever to direct a Broadway musical with his production of Pacific Overtures, are widely acclaimed for using digital technologies to help redefine creative expression.

We also work in cooperation with other program areas, especially in conjunction with Gallery exhibitions. With each new exhibition, our programs aim to both help audiences understand the exhibition itself as well as presenting talks and panels that further develop particular exhibition themes.

Recent Program Themes

An important goal of Lecture Programs is to focus on areas in which Japan serves as an influential leader on the cultural front. Unquestionably, Japanese architecture has had a major impact on thinking about use of space, design, and other architectural issues throughout the world. Over the years, many of the most important Japanese architects have spoken here, including Shigeru Ban and Hitoshi Abe, among others. We are pleased to welcome Tadao Ando in a talk about his work on February 5.

“Cool Japan” —a concept which reflects Japan's international cultural leadership in design, technology, and architecture—is a recurring theme in many programs. A recent symposium entitled Designing the Future: Japan’s Tech Revolution explored the latest trends and the future of design and technology. The event featured a keynote dialogue between Jim Wicks, Corporate Vice President of Consumer Experience Design Group, Motorola; and Shunji Yamanaka, President, Leading Edge Design, Corporation, in which they discussed how they anticipate future needs as a part of their design process.

Japan’s history—and how that history is understood—is an important influence in contemporary Japanese culture and international relations. Several recent programs have examined history and its interpretation as a lens for making sense of contemporary Japanese society. During our last season, we were proud to present Memoirs of Sadako & Hiroshima: Personal Accounts of an A-Bomb Survivor, which examined the ways that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima influences modern Japan's perceptions of itself.

Taking a very different approach, William Tsutsui of Kansas University explored the relationship between Japanese culture and Godzilla in his lecture entitled Godzilla and Japanese Culture. Tsutsui’s talk was part of our Authors on Asia series. A diverse group of authors has presented as part of this series— including Ian Buruma, Alex Kerr, and Richard Samuels—on topics ranging from the similarities and differences between postwar Japanese and Italian politics, to the development of Japan’s postwar approach to birth control, to the role of women in postwar Japan.

Staff

Robert A. Fish, Director 
Suzanne de Vegh, Program Officer
Ryohei Yamamoto, Program Officer

Robert A. Fish

Robert Fish joined Japan Society in May 2006 as the Director of Education and Lecture Programs. Fish previously served as an Assistant Professor of East Asian history at Indiana State University, where he worked extensively with pre-service teachers. His research focuses on the history of childhood and education in 20th-century Japan, and includes a book manuscript near completion about the history of “mixed-blood” orphans in postwar Japan as well as publications regarding the history “textbook controversy” in Japan. Prior to specializing in Japanese studies, he taught social studies at Tenafly High School in New Jersey and English in Wakayama, Japan.

Fish earned a BA in History at Yale University, an MA in Educational Administration at New York University, and a PhD in Japanese History at University of Hawaii at Manoa.

View upcoming Lectures events