On January 6, 2026, three members of the Tokyo Foundation, including President Mieko Nakabayashi, visited the UNSW Business School in Sydney. The delegation was warmly welcomed by Professor and Senior Deputy Dean Karin Sanders, along with members of the Sylff steering committee and administrative staff, with whom they exchanged views on the Sylff program at UNSW.

The Sylff program at UNSW Business School is characterized by its strong integration of academic study with industry engagement. Fellows specializing in fields such as marketing, finance, and business management are encouraged to develop leadership by pursuing research with practical relevance and social impact.

During the visit, the delegation met with four Sylff fellows on campus—Marian Cooray, Vartan Bal, Özlem Beldan, and Sacha Da Cunha Soares—who presented the research they conducted during their fellowships. Their work addresses a range of pressing challenges, including climate action, sustainable economic growth, and social inclusion.

Front row (from left): Fellow Özlem Beldan, fellow Sacha da Cunha Soares, contact person Florence Yang, and fellow Marian Cooray; back row (from left): fellow Vartan Bal, Treasury Director Andrew Fellowes, contact person Toni Hodge, Professor Karin Sanders, Executive Director Mari Suzuki, President Mieko Nakabashi, and Public Communications Officer Hiroshi Saito.

The following day, the delegation also met Oscar Osborne, a Sylff fellow from 2020 to 2022, over lunch in Sydney. Reflecting on his experience in the Sylff community, Osborne shared how the program broadened his international perspective. He also spoke about his plans to launch a startup and his interest in collaborating with corporate and nonprofit partners in Japan and the United States.

Meeting with fellow Oscar Osborne over lunch.

The delegation was particularly impressed by how engaging and outgoing the fellows were, as well as by their commitment to applying academic knowledge to real-world challenges beyond the classroom.

This trip to Sydney was the Foundation’s first visit to a Sylff institution in 2026 and a promising start to the year. We look forward to additional visits and continued engagement with the Sylff community in the months ahead.

In February 2026, Cynthia Kwakyewah—a 2016-17 Sylff fellowship recipient and currently a course director in social science at York University—published an article in The Conversation examining the evolving landscape of corporate responsibility and community activism in Ghana’s mining, oil, and gas sectors. The piece draws heavily on her doctoral research, supported by a Sylff Research Abroad grant in 2019–20.

Kwakyewah is a global sociologist specializing in human rights, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable development. In the article, she provides both an empirical analysis and a hopeful narrative of how communities, civil society organizations, and state institutions in Ghana are challenging longstanding patterns of corporate abuse.

A History of Resource Extraction, a New Wave of Accountability

Ghana’s long history of gold, stone, sand, and salt mining has often displaced people, polluted the environment and destroyed livelihoods. While public perception commonly assumes that such abuses persist with few consequences, Kwakyewah’s findings reveal a more complex and rapidly shifting reality.

Her research analyzed 27 human‑rights‑related cases filed between 2000 and 2020 and included interviews with policymakers and civil society leaders to illuminate on‑the‑ground dynamics.

One key insight was that 83% of rights violations stemmed directly from the actions—or inactions—of extractive firms themselves, rather than from multinationals enabling host governments to carry out abuses. Many cases involved inadequate compensation for lost land or crops, forced displacement, physical abuse, and environmental contamination.

A major contribution of her study is the recognition of how Ghana’s civil society organizations have stepped in to fill governance gaps, emerging as de facto regulators increasingly capable of holding corporations accountable. She shows that such “accountability from below” can often be more effective than top-down enforcement.

The Sylff Association secretariat is proud to have supported her research and looks forward to supporting similar initiatives that empower local communities, strengthen global governance, and promote human rights around the world.

We will be performing maintenance on the Sylff website on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, between 15:00 and 18:00 JST.

During this period, the website will be unavailable for approximately one hour and will display a “Maintenance in Progress” message.

The maintenance is part of our updates to pages related to the Sylff Support Programs for fiscal 2026.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany. (©Hassan Ali)

Farhad Nazir, a Sylff fellow at the University of Coimbra, has co-authored a book chapter with Hassan Ali of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany. The chapter, titled “The Holocaust Memorial and Upsides of Dark Tourism in the Modern Times,” appears in The Emerald Handbook of International Dark Tourism.

Nazir recently completed his doctoral degree in Tourism, Heritage, and Territory at Coimbra. He was awarded a Sylff fellowship in 2022 and a Sylff Research Grant in 2024 and 2025.

The study examines the potential benefits of dark tourism at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial—officially the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe—focusing on its social, educational, psychological, and economic dimensions. The facility is the central subject of the research, a place to reflect on and remember the atrocities perpetrated during World War II.

On a societal level, the study discusses how the memorial can foster understanding and compassion by immersing visitors in the victims’ experiences and suffering. From an educational perspective, it considers the memorial’s capacity to provide historical context and promote critical thinking regarding the consequences of bigotry and prejudice. From a psychological dimension, the study investigates the memorial’s potential as a place for healing and dealing with loss and pain, while encouraging resilience and hope.

Additionally, the chapter explores the site’s role in enhancing social engagement, expanding educational possibilities, and contributing to the local economy by attracting tourists and reinforcing solidarity with affected communities. It underscores the memorial’s importance as a dark tourism destination in modern times, showcasing its function in promoting empathy, awareness, and respect for human rights. The study also provides practical implications for stakeholders directly or indirectly associated with shaping dark tourism experiences.

Link to the book chapter: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80592-501-920251024

The Sylff Association Secretariat is pleased to announce the awardees of two support programs— Sylff Research Grant (SRG) and Sylff Leadership Initiatives (SLI) —for fiscal 2025. A total of 44 research and social action projects were selected for support under these programs.

Both SRG and SLI underwent minor enhancements in fiscal 2025. SRG covered expenses for domestic and international fieldwork, with the maximum award for the latter doubling to $10,000. For SLI, in addition to aligning its application schedule with SRG, we introduced a peer-review panel of former recipients, inviting them to share their insights during the screening process to ensure greater fairness and credibility.

The selection process was highly competitive, with more than 80 applications received from across the Sylff network. We are deeply grateful for the enthusiastic and thoughtful response to the call for applications, which highlighted the diversity, creativity, and strong commitment of Sylff fellows to research excellence and social engagement.

We extend our warmest congratulations to all awardees and look forward to the meaningful outcomes of their projects in the months ahead.

The lists of awardees and their approved projects can viewed at the links below:

List of SRG Awardees FY2025
List of SLI Awardees FY2025

Profiles of all past awardees are available here:

SRG Awardee Profiles
SLI Awardee Profiles

The Sylff Association secretariat had the pleasure of welcoming Marici Cristine Gramacho Sakata, a fellow at the University of São Paulo, to its Tokyo office on January 9, 2026.

“I’m very excited to finally be here,” Sakata said of her first visit—not only to the Sylff office but also to Japan, the country of her father. “I’m very grateful for the Sylff fellowship,” she added, which she received in 2006 while pursuing her doctorate in communication science at USP’s School of Communications and Arts. “It was very important for my studies and my career.”

She is currently travelling with her family to major cities in Japan and will also visit Taiwan to make arrangements for a tour she will lead later this year for Brazilian school owners.

She worked as a researcher at USP’s Information Systems and Technology Research Lab—where she helped organize the annual International Conference on Information Systems and Technology Management—and also served as an assistant editor of the Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management.

She now organizes educational tours aimed at informing school owners of management trends in countries outside Brazil. “We work with the local governments in arranging these tours,” she explained. “Last year we went to Switzerland, and we’ve also visited Portugal. We were in Japan about five years ago, but that was before I became involved.”

These trips are designed to give owners a better understanding of the benchmarks being used at primary and secondary schools in other countries.

“It’s very interesting to see the interactions of this group while we’re traveling,” Sakata says. During the school year, many private school owners have limited opportunities to learn how other schools are addressing recent changes in the educational environment—such as student use of smartphones and AI. These fact-finding opportunities are therefore very valuable for them.

“Education is not just a government obligation; it’s also a business,” she points out. “Many participants operate major schools with thousands of students, but when traveling together, they don’t see each other as competitors. They really seem to cherish the experience.”

Sakata expressed her hope of applying the lessons from her current trip to Japan to make a greater contribution to the Sylff community in São Paulo and beyond. The secretariat was heartened by her offer and looks forward to sharing her future engagements with the broader Sylff community. (Compiled by Nozomu Kawamoto)

Artwork by Spanish artist Mar Muriel for the TEHIC (Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum) project.

Farhad Nazir, together with collegue Carlos Romaris of the University of Vigo in Spain, has published a paper in the proceedings of the Erasmus+ TEHIC conference on Training and Professionalisation in Heritage Interpretation: Challenges and Future Directions, held in May 2025 at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Nazir recently completed his doctoral degree in Tourism, Heritage, and Territory at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He was awarded a Sylff fellowship in 2022 and a Sylff Research Grant in 2024.

His paper, titled “Community Heritage Interpretation and Sustainability of Heritage Sites: A Case Study of Swat, Pakistan,” argues that there is a significant correlation between the sustainability of heritage sites and the interpretation of such sites by the community, particularly in territories where socio-religious and socio-cultural disparities are prevalent.

The study substantiates the cultural narratives of the Muslim community in Bazira, Swat, Pakistan—a prominent Buddhist heritage site—through storytelling entailing dimensions of cultural pride and sense of ownership, using a qualitative research strategy.

Given the religious and cultural variances between the residing Muslim communities and Buddhist heritage, this study examines how the local community interprets the tangible and intangible dimensions of Buddhist heritage in comparison to their own culture.

The storytelling format of data collection through open-ended interviews revealed several semblances of architecture, wearables, and agriculture between the ancient Buddhist and existing Muslim communities. Given such cultural continuity, the current Muslim community advocates for and contributes to the sustainability of these sites. The study concludes with relevant implications and future research avenues.

Link to the portal of the University of Gothenburg: https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/90217

Link to the publication: https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/handle/2077/90217/TEHIC%20PROCEEDINGS%202025.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

As 2025 draws to a close, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all members of the Sylff community for your continued commitment to the ideals and operations of our program. 

This year, we were delighted to welcome many fellows and administrators to our new office following our move to the Sasakawa Peace Foundation Building in the spring. Guests visited us from UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, the University of Chile, INSEAD, Comenius University, Deusto University, the University of Helsinki, the Fletcher School, the University of Texas at Austin, Jadavpur University, Canterbury University, and Jilin University.

In addition, members of the Sylff Association secretariat traveled to meet with university officials, SSC members, and fellows at the University of São Paulo, Princeton University, Columbia University, the Juilliard School, Paris Conservatoire, INSEAD, the University of Jordan, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, Chiang Mai University, Universiti Malaya, Jadavpur University, Waseda University, Jagiellonian University, the University of Latvia, and Keio University.

These visits provided valuable opportunities to catch up on Sylff program operations at each institution and to connect with both current and graduated fellows.

This year also saw the introduction of new application procedures for the Association’s two support programs. Both Sylff Research Grant (SRG) and Sylff Leadership Initiatives (SLI) now follow unified timeline: calls for applications are announced in April, and applicants are notified of selection outcomes in September. The SRG award amount was increased to a maximum of USD 10,000 for international fieldwork, and efforts were made to enhance fairness in the SLI selection process by enlisting former SLI recipients as peer reviewers.

Follow the links below for news regarding these and other Sylff community activities over the past year. We wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday season and look forward to working with you in the coming year to advance the Sylff mission of developing leaders who bring about positive change in global society and the local community.

Please note that our office will be closed from December 27 to January 4.

Sylff＠Tokyo

Apr 14
Sylff@Tokyo: First Visitors to Our New Office

April 17
Sylff@Tokyo: UC San Diego Fellow Committed to Advancing Economic Betterment for All

May 1
Sylff@Tokyo: Advocating for a More Holistic Approach to Maternal Care

May 12
Sylff@Tokyo: INSEAD Strengthening Ties with Japan through Its Alumni

May 20
Sylff@Tokyo: Comenius University Strengthening Global Ties through International Outreach

May 20
Sylff@Tokyo: A Surprise Visit from a Fellow-Turned-Basque-Minister

Jun 5
Sylff@Tokyo: Deepening Sylff Ties with the University of Helsinki

Jul 10
Fletcher Cyber Expert Discusses Bilateral Security Issues during Japan Visit: Sylff@Tokyo

Aug 20
U of Texas Fellow’s Summer of Sustainable Impact: Sylff@Tokyo

Sep 29
Jadavpur Fellow Examining Policy Paths to Sustainability: Sylff@Tokyo

Oct 14
Impact through Empathy in Redressing Medical Harm: Sylff@Tokyo

Support Programs

Feb 12
Announcement: Updates to Sylff Support Programs in 2025

Feb 17
Sylff Research Grant (SRG) Recipients for Fiscal 2024

April 4
Applications for SRG and SLI in Fiscal 2025 to Open in May

Meetings with Fellows and Administrators

April 14
Event Held in Tokyo for Japanese Translation of Sofia Fellow’s Book

Jun 2
Finding Concrete Solutions to Real-World Issues: Online Orientation Meeting with “Pedro Arrupe” Fellows

Jun 5
Norwegian Foreign Minister Expresses Gratitude for Sylff Fellowship

Jun 19
Chairman Sasakawa Meets with Sussex Fellow During Albania Visit

Sep 8
Sounds of Hope: A Musical Journey from War-Torn Syria to Global Acclaim

Nov 19
Jilin University Delegation Visits Sylff Association Chairman Sasakawa

Across the Sylff Community

Dec 24, 2024
100th Anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue: Juilliard Dean, Fellow Interviewed by NYC Local Media

Feb 13
Invitation to Join the Nippon Foundation Scholars Association (TNFSA)

April 1
A New Start for the Tokyo Foundation

Oct 2
From Gadjah Mada Sylff Fellow to Academic Leadership

Dec 10
Coimbra Fellow Amit Singh Awarded 2025 Nordic Mela Peace Award

Amit Singh, left, receiving the award certificate from Professor Mirza Tasduq Baig and Talat Bhatt in Malmo, Sweden, in May 2025.

Amit Singh (University of Coimbra, 2020–21) has been awarded the Nordic Mela Peace Award 2025 in recognition of his significant contribution to the promotion of human rights, democracy, and intercommunal harmony in South Asia.

In presenting the award, the Swedish organization Mela Nordic cited Singh’s “outstanding commitment and dedication to the promotion of peace and social cohesion, human rights and freedom for all, as well as his efforts in defending freedom of expression and strengthening democratic values in the South Asian region.”

Singh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, was a recipient of an SRG award in 2024, which he used to complete his post-doctoral project on “Hindu Populism against Religious Minorities and Resistance: Case Study of Varanasi.” The findings of the research and fieldwork, conducted mostly in India and Portugal, were presented at international conferences and academic lectures (including at Comenius University in Slovakia and the University of the Philippines in Manila) and published in the Journal of Dialogue Studies.

“This Peace Award acknowledges that issues such as human rights, democracy, peace, academic freedom, and freedom of expression and religion are under threat from India’s authoritarian Hindutva government,” Singh commented. “Receiving this award has boosted my confidence in my struggle against the anti-democratic, far-right populist regime in South Asia.

“This award would not have been possible without the help of Professor Dipak Malik, Dr. Bruno Sena Martins, Margie Gianan Singh, and organizations such as the Sylff Association in Japan and Mela Nordic in Sweden,” he added. “I hope to continue this pursuit so that we can live in a world that is inclusive, fair, and just for all, now and in the future.”

On November 10, 2025, a delegation from Jilin University, led by Professor and Executive Vice President Cai Lidong, paid a courtesy visit to Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa.

Jilin University joined the Sylff community in 1992 and has produced more than 1,200 Sylff fellows to date. Professor Cai and Chairman Sasakawa reflected warmly on Jilin University’s longstanding ties with the Nippon Foundation and the Tokyo Foundation, and the two expressed hope for even deeper collaboration in the years ahead.

Professor Cai noted that he had long wished to visit Japan, as he was unable to attend the Sylff Administrators Meeting with five Chinese Sylff institutions at the Tokyo Foundation in 2024. He expressed his delight that the visit had finally materialized.

He also conveyed his gratitude for the enduring partnership and stated that Jilin University remains committed to actively supporting initiatives that foster the development of future leaders.

Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa, left, and Jilin University Professor Cai Lidong.