Japan Society proudly announces Foreign Exchange 2025: Cross-Cultural Conversations with Anime Visionaries, a film and discussion series founded and curated by award-nominated creator and director LeSean Thomas (Yasuke, Cannon Busters) taking place November 17-22, 2025. Japan Society is a 118-year-old nonprofit organization in New York City with the mission of bringing the U.S. and Japan closer together, and it is honored to present this special event focused on the cross-cultural dialogue between Japan and the U.S. through the popular arts.
Founded and curated at the historic Japan Society in New York City by LeSean Thomas in 2024, Foreign Exchange—a cross-cultural craft salon—returns in 2025 with an expanded edition. This year, Thomas extends the salon’s mission from the singular, creator dialogue in 2024 to creator-to-creator conversations that reveals how U.S. and Japanese artists build anime across borders, moving beyond last year’s personal spotlight to convene with peers and pioneers such as Shinichiro Watanabe (creator of Adult Swim’s recent hit Lazarus and the landmark Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo) and Justin Leach (producer of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Visions and Netflix’s Leviathan), with Thomas—creator of Netflix’s NAACP Image Award–nominated Yasuke—acting as host. Across a week of rare conversations, screenings, and classroom visits, the program gives students, professionals, and fans an inside view of the craft, collaboration, and business of global anime while elevating the makers who are broadening global anime production.
Foreign Exchange 2025 will begin Nov 17-19 with a series of classroom visits by Thomas and Leach to schools including New York University, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, Fordham University, and the School of Visual Arts where they will conduct in-depth talks with aspiring art, animation, and film students to help equip the next generation of animators, directors and creators.
Then, from Nov 20-22, Thomas, Leach and Watanabe will present three days of events at the historic Japan Society, located at 333 East 47th St, just one block from the United Nations. At Japan Society, the three will appear on a free moderated talk for students and educators to discuss the skills needed to work in U.S. and Japanese animation; three public talks about animation production and inspiration; and introduce four public screenings including both Lazarus and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, sharing personal perspectives on the works before each event.
In addition, Japan Society will host a limited-time pop-up exhibit showcasing production art from Adult Swim’s Lazarus personally selected by Watanabe. It will further have a limited number of copies of Foreign Exchange: The TV Anime Creations of LeSean Thomas Vol. 1 – Yasuke, a 260+ page companion art book with never-before-released production art along with personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Thomas’s Yasuke, available for purchase. Rounding out the week, NYC’s Rough Trade Records will host an autograph signing for Shinichiro Watanabe, with more details below.
- Films and Public Talks: $20 Public / $18 Students & Seniors / $16 Japan Society Members
- Series Pass: $100 Public / $90 Students & Seniors / $80 Japan Society Members
All Nov 17-19 classroom events are free for students at their respective schools. The Nov 20 student talk at Japan Society is free with RSVP and for students and educators across NYC. Through a partnership with The Imagination Project Inc. (501c3), a NYC based not-for-profit focused on providing career technical education for underserved marginalized youth, there is a focus on inviting schools and organizations that serve BIPOC youth and diverse students to hear from Thomas, Leach and Watanabe.
Tickets are available now at japansociety.org/film.
All Nov 20-22 talks and screenings will take place at Japan Society’s landmarked headquarters at 333 East 47th St, New York, NY 10017, one block from the United Nations and minutes from Grand Central Terminal.
Source: Press Release
