As Artistic Director, Yoko Shioya has carried out the Japan Society’s Performing Arts Program mission of presenting works inspired by the arts and culture of Japan in New York City and beyond. Her award-winning curation of about 200 programs of Japanese theater, dance, and music spans the very traditional to the most cutting edge. In this year of special programming celebrating her accomplishments over the past twenty years, Yoko will join us in Pittsburgh to share an update on her perspective of the evolutions in the field to ways in which artists are innovating and keeping traditions alive. 

Join the JASP on April 17, 2025 for a lecture about the performing arts landscape inside and outside of Japan. Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be provided.

Yoko Shioya became head of Japan Society’s Performing Arts program in 2004 and Artistic Director in 2006. Her many contributions including increasing commissions for new non-Japanese works about Japanese culture, expanded North American tours, readings for contemporary plays in English, and the JAPAN CUTS film festival. Shioya received BAs in musicology and dance history from Tokyo University of the Arts. In Japan, she is known as a writer and researcher on the arts, presenting at various symposia, TV programs, cultural institutions, and as a writer for the Asahi Newspaper.