H.E. AMBASSADOR HIROSHI ISHIKAWA

Ambassador of Japan to Singapore

I am thrilled to welcome everyone once again to our annual Japanese Film Festival in Singapore. The year 2023 is especially unique and a year of “double happiness” for us. First and foremost, we celebrate 40 years of our unwavering commitment to the Festival, the largest event fully dedicated to Japanese cinema in Singapore. Secondly, we commemorate 50 years of friendship and cooperation between Japan and ASEAN, in which our festival is honoured to have played a crucial role in it.

 It is amazing to see how the festival has evolved and flourished over the years, going from only a handful of films at one venue in 1983 to this year's line-up of various films in a variety of genres, from comedy to horror, contemporary releases to timeless classics, across multiple venues. Besides that, we have broadened our scope to include celebrating Japanese film and inspiring and nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. Examples include holding pre-festival programmers’ talks, masterclasses by filmmaker from the Japanese film industry, and a short film competition that incorporates Japanese culture. These would not have been possible without continued support of Singaporeans and their growing affection for Japanese cinema and culture over the decades. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to everyone for their consistent support to our festival throughout the years.

This festival has been a member of the Japanese Film Festival Asia Pacific Gateway Initiative since 2016, together with similar festivals in ASEAN and other countries. The JFF Initiative provides opportunities for people to gather offline and online and to deepen the bonds among Japanese film fans in the region. Our festival plays an important role in bridging such cultural exchanges between Japan and ASEAN in the field of cinema, making this year’s 50th commemorative year of ASEAN-Japan relations especially meaningful.

 Once again, we are privileged to partner with the Singapore Film Society and the Japan Foundation in organising this festival. I am confident that this year’s programme line-up will be more engaging and exciting than ever before, especially for fans of Japanese films and culture. Through our festival, I hope that our friends in Singapore will continue to have a deeper awareness and interest in Japan and Japanese culture. May their enthusiasm for Japanese films grow during the festival and beyond.

Thank you, and please sit back and enjoy.

KENNETH TAN

Chairman of Singapore Film Society

Forty years is a long time. 

The only thing in my life that I’ve had or done for a longer period than that, is serving in the Singapore Film Society, which I joined in 1982.

One year after that, in 1983, I worked on the very first Japanese Film Festival in Singapore, with the Embassy of Japan. This inaugural JFF was part of a series of events in conjunction with the official visit of the then Prime Minister of Japan, Mr Yasuhiro Nakasone. 

In the years that followed, my team and I have worked with successive cohorts of Ambassadors, deputies, secondees from other ministries in Japan, and, from 2009 onwards with the establishment of the Japan Creative Centre, also with JCC colleagues. 

The exposure and learning journey that my JFF work has blessed me to embrace has had such a profound impact on my life that I chose to spend an entire month in Tokyo for my first overseas experience on an international staff exchange program. And inspired me to visit Japan more times than any other country outside Singapore. To date, I have done a total of twenty-two trips there. Every encounter I’ve had in Japan has been beautiful. But the most precious of all was, when my hotel’s restaurant staff, Mdm Nakajima, of her own accord, bought and gave me a breakfast bento gift from outside the hotel, early in the morning of my departure for Singapore, because my departure time was earlier than the opening time of the restaurant. Mdm Nakajima subsequently visited Singapore later that year with her sister.

I have told the story of Mdm Nakajima to thousands of people over the years. And I have worked lovingly and proudly on JFF ever since. It is my honour to collaborate with a country that treats visitors with such considerateness, professionalism, warmth, and perfection.

Now, 2023 is the 40th Anniversary of our longest-running country-themed film festival. Its longevity and popularity bear vivid testimony to the power of Japanese cinema. And to the unparalleled beauty of the human spirit in Japan.