Daiwa Foundation funds projects ranging from a Daido Moriyama retrospective at the Photographers’ Gallery, to research into promoting renewable CO2-free hydrogen and ammonia technologies as future green fuels.

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (www.dajf.org.uk) has published details of its Small Grants and Awards awarded to support a total of 35 UK-Japan projects in its latest funding round: March 2023.

A Daiwa Foundation Small Grant will unite Northern Ireland’s taiko drumming with Japan’s world-famous KODO group by supporting Foyle Obon festival directors Fiona and Katsu Umetsu to travel to Sado Island in Niigata to build deeper links with the KODO drummers and bring back knowledge of Japanese festivals and taiko to deliver workshops and masterclasses in Derry.

The University of Bristol, Department of Engineering Mathematics, partnered with Kyoto University and RIKEN, have received a grant for reciprocal Japan-UK visits by academics to collaborate on developing soft wearable devices, replacing the conventional exoskeleton mount, to deliver easy and comfortable devices capable of providing high mobility assistance and which are easier to put on and remove.

The University of Highlands and Islands will collaborate with the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) and Nagoya University to enhance creative arts engagement in remote coastal communities in the North-West Highlands and the Amami Islands, resulting in a virtual exhibition and platform for ongoing exchange.

Also with a focus on Amami is Dr Charlotte Linton from the University of Oxford, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Dr Linton will travel to Amami Oshima to conduct empirical research and return historically important slides photographed in the 1950s by an American anthropologist to its originating Amamian community, resulting in exhibitions in Japan and the UK and scholarly articles.

Artist Charlie Calder-Potts has received a small grant to travel to Japan to follow a pilgrimage ending in Nara to study the ‘Fuda’, ‘Ema’ & ‘Tanzaku’, their place in Japanese contemporary culture and the history of pilgrimage surrounding these ‘offerings’, leading to a solo exhibition at Fosse Gallery in 2024.

Three UK-based academics will travel to Japan to take part in international workshops on climate assemblies as part of a larger research project on ‘The Possibilities and Challenges of Climate Democracy in Japan’, facilitated by Hokkaido University.

Dr Rahat Javaid, a researcher in the Hydrogen Energy Team at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan, will travel to three partnering institutions in the UK – University of Birmingham, Cardiff University, and Northumbria University – to establish a research network promoting renewable CO₂-free hydrogen and ammonia technologies as future green fuels.

A grant will support exhibition transportation and travel by a representative of Daido Moriyama for the upcoming major retrospective exhibition of the acclaimed photographer. ‘Daido Moriyama: A Retrospective‘ opens to the public on Friday 6 October at The Photographers’ Gallery.

Of the larger institutional collaborations selected in this round, two Scotland-based projects have been granted Daiwa Foundation Awards. Dr Radha Adhikari from the University of the West of Scotland, School of Health in Life Sciences, Dr Jeevan Raj Sharma, the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Reinaruth Carlos, Ryukoku University, will conduct collaborative research into labour shortages in Japan and the UK and fast-growing trends in international student mobility through reciprocal Japan-UK research trips. The study will focus on Nepali students in the health and social care sectors in Japan and the UK, comprising of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions.

Another Daiwa Foundation Award will support the relaunch of the Project Trust’s international volunteer programme in Japan for the travel of ten volunteers taking up English teaching placements at five different partner organisations across Japan, revitalising the 30 year pre-pandemic relationship between the Scotland-based charity and Japan.

The full list of projects which received funding in the March 2023 round can be viewed here.

Previously funded projects 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