Japan Society

The US and Japan in Space: Launching A Global Pacific based Partnership, Speakers: Naoko Yamazaki, Space Port Japan, Astronaut and Representative Director Koichi Wakata, Axiom Space, Astronaut and Chief Technology Officer Yuko Kakazu, Subaru telescope, Astronomer Hardy TS Kagimoto, MD, Healios K.K, Founder, Chairman and CEO Chris Blackerby, Astroscale Group, COO Sponsors: Gary Moriwaki, Partner, Windels Marx Scott Sato, Chairman, Circlace K.K. Theodore Miller, President & CEO, Empire Entertainment Japan This was an inaugural panel for Japan Society’s Future Council which focuses on the areas of future cooperation between the U.S. and Japan, highlighting STEM, next generation and women. Our recent event brought together leading voices in space exploration to celebrate the enduring partnership between the United States and Japan, highlighting the shared vision that has inspired our advancements in space. Announced earlier this year during a state visit, the next astronaut set to walk on the moon will be a Japanese national and American crew, marking a historic moment in the ongoing collaboration between our nations. The event explored how space exploration has evolved from the early days of science fiction to a reality where over 10,000 satellites orbit Earth, with a permanent human presence in low-Earth orbit for more than two decades. This transformation has been driven not only by governments but by innovative venture-backed startups, reshaping the space economy and creating new opportunities for partnership and growth. Our speakers represented the forefront of this revolution, discussing the roles of women leaders in STEM, sustainable space development, and the critical advancements in technology, communications and transportation led by companies in the U.S. and Japan. The discussion underscored the vital intersection of politics, economics, security and innovation that makes the U.S.-Japan alliance a driving force behind global progress in space. This event marks the beginning of an annual series that will continue to explore the vast opportunities within the space industry, setting the stage for deeper collaboration and innovation in the years to come. ------ Visit: https://japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions/ Like: https://www.facebook.com/japansociety Follow: https://www.instagram.com/japansociety/ Watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC Join: https://japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member/ Learn: https://japansociety.org/language-center/

Moving - JAPAN CUTS 2024 Q&A with actress Tomoko Tabata https://japansociety.org/events/moving/ July 19, 2024 East Coast Premiere of 4K Restoration – Featuring Tomoko Tabata In-Person. A child’s account of divorce, Somai’s remarkable portrait of adolescence follows Ren (Tomoko Tabata) as she is swept into a sea of uncertainty following her parents’ separation. Desperately trying to keep her family together, Ren yearns for stability and happiness while lashing out at both home and school as her daily life becomes a bid to reclaim some type of agency. What Somai crafts is nothing short of miraculous: a child’s unanswered cries and silent mourning at her family’s dissolution, attempting to cling onto a life of what was. A sweeping odyssey of self-discovery, Somai’s heartbreaking elegy to childhood finds young Ren having to grow up in the face of it all, culminating in a surreal matsuri drenched in billowing flame and fantasy. Dir. Shinji Somai, 1993, 124 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Tomoko Tabata, Junko Sakurada, Kiichi Nakai. ------ Visit: https://japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions/ Like: https://www.facebook.com/japansociety Follow: https://www.instagram.com/japansociety/ Watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC Join: https://japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member/ Learn: https://japansociety.org/language-center/

Acky Bright: Studio Infinity October 4, 2024—January 19, 2025 https://japansociety.org/gallery/acky-bright-studio-infinity/ Acky Bright: Studio Infinity showcases the rising star’s unique kawakakkoii (cute and cool) style of illustration and product design. Conceived as Acky Bright’s design studio, the exhibition offers visitors an exceptional opportunity to meet the artist, witness his freestyle “live drawing,” and participate in making a series of manga-style murals. Performative and interactive, the exhibition will evolve as Acky Bright makes intermittent appearances in the gallery. The exhibition will feature two new painting series by Acky Bright, KBK-18 and Ah-Un, that each draw inspiration from traditional Japanese art and theater. Underscoring the impressive range of his contemporary art practice, the show will also highlight Acky Bright’s promotional campaigns designed for major companies, including his multimedia designs for the nationwide “WcDonald’s” campaign, YOASOBI x Vaundy’s FRIES BEAT 2024 music video, and Squid Game coloring book illustrated for Netflix. The exhibition will preview during the weekend of Anime NYC, then open on October 4 – January 19, 2024. Acky Bright is a distinguished Japanese manga artist and illustrator, renowned for his work with McDonald’s, Meta, DC Comics, Hasbro, and BMW. With his captivating kawakakkoii (cute and cool) characters and unique worldbuilding in manga-style, Acky’s artistry stands out as truly exceptional. ------ Visit: https://japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions/ Like: https://www.facebook.com/japansociety Follow: https://www.instagram.com/japansociety/ Watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC Join: https://japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member/ Learn: https://japansociety.org/language-center/

THE TRAP https://japansociety.org/film/so-as-to-dream-eternal-mysteries-of-kaizo-hayashi/ 『罠』 Wana International Premiere of 4K Restoration. The ominous final chapter of Hayashi’s trilogy opens in a promising light as Maiku has turned a new corner: business is booming, his sister’s been accepted into college, and he’s in love for once with the mute and angelic Yuriko (Yui Natsukawa, Still Walking). However, a brooding prologue suggests otherwise as Hayashi’s love story is countervailed by a new terror when a series of serial killings, all connected to a disquieting figure with a masked visage, begins to instill fear in Yokohama. Young women have been found dead, injected with poison and left as “sleeping beauties”—dressed up with tranquil countenances while accompanied by the faint redolence of woodland fragrance. Sharing DNA with some of Dario Argento’s most outré gialli and possessing a nihilistic edge influenced by the contemporaneous Aum Shinrikyo attacks, Hayashi’s harrowing finale spins a hallucinatory descent into darkness as Maiku finds himself assailed by a frightening opponent deep within the bowels of the city. Dir. Kaizo Hayashi, 1996, 106 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Masatoshi Nagase, Yui Natsukawa, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Tetta Sugimoto. ------ Visit: https://japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions/ Like: https://www.facebook.com/japansociety Follow: https://www.instagram.com/japansociety/ Watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC Join: https://japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member/ Learn: https://japansociety.org/language-center/

The Stairway to the Distant Past https://japansociety.org/film/so-as-to-dream-eternal-mysteries-of-kaizo-hayashi/ 『遥かな時代の階段を』 Haruka na jidai no kaidan o International Premiere of 4K Restoration. The second installment of Hayashi’s Maiku Hama trilogy spills out in vibrant, full-blown color as Maiku’s past resurfaces, setting in motion the events of this brooding and exquisitely shot sequel. Taking on puppy rescues during a slump in more weighty investigative work, Maiku hears word of the return of his long-lost mother who abandoned him and kid sister Akane years before. A legendary stripper named Lily-san, she sets up shop along the riverbanks of Yokohama where the presence of an enigmatic “Man in White” (Hiroshima Mon Amour’s Eiji Okada) begins to trouble both police and yakuza. Hayashi’s sequel lives and breathes the occupied history of the port city, its near-mythic riverfront still abiding by a postwar code of omertà. A remarkably emotive middle chapter, The Stairway to the Distant Past plunges Maiku into the darkest depths as he reconciles his past in its eerie final act, a nightmarish tableau vivant of painted faces and silent murmurs. Dir. Kaizo Hayashi, 1995, 101 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Masatoshi Nagase, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Haruko Wanibuchi, Eiji Okada, Shiro Sano, Shinya Tsukamoto. ------ Visit: https://japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions/ Like: https://www.facebook.com/japansociety Follow: https://www.instagram.com/japansociety/ Watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC Join: https://japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member/ Learn: https://japansociety.org/language-center/

The Most Terrible Time in My LIFE https://japansociety.org/film/so-as-to-dream-eternal-mysteries-of-kaizo-hayashi/ 『我が人生最悪の時』 Waga jinsei saiaku no toki 30th Anniversary—International Premiere of 4K Restoration; Followed by a Q&A with Kaizo Hayashi. Masatoshi Nagase stars as Yokohama private eye Maiku Hama—a Japanese approximation of Mike Hammer, pulp fiction writer Mickey Spillane’s hardboiled Kiss Me Deadly P.I.—in Hayashi’s offbeat monochromatic neo noir. A likably gawkish semblance of cool dressed in Sun Tribe attire, Nagase’s cash-strapped underdog gets in way over his head as he tries to locate the missing brother of a Taiwanese immigrant, finding himself caught in the crosshairs of something more sinister: a spat between warring gang factions from Taipei and Hong Kong. Indebted to American detective noir and Nikkatsu action (a legendary chipmunk-cheeked Nikkatsu star even appears as Hama’s mentor), Hayashi and Nagase effortlessly revive the genre in this stylized distillation of the era, delivering a sleek, fast-paced detective story chockablock with thrills and double crosses. Dir. Kaizo Hayashi, 1994, 92 min., DCP, b&w, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Masatoshi Nagase, Shiro Sano, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Shinya Tsukamoto. ------ Visit: https://japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions/ Like: https://www.facebook.com/japansociety Follow: https://www.instagram.com/japansociety/ Watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC Join: https://japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member/ Learn: https://japansociety.org/language-center/