This documentary film chronicles life at a large Japanese elementary school in suburban Tokyo, where filmmaker Ema Ryan Yamazaki has distilled over 700 hours of footage into a compelling examination of how Japanese educational institutions cultivate culturally distinct characteristics in young students. While Japanese approaches to teaching discipline and responsibility in elementary education have historically been viewed with both curiosity and skepticism through a Western lens, these methodologies have garnered increasing recognition in recent years and are now considered exportable models of educational excellence. The film explores the transformative processes that shape unsuspecting six-year-olds into disciplined twelve-year-olds, while thoughtfully examining both the advantages and potential drawbacks of this educational philosophy.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ema Ryan Yamazaki, recognized for her previous works Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators and Koshien: Japan's Field of Dreams, will be present for this exclusive screening of her latest documentary. This event will feature the complete documentary screening of The Making of a Japanese, prior to its official public release in the United States. Following the film presentation, Ms. Yamazaki will join in conversation with Katherine (Kemy) Monahan.

Join us for this lunchtime documentary screening and talk. Lunch will be served on a first-come, first-served basis.

Speaker

Raised in Osaka by a Japanese mother and British father, Ema Ryan Yamazaki grew up navigating between Japanese and Western cultures. Having studied filmmaking at New York University, she uses her unique storytelling perspective as an insider and outsider in Japan. In 2017, Ema’s first feature documentary, MONKEY BUSINESS: THE ADVENTURES OF CURIOUS GEORGE’S CREATORS was released worldwide after raising over $186,000 on Kickstarter. In 2019, Ema’s second feature documentary about the phenomenon of high school baseball in Japan, KOSHIEN: JAPAN’S FIELD OF DREAMS, premiered at DOC NYC. In 2020, the film aired on ESPN, and was released theatrically in Japan. It was a New York Times recommendation for international streaming and featured on the Criterion Channel. Ema's latest documentary feature, THE MAKING OF A JAPANESE, follows one year in a Japanese public school. The film premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2023 and is currently playing festivals around the world, with a release set in Japan for December 2024. 

Moderator

Katherine (Kemy) Monahan joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as a visiting scholar, Japan Program Fellow, for the 2025-2026 academic year. She has served 30 years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, across 16 assignments on four continents.  She most recently served as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Japan, following an assignment as Charge d’affaires for Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, and an assignment as Deputy Chief of Mission to New Zealand, Samoa, Cook Islands, and Niue.  Ms. Monahan established and led UNICEF’s Washington D.C.-based International Financial Institutions liaison office, where she negotiated over $1 billion in funding for children in need. Ms. Monahan also served in the U.S. Embassy Mexico as Advisor in the World Bank’s Africa Office, as Deputy Executive Director of the Secretary of State’s Global Health Initiative, and as Senior Development Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels. Earlier in her career, she worked in Warsaw, Poland, to privatize the energy and telecommunications sectors and led the team to ratify the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention.