Exhibition

October Photo Exhibition: The Universe of an Imagination 2024
Photos by Benjamin Lee
September 28 - October 26

For the month of October, the FCCJ will feature the works of well-known Chinese-Canadian photographer and artist Benjamin Lee. Through his portraits of mostly Japanese celebrities, architects and designers, and avant-garde artwork, he is expressing the vitality and creativity of the Japanese people and how quickly they are able to adapt to new things and new ideas, which, as he says, is one main reason why Japan has been so successful in the arts, music, design and fashion.

Exhibition Reception
Date: Monday, October 7, 2024
Doors open 6:30pm, starts 7:00pm
Members: 1,000 yen, guests/non-members: 2,000 yen (includes one drink)

FCCJ Photo Exhibition
Dear Maui: 12 Stories from Maui
August 1 - Friday, August 30

Join our talk show and hula dance on August 3 from 19:00

For the month of August, the FCCJ exhibition committee remembers last year’s destructive fires that affected large areas near Maui in Hawaii and welcomes several photographers who have shot telling images of Maui over the years. On August 8, 2023, a wildfire in western Maui devastated the port city of Lahaina, once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Maui, an island of resorts, is losing its old landscape at an alarming rate with the abnormal weather exacerbating the situation.

Reception / Talk Show with photographers, plus hula and messages from Maui
Date and time: August 3, 2024 (Sat) 19:00-21:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Talk Show guests: Junji Takasago, Hideaki Sato, Sumio Kondo, Eiichi Imai, Sachiko Nagata, Yuichi Noguchi, and others including Matty Schweitzer will display photos.
Please book at the front desk or front@fccj.or.jp
Fee: 1,000 yen (with 1 drink).

The book ‘Dear Maui’ will be available for purchase at the venue. All profits from the sale of this book will go to support Maui's recovery.

July Photo Exhibition : June 26 - July 31
A Selection of Original Animated Drawings
‘Gauche the Cellist’
Featuring work from the late Isao Takahata's animated masterpiece

This month's exhibition gives us a rare insight into how Japanese anime movies are made. July's
exhibition features special enlarged prints of original drawings from the classic 1981 animated
masterpiece "Gauche the Cellist,” based on the work of the same title first published in 1934 by well-
known Japanese grass roots poet and author of children's stories, Kenji Miyazawa. (Supported by
EPSON & Oh! Production)

Born in 1896, Kenji was a writer much in the same vein as Walt Whitman or Beatrice Potter, but with a
heart like John Ruskin. In his short life of 37 years, he wrote numerous poems and anthropomorphic fairy
tales, but the setting of many of his works is the fictional idealistic homeland of Ihatov, modeled on the
countryside around his hometown-present-day Hanamaki City in Iwate Prefecture. Indeed, this area
could be called the Japanese people's spiritual homeland. Kenji himself learned to play the cello and
loved Beethoven's Symphony No.6.

June 2024 Exhibition

OYAKO Shashin Matsuri; Celebrating the Relationship Between Parents and Children

June 1- June 28, 2024

In contemporary society, the theme of the parent-child relationship resonates deeply, touching upon critical issues such as the declining birthrate and the aging population. This theme also holds potential as a key to addressing broader global challenges including climate change, poverty, environmental destruction, and war. Life is passed down from parent to child, and sincerely contemplating the world we are leaving for future generations is crucial in tackling these global dilemmas.

It is an honor to showcase this "OYAKO" theme exhibition at FCCJ for the 5th time. The bond between parent and child is a universal language that transcends borders, cultures, and religions. We strongly believe that the love between a parent and child has the power to foster peace in a world fraught with conflict. The photographs in this exhibition were taken in Japan and various other locations around the world by the following renown photographers:

Elaheh Abdolahabadi, Anju, Nguyen Ba Han, Torin Boyd, Garry Brod, Jim Caccavo, Claude Charlier, Mark Edward Harris, Yoshiro Higai, Mayumi Ishii, Stella Kalinina, Masanori Kamide, Peter MacIntosh, Kenji Miura, Bruce Osborn, Yoshie Sato, Teruo Sekiguchi, Nick Ut, Michael Yamashita

The World of the Maze Detective Pierre
Illustrations By IC4DESIGN Inc.
May7 - 31, 2024

©IC4DESIGN Inc.

For the month of May, the FCCJ welcomes a different kind of exhibition.

April 2024 Exhibition: Nostalgic Europe by Masatoshi Minami
March 30- May 2, 2024

NOSTALGIC EUROPE
-Trans Europe Express-

©Masatoshi Minami

Photographs by Masatoki Minami
RECEPTION & GALLERY TALK
Date: April 17, 2024   6pm - 8pm

Members: Free
Guests: 2,000 yen

RSVP in person at the front desk, or at  03 3211-3161, or at front@fccj.or.jp

Masatoki Minami is a legendary railway photographer who has shot all of the great trains of Europe and beyond for the past 50 years.

He will be speaking about his adventures at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan 6pm-8pm on April 17. All are welcome.

After a stint working for an animation company and shooting for Weekly Manga Action in the late 60s and early 70s, he began his lifelong passion of photographing railways such as France’s le Train Bleu and TGV, Germany’s InterCity President, and Italy’s popular Settebello, in addition to Japan’s Shinkansen.

March 2024 Exhibition: Disaster Recovery Efforts After 2011 Earthquake
Photos courtesy of JDR (Naoki Sakane) and the Imperial Household Agency
March 2 – March 29, 2024

©Imperial Household Agency / ©JDR (NPO, Japan Disaster Recovery Support Organization)

With a focus on disaster recovery efforts after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, this collection of images highlights how Japan’s Emperor and Empress console, sympathize with and show support for natural disaster survivors.

Visits by the Their Majesties to affected area are linked to a lasting impact in generating hope among survivors and building community resilience, say disaster research experts.

Japan is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries and strengthening protective measures to reduce property loss and human life are top government agendas. As part of current policy measures, billions of dollars are spent on earthquake and tsunami prediction measures, disaster management and recovery. But more needs to be done.

February 2024 Exhibition: 3.11 and the Road to Recovery
Photos by Mark Edward Harris
Feb. 3 – March 1, 2024

©Mark Edward Harris

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m., a powerful earthquake struck off northeast Japan’s main island. Less than an hour later, tsunami inundated the coast and surged inland. By the time the raging waves receded, more than 18,000 people had died.

In the weeks after the disaster, Los Angeles-based photographer Mark Edward Harris made his way to the eastern Tohoku impact zone. There he began documenting the disaster and the region’s determination to rise out of the rubble. While the lives lost on March 11, 2011, will never be replaced, Harris’s images show how the people of eastern Tohoku are rebuilding their towns and cities to safer standards as well as memorializing and interpreting that horrific spring day through state-of-the-art museums to educate future generations.