Japan House London presents a programme of oral histories of Japanese immigrants in the UK who ventured overseas in search of new opportunities from the 1950s onwards.

The Wasurena-gusa Project includes exclusive interviews with Japanese people who came to the UK and decided to remain, from young travellers and creatives to expatriate businessmen and small-business entrepreneurs.

Through individual interviews, this series brings to life the political and economic transformations of Japan from the early post-war period in the 1950s, through the 1960s (when Japan opened itself to international travel by making passports more widely available and lifting restrictions on foreign currency), the high-growth decades of the 1970s and 1980s, and the period following the collapse of the bubble economy. The interviews shed light on the often extraordinary lives of Japanese people from different generations.

The screenings are held in conjunction with the Japan House London exhibition Kyotographie: Kawada Kikuji x Iwane Ai, which focuses on Japanese immigration to Hawaii as part of its wider narrative.

About the Wasurena-gusa Project

The Wasurena-gusa Project, run by the Japan Association in the UK, records the history of the Japanese community through interviews of those who settled in the UK from 1950 onwards.

About the Japan Association in the UK

The Japan Association in the UK (JA) was established in November 1996 with the aim of fostering a sense of community and providing mutual support for the growing number of Japanese residents in the UK. Initially named the Japanese Residents Association, it was renamed the Japan Association in the UK in 2011 and officially registered as a charity in January 2012. Since 2015, the Honorary President of the association has been the Consul General of Japan in the UK. Currently, Consul General Kajita Takuma holds this position.

The screenings are in Japanese with English subtitles.