Suntory Foundation Announces Decisions for FY2025 Overseas Publication Assistance

The Suntory Foundation (Chairman: Shingo Torii) has decided to award grants to 10 projects for its FY2025 Overseas Publication Assistance. The total grant amount is 7.02 million yen.

This grant program aims to promote the understanding of Japan overseas by providing assistance for the translation and publication in foreign languages of outstanding research achievements written in Japanese or books written about Japan.

Since its inception in FY1979, and including the 2025 recipients, the foundation has supported 370 publications in a total of 31 languages, introducing Japanese academic achievements and culture broadly to the international community.

*Selection Committee Members:
Satoshi Ikeuchi (Professor, University of Tokyo)
Nobuhiro Ito (Specially Appointed Professor, Osaka University)
Fumiaki Kubo (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo)
Jing Zhang (Professor Emeritus, Meiji University)
Yasushi Watanabe (Professor, Keio University)

1. Books Selected for This Year's Grant
No. / Title / Author or Editor / Language / Publisher (Country)
1. "The Geopolitics of Global Value Chains" by Satoshi Inomata; English; Brookings Institution Press (USA)
2. "Held in Transition: Japan's Karafuto Residents Under Soviet Rule on Sakhalin Island, 1945-1949. Words, Objects, Images" by Marie Sevela; English; University of Valencia Press (Spain)
3. "Parallax Memory, Performative Recollection: War Memory in Contemporary Japanese Video Art" by Ayelet Zohar; English; Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley (USA)
4. "The Road to the 'Meiji Revolution': 19th Century Japan's Quest for 'Civilization'" by Tadashi Karube; Korean; Beanshelf (South Korea)
5. "Kohei Sugiura and the Era of Phototypesetting: Optical Technology and Japanese Design" by Takuya Abe; Chinese; Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing House (China)
6. "China and Taiwan: The Politics of Crisis and Equilibrium" by Yasuhiro Matsuda; Chinese; National Taiwan University Press (Taiwan)
7. "The Iwakura Embassy (Volume 1)" by Kunitake Kume; Arabic; Odabaa 2000 for Publishing and Distribution (Egypt)
8. "The Origins of Modern Japanese Literature (Definitive Edition)" by Kojin Karatani; Spanish; Radical Books (Verso Libros) (Spain)
9. "Philosophical Essays II" by Kitaro Nishida; French; Éditions Mimésis (Italy)
10. "Prisoners and Madness: Prisons, Literature, and Society in 19th Century France" by Rei Umezawa; French; Presses Universitaires Rhin & Danube (France)
*Nos. 2 and 3 are original English manuscripts.

2. Books Completed in FY2025 (Selected in Previous Years)
No. / Title / Author or Editor / Language / Publisher (Country)
1. "Re-reading Japanese History Through Clothing: Cross-dressing and Kingship" by Sachiko Takeda; English; Osaka University Press (Japan)
2. "Diary of a Farmer at the Foot of Mt. Kanpu in Oga" by Saburo Yoshida; English; University of Hawaii Press (USA)
3. "The Geopolitics of War" by Hideaki Shinoda; English; Springer Nature (Singapore)
4. "Design Before Disaster: Japan's Culture of Preparedness" by Miho Mazereeuw; English; University of Virginia Press (USA)
5. "In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan" by Alicia Volk; English; University of Chicago Press (USA)
6. "History of Chinese Calligraphy" by Kyuyo Ishikawa; Chinese; Shaanxi People's Publishing House (China)
7. "Seiyo Kiban (Tidings of the West)" by Hakuseki Arai; Italian; Adiuvare (Italy)
8. "Atsushi Nakajima: Translation and Research of Colonial Literature" by Elio Bova; Italian; Ortica Editrice (Italy)
9. "Fundamental Problems of Philosophy (Sequel): The Dialectical World" by Kitaro Nishida; French; Presses de l'Université de Montréal (Canada)

(Titles and affiliations as of April 1, 2026)