Trinity bonenkai dinner on Tuesday 16 December 2025 at 7:30pm in Tokyo

Ambassador Ra Jong Yil (Trinity 1967) will speak on “The Dragon and the Beauty – Why a political scientist writes fairy tale stories” (in person in Tokyo only, not on zoom)

• 7:30pm – 8:00pm Ambassador Ra Jong Yil: “The Dragon and the Beauty – Why a political scientist writes fairy tale stories”
• 8:00pm – 10pm dinner
• 10:15pm – nijikai

Registration and prepayment before Tuesday 9 December 2025. I will send location and pre-payment details to those who register.

Ambassador Ra Jong Yil (Trinity 1967)

Ambassador Ra Jong Yil graduated with a PhD from Trinity, and held a long list of leadership positions in the South-Korean government, including National Security Advisor to President Roh Moohyun, a ministerial position, deputy director of the South Korean National Intelligence Service, Ambassador to the UK and to Japan, and President of Woosuk University (a private University with about 8000 students). He is University Distinguished Professor at Gachon University.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra_Jong-yil

He is Honorary Fellow of Clare Hall Cambridge

Ambassador Ra Jong-Yil donated the “Ra Jong-Yil Distinguished Lecture in Korean Studies” to the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/ra-jong-yil-distinguished-lecture

Ambassador Ra has written a long list of books, including

• a book on successions in DPRK’s leadership, book review in The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/12117599/Kim-Jong-uns-father-wanted-to-end-hereditary-rule-top-spy-reveals.html
• Road to Hanoi (Co-authored, Korean), 2022
• The Life and Death of a Terrorist (Japanese), 2021
  • ある北朝鮮テロリストの生と死　証言・ラングーン事件 (集英社新書)
  • https://www.amazon.co.jp/ある北朝鮮テロリストの生と死-証言・ラングーン事件-集英社新書-羅鍾一-ebook/dp/B095S7YTZP/
  • book review in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/world/asia/forgotten-killer-among-the-korean-erased.html?_r=0
• Discovery of Korea (co-authored, Korean), 2021
• Unhappy Presidents of Korea (co-authored, Korean), 2020
• Inside North Korea’s Theocracy (English), 2019
  • https://www.amazon.com/Inside-North-Koreas-Theocracy-Song-thaek/dp/1438473729/
• The World and Korean War (Korean), 2019
• Our Beautiful Country (Chinese), 2019
• Dynasty of Purge (Japanese), 2017
  • 粛清の王朝・北朝鮮
  • https://www.amazon.co.jp/粛清の王朝・北朝鮮-羅-鍾一/dp/4492212337/
• and fairy tales and many other books and publications

To register:

All Trinity College Cambridge Fellows, students, alumni or members living in or visiting Japan are more than welcome to join us. To register, or for any enquiries contact us here:

All Trinity members – Fellows, Past Fellows, students, alumni very welcome

On Friday 16 December 2022 at 6:00pm we will have our annual Trinity in Japan bonenkai (year end party) in Tokyo.

• 6:00pm – 8:30 discussion and dinner
• nijikai

Cost of this meeting will be YEN 10,000 per person including Kaiseki banquet-style dinner and unlimited drinks from a fixed list, nijikai is extra. We will meet in central Tokyo.

Registration and prepayment until Friday 9 December 2022. I will send location details and account details for prepayment to those who register.

Given the Covid-19 situation we will follow all Government and restaurant rules on hygiene. If the situation changes and it becomes necessary to postpone I will notify those who have registered.

Register for our Youtube channel to view recordings of our discussion meetings:

https://www.youtube.com/trinityjapan?sub_confirmation=1

To register

If you are Trinity College Cambridge Fellow or member living in or visiting Japan please join us. To register, or for any enquiries contact us here:

Copyright (c) 2022 Trinity in Japan Society All Rights Reserved

All Trinity members – Fellows, Past Fellows, students, alumni very welcome

On Friday 10 December 2021 at 7:00pm we will have our bonenkai year end dinner party here in Tokyo:

• 7:00pm – 9:30pm dinner
• nijikai

Cost of this meeting will be YEN 10,000 including Kaiseki banquet-style dinner and unlimited drinks from a fixed list, nijikai is extra. We will meet in central Tokyo.

Registration and prepayment until Friday 3 December 2021. I will send location details and account details for prepayment to those who register.

Given the Covid-19 situation we will follow all Government and restaurant rules on hygiene. If the situation changes and it becomes necessary to postpone I will notify those who have registered.

Register for our Youtube channel to view recordings of our discussion meetings:

https://www.youtube.com/trinityjapan?sub_confirmation=1

To register

If you are Trinity College Cambridge Fellow or member living in or visiting Japan please join us. To register, or for any enquiries contact us here:

Copyright (c) 2021 Trinity in Japan Society All Rights Reserved

All Trinity members – Fellows, Past Fellows, students, alumni very welcome

On Friday 18 December 2020 at 7:30pm we will have our bonenkai year end party:

• 7:30pm – 9:30pm dinner
• nijikai

Cost of this meeting will be YEN 10,000 including Kaiseki banquet-style dinner and unlimited drinks from a fixed list, nijikai is extra. We will meet in central Tokyo.

Registration and prepayment until Friday 11 December 2020. I will send location details and account details for prepayment to those who register.

Given the Covid-19 situation we will follow all Government and restaurant rules on hygiene. If the situation changes and it becomes necessary to postpone I will notify those who have registered.

Register for our Youtube channel to view recordings of our discussion meetings:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_I77ZuU_ce8ZKVdAysPWkA?sub_confirmation=1

To register

If you are Trinity College Cambridge Fellow or member living in or visiting Japan please join us. To register, or for any enquiries contact us here:

Copyright (c) 2020 Trinity in Japan Society All Rights Reserved

All Fellows or members of Trinity College (Cambridge University) living in or visiting Tokyo are very welcome

Informal Trinity bonenkai. Members are welcome to bring one guest.

On Tuesday 25 December 2018 at 7pm we’ll meet for an informal bonenkai. There is no fixed charge, and we’ll split the cost expected to be around YEN 5000 each.

All Fellows or members of Trinity College (Cambridge University) living in or visiting Tokyo are very welcome and each member is very welcome to bring one guest.

Registration is flexible, but in order to reserve space in the busy bonenkai period, please let me know by Friday 21 December if you attend.

To register:

Copyright (c) 2018 Trinity in Japan Society All Rights Reserved

All Fellows or members of Trinity College (Cambridge University) living in or visiting Tokyo are very welcome

Trinity bonenkai year end meeting Tuesday 18 December 2018 at 7pm in Tokyo

• 7pm – 9:30pm dinner meeting
• after 9:30pm – nijikai drinks nearby

The fee including dinner and unlimited drinks will be YEN 10,000, nijikai drinks etc are separate.

All Fellows or members of Trinity College (Cambridge University) living in or visiting Tokyo are very welcome.

Registration and prepayment until Tuesday 11 December 2018. I will send location details and account details for prepayment to those who register.

To register and to contact us:

Copyright (c) 2018 Trinity in Japan Society All Rights Reserved

Trinity in Japan bonenkai in Tokyo Friday 15 December 2017 at 7pm with Senior Research Fellow Dominic Lieven

All Fellows or members of Trinity College (Cambridge University) living in or visiting Tokyo are very welcome

Trinity Senior Research Fellow Dominic Lieven is planning to join our bonenkai dinner!

The fee is again YEN 10,000 including a kaiseki menu and unlimited drinks for about 2 hours, please prepay the fee as always. Usually we go for nijikai nearby. (with kind support from the College, we may be able to offer a subsidized rate for students, interns or comparable, please let me know when you register in case you like to be considered).

Registration and prepayment deadline is Friday 8 December 2017. I will send location details and account details for prepayment to those who register.

Dominic Lieven

Senior Research Fellow at Trinity, Professor Faculty of History

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Lieven
• Professor Dominic Lieven at Cambridge
• Professor Dominic Lieven at LSE
• Professor Dominic Lieven at Harvard
• And here, Dominic Lieven on “The European Crisis” in Nikkei

Professor Dominic Lieven’s most recent book Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia was selected as FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015, and was awarded the Pushkin House Prize – watch interviews with Professor Dominic Lieven here.

Professor Lieven’s recent book “Russia against Napoleon. The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814“, won the Wolfson History Prize and the Annual Prize of the Fondation Napoléon for the best foreign work on the Napoleonic era.

CIRSD Conference on WWI: Panel “What Kind of Failure?” – Prof. Dominic Lieven

Dominic Lieven: Dismantling Anglophone Hegemony Is a Costly Enterprise:

BOOKS:

• Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals (Yale Nota Bene)
• Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire
• Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia
• The End of Tsarist Russia: The March to World War I and Revolution
• Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace
• The Cambridge History of Russia: Volume 2, Imperial Russia, 1689–1917
• The Aristocracy in Europe 1815-1914
• 帝国の興亡〈上〉―グローバルにみたパワーと帝国
• 帝国の興亡〈下〉―ロシア帝国とそのライバル
• ニコライ2世―帝政ロシア崩壊の真実

Copyright (c) 2017 Trinity in Japan Society All Rights Reserved