The symbolic gesture of picking São Paulo for the grand opening of Japan House hints at the value attributed by Japan to its strategic global partnership with Brasília. [...] unless Tokyo and Brasília decide to go for a thorough re-evaluation of the terms upon which their dysfunctional bilateral cooperation was structured over time, and think of innovative ways to carry it through in the future, Japan House will be of little help in making the ties that unite the two countries even bolder.

Marcello Dantas, a renowned Brazilian curator celebrated not only for producing exhibitions, but also involved in filmmaking and opera production, talks about Japan House Sao Paulo and his plans as its director of programming and chief curator. [...] Japan House is a place to inspire people with the contemporary ideas that Japan has developed. Those ideas can be artistic, design-focused, architectural, technological, environmental, social, political or traditional.