Image: Love and Peace from Sion Sono.
Masafumi Konomi, until recently the head of the Arts & Culture Department at the Japan Foundation in Australia, describes the remit of his organisation very simply, in a call from Tokyo: ‘Our purpose is to introduce Japanese culture to overseas people and we have about twenty two offices in different countries.’ A film festival is a logical weapon of soft power, and the Japanese Film Festival helped to pioneer the national festival movement which has swept the arthouse cinemas.
