JBBY News_09/24_Press Conference for JBBY 50th
2024年9月18日
On April 19, 2024, a press conference was held in the hall of the Japan Publishers Club in Tokyo in honour of JBBY’s 50th anniversary. JBBY president UNO Kazumi introduced the IBBY mission of promoting international understanding through children’s books, as well as the activities the Japanese Section has carried out in pursuit of it. She stated that children’s books transcended cultural and political boundaries to create a road to hope in the world.
Board members also described what JBBY has planned for 2024 to commemorate its half-century mark, including exhibits in collaboration with the International Library of Children’s Literature, the National Diet Library, a series of courses on Japanese winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and a symposium on what children’s books mean to the world today featuring videotaped comments by twelve authors from around the world.
At the press conference, the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award winners, Heinz Janisch from Austria and Sydney Smith from Canada, were announced. There was also mention of winners of the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award and the IBBY iRead-Outstanding Reading Promoter Award.