Portrait of Japan (PoJ) is a photography award that celebrates and showcases the faces of people who make up Japan to promote the power of portrait photography. It was envisioned as a Japanese version of Portrait of Britain, a groundbreaking exhibition showing the face of modern Britain by 1854 Media, publisher of the British Journal of Photography. The award is open to photographers of every level. Our esteemed panel of judges will assess all images, including Takashi Homma, Mari Katayama, Hellen van Meene, Yoshiyuki Okuyama, and Alec Soth. PoJ is in its first year and is run as part of Tokyo Tokyo FESTIVAL by Arts Council Tokyo.

PoJ invites all photographers to submit work that celebrates the diversity of people who have a deep connection with Japan. It doesn’t matter where your subject lives, but to be eligible, your photos must have been taken after January 1, 2020. Each of the five judges will select one photographer to win the first prize of ¥100,000. Fifty winners, including the five first prize winners, will be announced on our website in mid-August. Their work will be exhibited on MC Decaux digital screens around Tokyo from late August to early September.

Submission Period: June 15 – July 11, 2021