A new Japan Center in London

[Khash Najib]

A Londoner on this list mentioned (quite a while ago) that
Japanese film events in the city arrive like London buses,
in bunches or never.

That might change according to a news release by Kyodo
saying that plans have been revealed for a new major
Japanese cultural center to be in full operation in 2005
in West London.

I personally left London five years ago but the reason why
I'm informing list members about this is that, according
to the news piece, one of the envisioned roles of the
center is to house NGOs and individuals active in
intercultural exchange between the two countries as well
as visiting scholars and artists. So I guess that people
on the list who fit the criteria (especially NGOs with no
permanent headquarters) might be interested in trying to
get in contact with former British diplomat and "Links
Japan" founder Phillida Purvis, who first proposed the
center's idea.

For more details please view the full Kyodo text I am
pasting below.

Najib El-Khash



 Plans for Japanese center in London unveiled

LONDON ? Ambitious plans to create a Japanese center in
London for the first time in the capital's history have
been unveiled.

The development is planned for West London, which already
has a sizable Japanese community. Britain has the biggest
population of Japanese residents out of any European
country and has the third largest Japanese community
outside Japan, according to the project's backers.

Supporters of the plans envisage a center that would
become the focus in the country for all kinds of Japanese
cultural activities from flower arranging and writing
"haiku" poetry through to martial arts.

They believe that such a project is long overdue in London
and Britain given that there are Japanese centers already
in cities with fewer Japanese nationals such as Paris,
Milan, Cologne and Amsterdam.

The center is the brainchild of former British diplomat
Phillida Purvis who now runs Links Japan, a charitable
organization set up in 1998 to promote exchanges between
Japanese and British voluntary groups and nongovernmental
organizations.

Architect Kisho Kurokawa has drawn up plans for the
center, which would see the renovation of an old stable
block in Gunnersbury Park, together with the addition of
extra rooms, sporting and lecture facilities. In addition,
there are plans for a Japanese restaurant set in the park
as well as a traditional tea house.

The park, which was bought by the famous Rothschild
banking family in 1835, also used to be home to a Japanese
garden which was completed by the family in 1901. This is
currently being restored and would also form part of the
project.

The center, expected to cost between 9 and 12 million
pounds (1.71-2.28 billion yen) to construct, will be
environmentally friendly through solar paneling and
photovoltaic cell technology.

The technology envisages tiny cells being put into the
ceiling to trap light rays which can be stored for the
building's energy needs.

A further 8 million pounds (1.49 billion yen) is needed to
provide an endowment for the center and the building would
also be hired out to people in order to generate
additional revenue.

Purvis hopes that the building would be used both by the
Japanese and local community alike. The center would be
near to the Japanese school in the suburb of Acton and
many families live in the neighborhood.

Purvis has submitted her plans to Hounslow and Ealing
councils which currently own the park jointly. The
authorities are expected to make a decision at the end of
September.

She says that the idea has been received enthusiastically
by the council. The council will not itself be funding the
winning scheme and all the bids will have to show how they
can obtain money from outside agencies.

Purvis hopes to secure the funding mainly from British
sources which promote health, education and sports but she
will also be approaching Japanese firms for support as
well as the national federations of various Japanese
sports and arts in the country.

Various groups that have no permanent home have expressed
their enthusiasm for the project, and it is hoped that
once up and running visiting experts or students from
overseas or other parts of the country can come and stay
at the center, which will have traditional tatami mat
rooms with futons. If she succeeds, Purvis hopes that
center could be in full swing by 2005.

Purvis said that she first raised the idea with the
Japanese Embassy back in 1989 but the scheme fell by the
wayside due to organizations for the Japan festival in the
same year. "I remain convinced that the extent of Japanese
interests in this country deserves to have a physical
space," she told Kyodo News in London. "The Japanese
community here needs it."

She said that at the moment Japanese activities were
taking place at a number of locations of varying quality,
and the Japan Center in Piccadilly, central London, was
essentially a store.

Purvis said that the Nippon Club, also in central London,
only had a few rooms available and was not really equipped
for the range of activities envisaged by the center.

She said that the Japanese community's relative size had
inhibited the development of a center in the past.

"The Japanese interests are so big in Britain and there
are so many that I think it has made cooperation more
difficult than in smaller countries. The Japanese
community here really does keep its head down and it
doesn't have the presence which I think its size and
history justifies." (Kyodo News)

August 18, 2002








__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! BB is Broadband by Yahoo!  http://bb.yahoo.co.jp/