Daiwa Foundation funds projects ranging from a comparative historical study of monetary systems in pre-modern Afro-Eurasia to a knowledge exchange in inclusive coaching methods in disabled football

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (www.dajf.org.uk) has published details of its Small Grants and Awards awarded to support a total of 24 UK-Japan projects in its latest funding round: September 2025.

A Daiwa Foundation Small Grant will support the travel to Japan of five cast and team members from Raw Material Arts Limited to tour the award-winning play Love Beyond, a production that addresses the themes of dementia and loss of memory whilst encouraging its audiences to empathise with loss of understanding and communication.

Professors Jane Kershaw (University of Oxford) and Rory Naismith (University of Cambridge) will conduct a research trip related to their Japan Society for the Promotion of Science-funded project, ‘A Comparative Historical Study of Monetary Systems in Pre-Modern Afro-Eurasia’. Their trip will include visits to Naganobori Copper Mine and Iwami Silver Mine, as well as talks at Fukuoka University on the metallurgy of coinage, all of which are relevant to their goals of enhancing existing academic links and producing new publications.

Members of Dalkeith Men’s Shed – a community-based organisation in Scotland committed to combatting loneliness, encouraging lifelong learning and strengthening local connections through practical projects, creativity and peer support – will travel to Sapporo to strengthen the Shed’s partnership with Pokke Kotan by promoting cultural understanding and further exchanges between both sheds.

A Daiwa Foundation Small Grant will also support reciprocal UK-Japan trips by Professor Koji Tasaka (Kindai University) and Professor Herbert Gangl (Durham University) with fellow researchers to collaborate on various aspects on period polynomials, ranging from mathematics to mathematical physics, with their main goal being to uncover phenomena enabled by period polynomials and to open new research frontiers in number theory and related fields.

Another Daiwa Foundation Small Grant will support a three-week research trip to Japan by Dr Catherine Jones (University of St Andrews) to undertake research interviews with policymakers in Japanese ministries, relevant institutes and think tanks. She will also consult academics at various universities, including Waseda, ICU, Ritsumeikan and Osaka Universities. These interviews will inform her chapter for the monograph, Anxious Allies: US alliances in East Asia, which attempts to further our understanding of the current state of the US–Japan strategic alliance.

Other projects have been granted Daiwa Foundation Awards based on their potential to further institutional UK-Japan collaboration. One Award will support UK-Japan flights for UK-based coach educators from Sports 4 Change – an organisation committed to creating inclusive opportunities by removing barriers to sport and promoting social connection and well-being – to train up to thirty Japanese coaches and volunteers from Ca Solua, a futsal club for people with low vision, in coaching for blind and partially-sighted players, communication and creating inclusive environments. Meetings with key stakeholders will also be held to showcase the initiative and discuss sustainability & national scaling. Support is also included for Japan-UK flights for Ca Soula coaches to visit the UK and witness local inclusive coaching methods firsthand. The project will culminate with a cultural exchange visit for a group of young people from the UK to take part in a celebration tournament at Ca Solua.

The full list of projects which received funding in the September 2025 round can be viewed here.

Background Information

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is a UK charity, established in 1988 with a generous benefaction from Daiwa Securities Co Ltd. The Foundation’s purpose is to support closer links between Great Britain and Japan. It does this by awarding grants and scholarships in all fields of activity; by supporting educational exchanges and other bilateral initiatives between British and Japanese academics and students; and by organising a year-round events programme at Daiwa Foundation Japan House in London to increase understanding of Japan in the UK. The Foundation is represented in Japan by its Tokyo office. Further information about the Foundation and its activities is available at www.dajf.org.uk.

Press Enquiries

Susan Meehan
Grants and Scholarships Officer
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
13/14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP TEL: 020 7486 4348   Email: grants@dajf.org.uk