Ichigo Ichie Dinner Event 2022 | PHOTO GALLERY

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On 18th November the Ireland Japan Association invited its members and friends for an unforgettable and timeless experience of exquisite Japanese haute-cuisine at the Michelin star Japanese restaurant Ichigo Ichie, Cork.

 

 

Event started with the welcome words by Hiro Ino, IJA Council, who thanked everyone of attending this every special occasion. Event guests had a unique opportunity to enjoy kaiseki multi-course tasting menu with elaborately prepared and exquisite dishes bringing everybody on an amazing taste journey through Japanese cuisine. We would like to thank chef Takashi Miyazaki and his team for this exclusive experience.

 

 

 

The IJA would like to thank Hiro Ino, IJA Council, for organising this wonderful event, and our hosts at Ichigo Ichie for an unforgettable evening at their beautiful restaurant.

Photos: Hiro Ino and Eva Reavley

Interview with Raymond Hegarty, IJA Chairperson | 2022 Ireland Report for The Japan Times

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We are delighted and very proud that the 2022 Ireland Report for The Japan Times features an interview with Raymond Hegarty, IJA Chairperson. You can read the full interview with Raymond Hegarty here: https://sms-bridges.com/encouraging-connections/
Founded in 1897, The Japan Times is Japan’s largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper with headquarters in Tokyo.
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This interview was prepared in cooperation with media specialists SMS Bridges. Bridges is a digital business and lifestyle magazine for high-level Japanese executives, global business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs.

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Ikebana Workshops in Dublin | PHOTO GALLERY

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On 29th October we welcomed our good friend Tomoko Sempo Yanagi, Professor of Ikenobo Ikebana Society and Chairperson of Ikenobo UK and Ireland Group to Dublin for two in-person Ikebana Workshops at the Warrenmount Community Education Centre.

We would like to thank everyone who joined Ikebana workshops, and we are delighted that so many people had an amazing opportunity to learn about the history and traditions of the beautiful and delicate Ikebana flower arranging art together with Ikebana master Tomoko Sempo Yanagi.

Huge thanks to Tomoko san for sharing her passion for Ikebana with all the participants, and inspiring everyone to discover more about this unique and beautiful part of Japanese culture. During the workshop participants created their own Ikebana arrangements using seasonal flowers and plants.

We also would like to thank Warrenmount Community Education Centre and Pauline McGaley for hosting our event, welcoming everyone at the venue and looking after us on the day!

Photos: Raymond Hegarty and Eddie Hughes

Openskies Aerial Technology Ltd. joins the IJA as a Corporate member

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Ireland Japan Association (IJA) is delighted to welcome Openskies Aerial Technology Ltd. on board the IJA as a Corporate member and is looking forward to a long lasting and successful cooperation.

Openskies Aerial Technology Ltd. builds open source tools, services and specifications to support the existing and future aerial robotics ecosystem, and provides technical expertise, software development capability and project management services to the future aviation systems.

Openskies Aerial Technology Ltd. professionally supports and has founded leading products and opensource communities in the context of UTM and unmanned aviation: Flight Blender (https://flightblender.com) and Flight Spotlight (https://flightspotlight.com) provide open source standards compliant UTM implementations. Aerobridge (https://aerobridge.io) focuses on drone assembly, manufacturing and flight security with software and hardware for trusted flights. – Hrishikesh Ballal, Co-Founder and CEO

 

If you wish to learn more about Openskies Aerial Technology Ltd. and services they provide, please visit their website: https://about.openskies.sh/or visit their profile on LinkedIn.

Cpl Resources team wins the IJA Golf Cup in 2022

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The IJA Annual Golf Outing 2022 tournament took place on 5th September at the beautiful Foxrock Golf Club, Dublin.

We would like to thank all the teams who supported us and participated in the tournament this year, and we send special congratulations to the winners – Cpl Resources team – who came first and won the IJA Ishikawa Cup in 2022!

Stephen Mullin, Cpl Resources, receives the IJA Ishikawa Cup from Raymond Hegarty, IJA Chairperson

1st place – Cpl Resources team
Stephen Mullin
Tom Kennedy
Fionan O’Sullivan
Eoin Greene

Congratulations to 2nd and 3rd place winners:

2nd place – Dillon Eustace team
Paul Breen
Peter Harvey
Darragh Sheehan
David Kavanagh

3rd place – SMBC Aviation Capital team

Tom Tanaka
Tomoo Fukuda
David Swan
Breifne Ryan

Many thanks to all participants of the tournament this year: Dillon Eustace, Mitsubishi Electric, SMBC Aviation Capital, Cpl Resources, Michael Darcy and David Dodd.

 

We would like to thank IJA Council members and event team who helped to organise this event: Stephen Mullin, Darina Slattery, and Raymond Hegarty.

We would like to thank our prize sponsors, the IJA Council and Cpl Resources, our hosts and team at the Foxrock Golf Club for all the help and support before and during our event, and last but not least – all our event participants who joined us on this day and made it such a great success.

We are looking forward to our Golf Outing 2023 tournament next year!

Raymond Hegarty, IJA Chairperson (left) and Michael Darcy, IJA Individual Member and former Chairperson (right)

Dillon Eustace Team – 2nd place winners

 

Dr. and Mrs. Ushioda Scholarship in 2022 is awarded to Joseph Peter Talento

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The Ireland Japan Association is delighted to announce that in 2022 the Ushioda Scholarship is awarded to Joseph Peter Talento, studying Business Studies International at DCU. Joseph will be travelling to Japan for an exchange year at Toyo University.

‘My name is Joseph, a Filipino who is in love with Japanese culture. Growing up I was surrounded and influenced in many ways by Japanese culture, including the language and media. I often found myself staring at videos, watching people visiting Japan and vlogging their experiences studying in the country. When I saw the option to complete an exchange year abroad in Japan with DCU, I thought – why don’t I try that myself? Along the way, I was able to learn more and more about Japanese society. Today, I am months away from beginning my exchange year abroad at Toyo University, under the Faculty of Economics. During these coming 11 months, I plan to really develop my strength in the language, travel as much as I can and overall, see what the realities of life in Japan is truly like!’ – Joseph Peter Talento

We would like to thank Ms Paula Kelly, IJA Council, for her support and assistance with the scholarship management and administration process this year.

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Dr. and Mrs. Ushioda Scholarship was established in 2019 in honour of Dr. and Mrs. Ushioda’s major contribution to the development of the Ireland Japan Association and Ireland-Japan relations, and to underpin the association’s strong commitment to supporting Japanese studies in Ireland.

IJA Annual Dinner 2022 | Photo Gallery

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On 17th June the IJA members, friends, and supporters came together to celebrate and enjoy one of our biggest events of the year – the IJA Annual Dinner 2022. This year it took place at one of the most beautiful Dublin venues – Radisson Blu St. Helen’s Hotel.

 

The evening began with Sake reception, kindly supported by our corporate member – Retro Vino Wine & Sake. Reception was followed by welcome words from Catherine Grennell-Whyte, Master of Ceremonies, and after that guests enjoyed a delicious 3-course meal in the beautiful Le Panto Suite.

 

Catherine Grennell-Whyte, Finnair/ATTS, Master of Ceremonies

 

Speeches were given by Raymond Hegarty, IJA Chairperson and Mr. Makoto Honda, Counsellor, DHM, Embassy of Japan.

 

 

Prize Giving this year was sponsored by the IJA Corporate members – Bank of Ireland, Cpl Resources, Dillon Eustace, KWE Ireland, Retro Vino, Unique Japan Tours and Yamamori. The Grand Prize this year was sponsored by Finnair, IJA 2022 Travel Partner, and we would like to congratulate the lucky winner who received 2 return flights to Japan.

 

Grand prize winner received 2 tickets to Japan from Finnair/ATTS.

 

It was great to see everyone back together after so long. We are happy for you attending the event and look forward to seeing you again in coming events. – Tsugumi Yamamoto, IJA Vice Chairperson

 

We would like to thank all our members and friends who attended the IJA Annual Dinner this year, and special thanks go to our 2022 Travel Partner – Finnair, and all our Corporate members for their continued support and very generous prizes.

We would also like to thank Dublin School for Japanese Children who made beautiful origami decorations for our dinner guests, and to Mrs. Tomoko Ozaki who created Ikebana flower arrangements for the event. Huge thanks to the event team at the Radisson Blu St. Helen’s Hotel for being great hosts and providing excellent service during our event.

We would like to thank Catherine Grennell- Whyte, Master of Ceremonies, and our event team and volunteers from the IJA Council – Raymond Hegarty, Tsugumi Yamamoto, Darina Slattery, Laura Goonan, Jonathan Kelly, Hiro Ino and Eddie Hughes – for their time, support and help to make this year’s event such a great success.

More photos from the IJA Annual Dinner 2022 are in the photo gallery below. Please click on the image to enlarge it.

 

Photos: Kevin O’Neill, Laura Goonan, Darina Slattery, Eddie Hughes, Raymond Hegarty and Jonathan Kelly 

Visit of Japan Ladies National Hockey Team to Dublin | June 2022

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The Japan Women’s National Field Hockey Team, also known as the ‘Sakura Japan’ will be visiting Dublin on the 18th, 19th, 22nd and 23rd of June 2022 to play a series of challenge games against the Ireland Women’s National Field Hockey Team in the SoftCo Series as part of final preparations for July’s World Cup. 

Photo: https://en.hockey.or.jp/national/sakura-japan/

The game schedule which will be played in the National Hockey Stadium in UCD Belfield Campus is set out below:

  • Saturday 18th June at 16:00 
  • Sunday 19th June at 16:00 
  • Wednesday 22nd June at 17:00 
  • Thursday 23rd June at 19:00 

Senior women’s head coach Sean Dancer is thrilled to get top class opposition in Japan, currently 10th in the world and two places above Ireland. They bring a fast, attacking style which will make for a thrilling series.

“With all the hockey being played around the world, it has been difficult to host matches in Ireland in recent times so we are delighted to be able to play these at home,” Dancer said.

“It has been a difficult couple of years with Covid and the girls are excited to see home crowds and the legendary Irish support back out in force.” 

Tickets can be purchased at  https://hockey.ie/buy-tickets/

UCD Belfield Sports Facilities: https://www.ucd.ie/sportfacilities/t4media/UCD-Pitches-Map.pdf

For more information: https://hockey.ie/softco-senior-series-against-japan-uniphar-u23-5-nations/

EU-Japan News | June 2022 Issue Available Now

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EU-Japan NEWS is the quarterly newsletter of the EU-Japan Centre launched in 2003 and containing EU-Japan-related news and features on topics of interest to EU and Japan businesses and public bodies.

The newest issue of the June 2022 Newsletter is available in an online and PDF version packed with the EU and Japan related news, partnering opportunities, network news and lots of other useful information and links.

 

 

EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation is a unique venture between the European Commission and the Japanese government. It is a non-profit organisation established as an affiliate of the Institute of International Studies and Training (IIST). It aims at promoting all forms of industrial, trade and investment cooperation between the EU and Japan and at improving EU and Japanese companies’ competitiveness and cooperation by facilitating exchanges of experience and know-how between EU and Japanese businesses.

You can read full June 2022 Newsletter online here!

You can read full June 2022 Newsletter in PDF format here!

Kwaidan: The exhibition and a prestigious cultural event connecting Japan and Ireland

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‘Kwaidan’, the exhibition and a prestigious cultural event connecting Japan and Ireland is managed by Blue Moon Projects and SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin.

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About Kwaidan
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Kwaidan aims to follow in Lafcadio Hearn’s footsteps by connecting east and west through common cultural values, and will be a shared celebration of the life and work of Lafcadio Hearn, the Irish literary figure revered in Japan as the cultural icon Koizumi Yakumo.
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Kwaidan includes 20 leading artists from Japan and 20 artists from Ireland who visually interpret a story of their choice from Kwaidan, Hearn’s 1904 seminal collection of ghost stories inspired by Shintō and Buddhist legends.

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The exhibition will be staged in many venues in Japan and Ireland from September 2023 to the end of 2025. This will include being one of the main opening events for the exhibition space in the new Irish Embassy building (New Ireland House) in Tokyo and at the Lafcadio Hearn Museum in Matsue. In Ireland the prestigious venues will include Farmleigh Gallery in Dublin and Hyde Bride Gallery at the Yeats Building Sligo.

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Kwaidan will offer unique access to connections, exposure and cultural affinity with an historic event that will have lasting resonance in both countries. Project has the support of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs Ireland, Irish Embassy in Tokyo, Japanese Embassy in Dublin, Business to Arts and UCD, and organisers will engage with Culture Ireland and The Arts Council of Ireland.

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For more information: https://kwaidanexhibition.com/

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About the Curators
  • SO Fine Art Editions is one of Ireland’s leading contemporary galleries specialising in printmaking. SO Director Catherine O’Riordan has worked with many of the Kwaidan participants previously. SO’s most recent international print project was a lonely impulse of delight in 2015 which toured to London, Beijing and Tokyo. www.sofinearteditions.com
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Contact details
Stephen Lawlor
0868314040
slawlorart@gmail.com
www.stephenlawlor.com
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