Farewell Message from Professor Marie Conte-Helm OBE, Director General, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

After 12 years as Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, I shall be leaving at the end of this month. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to direct the wide range of activities that the Foundation pursues in support of UK-Japan relations.

The Daiwa Scholarship programme remains an investment in the future and I am glad to have been directly involved in the selection of 12 different year groups of Daiwa Scholars.

The Foundation’s grants, awards and prizes have contributed to projects, large and small, and across all fields of endeavour. The recent establishment of the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize has enabled us to proactively extend our support for the arts into the contemporary sphere.

Daiwa Foundation Japan House serves as the centre for many of our activities and a platform for discussion and debate on Japan. I have greatly enjoyed building up our Japan House programme and engaging with those specialists who have so generously shared their ideas and expertise.

The sad events of March 2011 in the Tohoku region of Japan have inevitably sharpened our focus and reminded us of the importance of mutual knowledge and support in difficult times. We hope that our Tohoku Scholarship scheme will benefit young people and strengthen educational links between the two countries.

I feel grateful to have served as Director General of an organisation that contributes in such important ways to the UK-Japan relationship. I look forward to an ongoing involvement in this sphere as I take up the position of Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group from November 2011.

There are so many individuals and organisations that I wish to thank for their cooperation and assistance over these last 12 years. I cannot list them all but I would like to express my gratitude and best wishes for the future.