The Center for Japanese Studies is celebrating its 50th anniversary at UC Berkeley, and has planned a year of special events to honor the occasion. Please join us for these special events.
To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we are inviting Cal alumni and others with an interest in Japan back to campus for Cal Japan Day. This will officially launch a year of 50th anniversary celebrations with exciting events such as a reading by the novelist, Murakami Haruki, coming up in the Fall.
Film screening and roundtable discussion
Saturday, September 27, 2008 — 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Pacific Film Archive Theatre
Free and open to the public
Taking place toward the end of World War II in Japan, Grave of the Fireflies is the poignant tale of two orphaned children, Seita and his younger sister Setsuko, who try to survive amidst widespread famine and the callous indifference of their countrymen. Some critics consider it one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made.
A roundtable discussion featuring Susan Napier, Frederick Schodt, Ian Condry, and Roland Kelts will follow the film screening.
Reading and Lecture by Haruki Murakami followed by a Conversation with Roland Kelts
Saturday, October 11, 2008 — 8:00 PM
Zellerbach Hall
Claiming a global readership and internationally recognized as Japan's leading novelist, writer, and translator, Haruki Murakami is winner of the Yomiuri Prize for his critically acclaimed The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The author's numerous works, which have been translated into 36 languages, lead the reader along the interstices between the mundane and the sublime. His work has been described as easily accessible, yet profoundly complex. Murakami's reading and lecture in Japanese and English will be followed by a conversation with Roland Kelts (Tokyo University lecturer and author of Japanamerica) and a question and answer period with the audience. Presented in association with Cal Performances.
Click here to read more about Haruki Murakami's visit to Berkeley.
Symposium
Sunday, October 12, 2008 — 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Alumni House
Free and open to the public
Panelists Jay Rubin, Rebecca Suter, Matthew Strecher, and Stephen Snyder will participate in a symposium to discuss the work of Harumi Murakami. Moderated by Alan Tansman and cosponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Townsend Center for the Humanities.
Symposium
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 — 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM
This event will be held in Japan
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and University of Tokyo President Hiroshi Komiyama will be joined by a panel of professors from UC Berkeley and Todai to discuss the future of the public univeristy in the 21st century. Panelists include Daniel Kammen and Kazuhiko Takeuchi discussing Energy and Enviroment, John Lie and Kiichi Fujiwara discussing Globalization and Multiculturalism, Steve Vogel and Nobuhiro Hiwatari discussing Politics and Democracy: US-Japan, and Duncan Williams and Susumu Shimazono discussing Religion in a Global Age. The event is supported by the Shorenstein Fund at the Institute of East Asian Studies of UC Berkeley and cosponsored by the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Symposium
Friday, November 14, 2008 — 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Lipman Room, Barrows Hall
This event is free and open to the public
Sadako Ogata — former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and currently president of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency — will present the keynote speech on "US-Japan: Global Responsibility and Development Assistance" at the Symposium on Japan's International Relations. Panelists for the symposium on "Japan's International Relations: Diplomacy and Foreign Ai" include T.J. Pempel of UC Berkeley, and Shinichi Kitaoka, and Takatoshi Ito of the University of Tokyo. Moderated by Steve Vogel. The event is supported by the Shorenstein Fund at the Institute of East Asian Studies of UC Berkeley and cosponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Symposium and Film Screening
Saturday December 6, 2008 - Sunday, December 7, 2008
This event is free and open to the public
SCHEDULE
Saturday, December 6
9:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Lipman Room, Barrows Hall
9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Screening of the film The Zen of Bobby V (ESPN documentary, 2008, 86 min.)
10:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Symposium
Moderator
Panelists
A light reception will follow the panel discussion
Sunday, December 7
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Berkeley Art Museum Theatre
2:00 PM
Screening of the film American Pastime (Warner Brothers, 2007, 106 min.)
A screening of American Pastime — a film on baseball in the WWII Japanese American internment camps — will be followed by a discussion with the associate producer of the film, Kerry Nakagawa (also author of Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball).
This event is cosponsored by Yomiuri Shimbun and the Department of Athletics.
Film screening
Takashi Fujitani, History, University of California, San Diego
Carol Gluck, History, Columbia University
Akira Mizuta Lippit, Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
Friday, January 23, 2009 — 5:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Pacific Film Archive Theatre
Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Father and Letters from Iwo Jima depicted one of the most horrific WWII battles in the Pacific theater from both the American and Japanese points of view. Letters from Iwo Jima, based on letters written by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (portrayed in the film by Ken Watanabe), is the first major Hollywood film on the Pacific War that managed to portray the Japanese from the perspective of ordinary soldiers and as fellow human beings.
This event is cosponsored by the Center for Japanese Studies and the Pacific Film Archives.
Thursday, February 5, 2009 — 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Sibley Auditorium
This event is free and open to the public
Kazuo Inamori is the founder and chairman emeritus of the Kyocera Corporation (originally Kyoto Ceramic Co.), a global firm producing information and communications equipment and fine ceramic products. Inamori was also the Chairman of one of Japan's largest telecommunications companies, KDDI (originally DDI).
One of Japan's leading entrepreneurs with a distinctive management philosophy, Inamori is a visionary business leader, an ordained Zen Buddhist priest, and a major philanthropist. Inamori today serves as president of a private business school, the "Seiwa-Jyuku," with branches in 60 locations, sharing his management philosophy at no charge to thousands of young business owners and entrepreneurs.
His concern for humanity and the environment is well-known. He established the Inamori Foundation and its Kyoto Prize since 1984 as a way to recognize individuals and groups worldwide who have made outstanding contributions to the betterment of society and humankind.
The talk will be presented in Japanese with simultaneous English translation.
Light reception to follow.
This event is cosponsored by the Center for Japanes Studies, Consul General of Japan, Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California, and the Haas School of Business.
Conversation with Toyo Ito and Dana Buntrock
Saturday, April 11, 2009 — 7:00 PM
Wheeler Auditorium
This event is free and open to the public
In September 2006, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley announced that Japanese architect Toyo Ito had been selected to design a new facility for the world-renowned art museum and film center. Toyo Ito is part of a new generation of modern Japanese architects who are creating magical and imaginative, innovatively engineered buildings that profoundly influence the way people view urban communities and the space that we live and play in. BAM/PFA's new building will be Ito's first work in North America, which brings its own challenges in regards to environmental impact, regulations and codes, as well as the Berkeley cultural and intellectual aesthetic. In this special event, Toyo Ito will engage the audience with his observations on Japanese architecture today and explore the implications of his own most innovative works. Tickets will be available on a first-come-first-served basis at the Wheeler Auditorium box office at UC Berkeley, starting at 6 p.m.; doors open at 6:30.
As part of its 50th Anniversary celebration, the Center for Japanese Studies presents famed Japanese documentary filmmaking pioneer Hara Kazuo at a film screening and booksigning event on Saturday, May 2, 2009. A panel discussion featuring three of the country's top film scholars will follow on Sunday, May 3, 2009.
Throughout the four decades of his career, Hara Kazuo has pursued the bizarre and disturbing margins of Japanese society, certain that central truths are to be found in fringe phenomena. His method of documentation, which he calls "action documentary," pursues the shocking effect of the action film, following the gesture and staying in the moment — not commenting in voiceover from a safe distance.
The event includes a screening of two of Hara's best known films: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On and Extreme Private Eros, at which director Hara Kazuo will be present for comments and questions. The screenings will be followed by a booksigning to launch the release of Hara Kazuo's new memoir/documentary handbook, Camera Obtrusa: Hara Kazuo's Action Documentaries. The following day, three of the top film studies scholars from around the country, Abe Mark Nornes (University of Michigan), Aaron Gerow (Yale University), and Akira Mizuta Lippit (University of Southern California) will conduct a panel discussion on Hara Kazuo's body of work and the future of Japanese film studies at universities worldwide.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Film screening with featured speaker
UC Berkeley Pacific Film Archive Theater
12:00 PM - 5:30 PM
12:00 PM
Screening of Extreme Private Eros
2:45 pm
Screening of The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On with comments by the director, Hara Kazuo, hosted by Miryam Sas, Comparative Literature, UCB
5:30 pm
Book Launch Party: Release and signing of Hara's first English language book, Camera Obtrusa: Hara Kazuo's Action Documentaries
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Panel discussion: Hara Kazuo and Japanese Film Studies
Alumni House, Toll Room
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
A panel discussion hosted by Miryam Sas (UC Berkeley) and featuring three of the country's top film scholars: Abe Mark Nornes (University of Michigan), Aaron Gerow (Yale University), and Akira Mizuta Lippit (University of Southern California).
Cosponsored by the Center for Japanese Studies and the Pacific Film Archive.