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You have a final opportunity to meet with fellow NCCJ members before heading off on summer holidays. Please join us at Fifty Seven, situated in Roppongi, for an evening of tasty food, a few drinks, and good company. Also come and listen to the Dutch writer, Hans Brinckman who will talk to us about his most recent book Showa Japan: The Post-War Golden Age and its Troubled Legacy (Tuttle Publishing October 2008). 

"Showa Japan is primarily an exploration of the post-war part of the era, the Showa that is now idealized by many Japanese for its clear national objectives, firm social structures, hard work, and the sense that life could only get better. But, as the book reminds us, that revered Showa ended in an orgy of wild spending and excesses in every field that would eventually come crashing to a halt with the bursting of Japan's bubble economy from 1989 onward. From the highs of Showa-era achievement and ultimate extravagance to the lows of the lean years that followed, the book examines the impact of the Showa era and its aftermath on many aspects of Japanese society."

Hans Brinckmann (The Hague, 1932) lived in Japan from 1950 to 1974 as a ‘reluctant’ banker. He developed an early interest in Japanese culture and society and travelled widely through the country. In 2005 Global Oriental (U.K.) published his The Magatama Doodle, a memoir and socio-cultural commentary chronicling his 24 years in Japan, with a postscript on present-day conditions in the country. Both the original and the Japanese translation (Shinpusha, 2005) have been well received, including a highly favourable review in the Asahi Shimbun. 

In 2006 he published a collection of short stories, Noon Elusive (H2H Publishers). 

Brinckmann has lectured on Japanese subjects in Japan, the U.K. and the Netherlands, and written for the Op-Ed pages of leading Dutch and Japanese newspapers. Since 2003 he again makes his principal home in Japan. In September 2008 Brinckmann and Ysbrand Rogge  held an exhibition in Tokyo of their Showa-era photographs taken in Japan between 1951 and 1974, which attracted 49,000 visitors. 

More information on the book and other publications by Mr Brinckmann here:  www.habri.jp 

Payment on day (receipts provided) or payment by bank transfer available on request.

Confirmation and location details will be sent to all participants prior to the event day via email. Cancellations must be submitted in writing by email before 16 June. Regrets after 16 June or no shows will be charged in full and payments are non- refundable unless the organizer cancels the event.