Daiwa Scholars 2012

Luke Dabin

Luke Dabin completed an MSc degree in Biochemistry at the University of Birmingham in 2012. He visited Japan on a two-week school trip in 2005. While at Birmingham, he  studied Japanese at Birmingham from  his third year, and was a member of the Wing Chun Kung Fu club and practised karate and judo. At the time of applying for the Scholarship, he aspired to a scientific career researching Alzheimer’s disease and hopes to establish links with cutting-edge Japanese researchers and institutions in this field, including the RIKEN research centre.

Luke’s homestay in Japan was in Sendai. His work placement in Japan was at the Riken Brain Science Centre. In 2019 he completed a PhD at UCL in Neurodegenerative Diseases, and currently has a Postdoctoral position at the University of Indianapolis looking into single-cell resolution epigenetics in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Dr Eluned Gramich

Eluned Gramich was awarded a BA (Hons) degree in English at the University of Oxford in 2010 and completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in 2012. She has a long-standing interest in Japanese literature and hopes to complete a PhD in Comparative Literature and to combine an academic career with that of a writer. She would also like to encourage more translation of Japanese literature into English and to promote UK-Japan literary exchanges.

Eluned’s homestay in Japan was in Niseko City in Hokkaido. Her work placement was at the Japanese Literature Publishing and Promotion Center; Tuttle Publishing and the Welsh Government office in Tokyo.

In March 2015 Eluned won the inaugural New Welsh Writing Award which celebrates the finest non-fiction writing (in short form) on the theme of nature and the environment. You can see a two-minute interpretation of Eluned’s winning work, ‘Scenes from a Hokkaidan Life’ via the following website: New Welsh Writing, website

Eluned completed a PhD in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University in 2021.

She is a Freelance Writer and Translator and a Creative Writing Tutor and is working at The National Library of Wales.

Nicholas Hall

Nicholas Hall was awarded an MPhil in Criminological Research from the University of Cambridge (2010) and an MA in Educational Psychology from the Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas, Cuba (2011). He has an interest in the Japanese criminal justice system, particularly in the area of rehabilitation. At the time of applying for the Scholarship, he aimed to complete a PhD in the field of rehabilitation and criminal justice, focusing on the Japanese justice system, with a view to working for non- governmental policy organisations or as a policy maker.

Nicholas’s homestay in Japan was in Okinawa. His work placement was at Hogan Lovells and with the  Japan Association for Refugees. Nick completed his pupillage at 2 Hare Court Chambers in London and is currently working as a barrister at Red Lion Chambers.

Annabel James

Annabel James completed a BA (Hons) degree in English at the University of Oxford in 2012. She visited Kyoto for a week in August 2008 and has an interest in Japanese art, architecture and furniture.

Annabel’s homestay in Japan was in Fukuoka. Her work placement was at Mizuma Art Gallery. On finishing the Scholarship Annabel completed an MA in East Asian Art Curation at the Courtauld Institute in 2015. She returned to Tokyo to work full time at Mizuma Art Gallery in Tokyo from October 2015 until August 2018.

Returning to the UK, she completed the General Diploma in Law at BPP Law School in London in 2021 and is currently a Trainee Solicitor at Stephenson Harwood LLP. She is also the co-founder of Bigaku Etcetera, a Japanese-English translation consultancy offering bespoke services for arts and cultural content.

Adrian Mylne

Adrian Mylne was awarded a BSc in Biological Sciences with Honours in Zoology from Edinburgh University (2005) and an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2007). He has been working as a Research Assistant for The Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation at the University of Oxford and as an epidemiologist at Imperial College London. He has visited Japan on a number of occasions and has a particular interest in traditional rural Japan and its concepts of nature, sustainable livelihoods and conservation. He hopes to pursue a career in biodiversity conservation and its impacts on peoples’ livelihoods, health and well-being around the world.

Adrian’s homestay in Japan was in Okinawa. His work placement was at Thomson Reuters. Adrian is currently studying Medicine at Warwick University.

Dr Rosa van Hensbergen

Rosa van Henbergen was awarded a BA (Hons) degree in English from the University of Cambridge in 2011. She was then awarded the Harper Wood Studentship, given by St John’s College, Cambridge to a graduating student who wishes to spend a year writing and travelling. She spent a couple of months in Japan in 2011, attending Butoh (a modern Japanese dance form) workshops and studying Japanese. She hopes to conduct comparative postgraduate research in post-WWII avant-garde performance and literature and to combine an academic career with writing and dance.

Rosa’s homestay was in Gifu.  Her work placement was at the Hijikata Tatsumi Archive at Keio University. Following this, she completed an Msc in Modern Japanese Studies at Oxford in 2015 and a PhD in Japanese Studies at Cambridge in 2019.