The Mitsubishi Foundation

On September 11, a grant award ceremony for fiscal year 2024 and a presentation ceremony of research and project results were held at Tokyo Kaikan in Marunouchi. Since its establishment in 1969, the Mitsubishi Foundation, funded by contributions from Mitsubishi Group companies, has assisted the advancement of Japan’s academic, cultural, and social welfare sectors. To date, it has disbursed grants to approximately 5,100 projects, totaling 21.6 billion yen. For fiscal year 2024, 163 projects were selected from among the 1,562 applications received, with total funding amounting to 649.87 million yen. The number of funded projects and the grant amounts by category are as follows.

■Natural Sciences Research
74 projects, 420 million yen
■Humanities Research
33 projects, 85 million yen
■Social Welfare Activities and Research
42 projects, 110 million yen
■Cultural Property Conservation
14 projects, 34.87 million yen

On the day of the events, a presentation ceremony of research and project results was held prior to the grant award ceremony, and recipients of previous grants presented their research and project results in the fields of natural sciences and social welfare.

In the natural sciences field, Kazuhiro Hada, an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Science, Nagoya City University, who received grants in fiscal years 2019 and 2023, reported on his research results of “Understanding the Formation Mechanisms of Supermassive Black Hole Jets Using the East Asia VLBI Network” (grant awarded in FY2019) and “Revealing the Formation and Acceleration Mechanisms of Supermassive Black Hole Jets Using an International Millimeter VLBI Network” (grant awarded in FY2023).

In the field of social welfare, Sayaka Fujiwara, an Executive Director of Habilis Japan and Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Tokyo Hospital, who received grants in fiscal years 2017 and 2023, reported on her research results of the “Study on the Needs and Effectiveness of Sports Prostheses for Children with Upper Limb Deficiencies and Comprehensive Support for Their Dissemination” (grant awarded in FY2017) and “Commercialization of Slide Recorders: Evaluation of Adaptation for Children with Disabilities, Demonstration of Effectiveness, and Support Activities for Dissemination and promotion” (grant awarded in FY2023).

At the subsequent grant award ceremony, Kanetsugu Mike, the President, delivered opening remarks, followed by screening reports from the chairpersons of the selection committees for the four fields: natural sciences, humanities, social welfare, and cultural property conservation. Each grantee from these fields was then introduced, and the representative of each grantee was awarded a certificate of grant by the President. Finally, the ceremony concluded with remarks of gratitude by each grantee representative, who shared insights into their research and projects.