The Japan PEN Club and the Japan Foundation Toronto Center for Japanese Studies hosted an event titled “Japanese and Canadian Writers Talk: Social Transformation by Pandemic and Its Impact on Creative Writing”.

The event was attended by authors Margaret Atwood, Katherine Govier, and Vincent Lam from Canada, and Jiro Asada, Natsuo Kirino, and Keiichiro Hirano from Japan, who spoke about the changes in society, culture, and people’s behavior and thinking brought about by the Corona disaster, as well as the impact of the disaster on their future creations.

In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Japan Foundation Toronto, the Japan PEN Club and the Japan Foundation Toronto will hold a Japan-Canada Literature Exchange “Japanese and Canadian Writers Speak Out: Social Transformations and the Impact of the Pandemic on Creative Writing”. We asked prominent writers representing both Japan and Canada to talk about the changes in society, culture, people’s behavior and way of thinking brought about by the Corona pandemic, and the impact on their creativity in the future. The Canadian writers were Margaret Atwood, Katherine Govier, and Vincent Lam, and the Japanese writers were Jiro Asada, Natsuo Kirino, and Keiichiro Hirano. The Japanese writers are Jiro Asada, Natsuo Kirino, and Keiichiro Hirano. Each writer will ask questions to the other country in advance and answer each other’s questions during the talk. The coordinator is Professor Emeritus Ayako Sato of Meiji Gakuin University.
The talks of the six writers and the greetings of the organizers can be viewed on the official YouTube channel “Japan PEN Club”.
Recordings were made in Canada and Japan in February and March 2021.

For more information about the event and its authors, please visit The Japan Pen Club website and The Japan Foundation Toronto Japanese Cultural Centre website.