Ireland–Japan Connections and Crossings celebrates sixty-five years of Irish–Japanese diplomatic relations and its publication is one part of a number of commemorative events designed to cherish past and future relations between the two countries.

The book is a celebration of each country and their influences on one another. It is impossible to document these in their entirety; and this is not the purpose of the book. The articles, stories and poems in this book are a selection from a very wide and deep source. Covering a broad spectrum, the contributions fall into a number of defined categories: diplomatic, economic, history and culture, education, memoir and poetry. We hope that the book will encourage and inspire readers to continue to read, enquire and travel into these unique, well-connected islands.

John FitzGerald is Director of Information Services and University Librarian, University College Cork. Richard J. Kelly is a Professor in the Department of Literature, Faculty of Literature, Arts and Cultural Studies, and in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Human Studies, Kindai University, Osaka Japan. Claire Connolly is Professor of Modern English and Head of the School of English and Digital Humanities, University College Cork and Hiroyasu Fujisawa is a Professor in the Department of Literature, Faculty of Literature, Arts and Cultural Studies, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan.