Contact Us Sitemap

Funding

From the year 2023-2024, all applications should be digitally submitted and applicants should register to make an account for the procedures.

Please click here for examples from the previous year.

Visual Arts

Exhibitions Abroad Support Programme

This programme is designed to financially support museums, galleries and other relevant organisations mounting exhibitions or introducing Japanese art and culture to the UK.

Grant Coverage (Part of the following expenses):

  • Packing and shipping costs of Japanese exhibits (excluding insurance costs)
  • Catalogue production costs (including digital catalogue costs)
  • Travelling costs for invited Japanese artists, curators, and specialists (excluding costs for preliminary research and development).

Eligible project period: Exhibitions that will open between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025
Application Deadline: Thursday 30 November 2023, 4am GMT (1pm Japan Standard Time).

Notification of Results: April 2024

Please click here for further information about this programme.

For further information, and to discuss eligibility and the application procedure, please contact Junko Takekawa, Senior Arts Programme Officer.

Exhibitions Abroad Support Programme 2023-2024

Grants will be awarded to the following exhibitions:

Daido Moriyama: A Retrospective
Applicant: The Photographers’ Gallery

Paper Sanctuary: Pragmatism and Poetry for Ukrainian Refugees
Applicant: Clare Farrow Studio

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine
Applicant: Hayward Gallery

 

Previous Grant Recipients

Exhibitions Abroad Support Programme 2022-2023

Grants will be awarded to the following exhibitions:

ISHIUCHI Miyako
Applicant: Stills Ltd

Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe
Applicant: Modern Art Oxford

 

Ishibashi Foundation / The Japan Foundation Fellowship for Research on Japanese Art

This programme aims to support the development of professionals specialising in the study of Japanese visual art by providing an opportunity for curators and researchers from abroad to conduct research in Japan, and by doing so, promote the study of the field and the introduction of Japanese art overseas.

This fellowship is implemented by the Japan Foundation with generous funding from the Ishibashi Foundation.

Duration

21 to 59 days

*The fellowship’s beginning date (date of arrival in Japan) for FY 2024-2025 must fall between June 1, 2024 and March 15, 2025.

Benefits

  • Round-trip airfare (discount economy class [most direct route])
  • Stipend and other allowances

For application instructions, please click here

For the application form, please contact Junko Takekawa, Senior Arts Programme Officer.

Application Deadline: Thursday 30 November 2023, 4am GMT (1pm Japan Standard Time).

Notification of Results: April 2024

Ishibashi Foundation / The Japan Foundation Fellowship for Research on Japanese Art 2023-2024

Prof. Neil Jackson

Emeritus Professor of Architecture, University of Liverpool

 

Previous Grant Recipients

Ishibashi Foundation / The Japan Foundation Fellowship for Research on Japanese Art 2021-2022

Jason Waite

Researcher, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford

 

Local Project Support Programme

This programme is designed to give limited grant assistance to non-profit making projects/events relating to Arts and Culture that help to promote a greater awareness of Japan in the UK (e.g. exhibitions, performing arts, seminars, workshops, and conferences), benefitting the wider general public. The content of the project/event must be wholly, or for the most part, related to Japan.

Grant Coverage:

  • Only specific items such as travel expenses, honoraria, venue hire costs, printing/publicity costs etc. which are deemed to be essential in order to carry out the project.

Successful applications may be granted up to £1,500. Due to the circumstances surrounding Covid-19, we now accept applications for online projects.

Application Deadline: Rolling deadline (At least two months before the start of the project)

Please click here for further information about this programme.

For further information, and to discuss eligibility and the application procedure, please contact Junko Takekawa, Senior Arts Programme Officer.

Japanese-Language Program for Specialists in Cultural and Academic Fields

This programme is open to specialists working in museums and galleries e.g. curators, who require improvement of their Japanese language skills as part of their work.
Applicants must be under the age of 40. For more information, please click here.

Touring Exhibitions

For details about the availability of Japan Foundation Visual Arts Exhibitions, please click here.

Performing Arts

Since the Performing Arts Japan (PAJ) grant programme’s inception in 2006, more than 160 projects have been funded in order to introduce Japanese performing arts to a wide range of audiences, as well as provide support for collaborations between Japanese and European artists.

After a successful fifteen years’ run of increasing the opportunities to experience Japanese performing arts overseas, the programme will be discontinued after the grants of the 2021-2022 fiscal year have been awarded.

Local Project Support Programme

This programme is designed to give limited grant assistance to non-profit making projects/events relating to Arts and Culture that help to promote a greater awareness of Japan in the UK (e.g. exhibitions, performing arts, seminars, workshops, and conferences), benefitting the wider general public. The content of the project/event must be wholly, or for the most part, related to Japan.

Grant Coverage:

Only specific items such as travel expenses, honoraria, venue hire costs, printing/publicity costs etc. which are deemed to be essential in order to carry out the project.

Successful applications may be granted up to £1,500. Due to the circumstances surrounding Covid-19, we now accept applications for online projects.

Application Deadline: Rolling deadline (At least two months before the start of the project)

Please click here for further information about this programme.

For further information, and to discuss eligibility and the application procedure, please contact Junko Takekawa, Senior Arts Programme Officer.

Film

If you wish to organise Japan-related film screenings, talks and conferences in the UK, and would like the Japan Foundation to be involved financially or in other ways as your partner, we would like to hear from you.

Please discuss with Junko Takekawa, Senior Arts Programme Officer.

Please note that we will likely consider our involvement in the projects with a focus on Japan.

Publication

Support Program for Translation and Publication on Japan

This programme is designed to provide financial assistance for foreign publishers to translate and/or publish Japan-related books.

The original book written in Japanese must already be published, and both fiction and non-fiction (including the humanities, social sciences and the arts but excluding the natural sciences) titles are eligible.

Priority is given to translations of texts specified by the Foundation included in the list Worth Sharing - A Selection of Japanese Books Recommended for Translation which can be accessed by clicking here.

Grant Coverage (Part of the following expenses):

  • Translation fee
  • Publication and production costs (costs for paper, plate-making, printing, binding, etc. paid to printing companies, etc.)

Application Deadline: 4am GMT (1 pm Japan Standard Time), Monday 20 November 2023
Notification of results: Late April 2024

Please click here for information.

For further information, and to discuss eligibility and the application procedure, please contact Junko Takekawa, Senior Arts Programme Officer.

Support Program for Translation and Publication on Japan 2023-2024

N/A


Previous Grant Recipients

Support Program for Translation and Publication on Japan 2021-2022

Verso Books: Terminal Boredom by SUZUKI Izumi

Bitter Lemon Press: Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by ONDA Riku