Once an indispensable part of daily life in Japan, ultra-thin washi paper was used for everything from writing and painting to lampshades, umbrellas, and sliding doors, but demand has plunged as lifestyles have become more westernised.

As the world goes through messy divorces of Brexit and the US-China trade spat, there is growing angst at whether we are moving into a period of disorder. This month will tell us if these relationships can be patched up, but it is already clear that Brexit will happen, deal or no deal, while a detente on US-China tariff negotiations will still leave damaged relations that will take a long time t