Konnichiwa!

It was a delight to greet a lively crowd in JCC during the opening ceremony of ‘To the Forest of Verbs with “MUJI IS”’. Despite having given speeches before, it was a first for me to address the audience in person, as I had arrived in Singapore in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It is indeed a welcome change to be able to see everyone’s faces and feel the vibrant and cheery atmosphere, instead of focusing on the camera lens.

Of course, there are still a great deal of advantages to holding online events. We saw almost 200 audience members in the online talk ‘MUJI IS, DESIGN IS’, an audience size which well exceeds JCC’s capacity. We were also able to enjoy an enlightening cross-cultural discussion across physical borders between Ms Kazuko Koike, Ms Junko Suzuki, Ms Kelley Cheng, Ms Wendy Chua and Ms Felicia Toh.

JCC has worked closely and continuously with MUJI since the opening of JCC, and we are honoured that JCC is the first overseas venue for the exhibition that was previously held multiple times across Japan. It is fitting that our building is located against the backdrop of lush greenery, and I hope that this further adds to the visual imagery of wandering through a forest when you visit JCC. The exhibition is running until 27 July, and I look forward to welcoming everyone here.

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Toru Furugori
Director, Japan Creative Centre (JCC)
Embassy of Japan in Singapore
5th July 2022