The Atsumi International Foundation (公益財団法人渥美国際交流財団, also known as the Sekiguchi Global Research Association, SGRA) is a Tokyo-based private foundation funding final-year international PhD students at universities in greater Tokyo. Founded in 1994 by Atsumi Sumitaka, the foundation occupies a distinctive niche: rather than supporting students across the full duration of their PhD, it concentrates funding on the dissertation completion year — the financial bottleneck for many international doctoral candidates. For the 2027 cycle the foundation continues its existing structure with applications opening in spring 2026.
The dissertation-year focus
Atsumi's approach is unusual among Japanese private foundations. Rather than funding first-year master's or early-stage PhD students, the foundation explicitly targets dissertation-completion-year doctoral candidates. The rationale is practical: many international PhDs run out of funding precisely when they need uninterrupted time to write up. A ¥100,000 monthly stipend for 12 months is enough to cover Tokyo living costs for a single graduate student writing full-time. This focus makes Atsumi an excellent fallback for PhD candidates who held MEXT or another scholarship during their first three years and need bridge funding to finish.
Eligibility specifics
Eligibility is narrower than most foundations: applicants must be in their final year of doctoral study at a graduate program in greater Tokyo (23 wards plus surrounding metropolitan area). Master's students, first-year and second-year PhDs, and applicants outside greater Tokyo are not eligible. The foundation accepts all nationalities. There is no formal JLPT requirement but applicants in Japanese-medium programs benefit from having at least JLPT N3 Japanese for daily lab and dissertation-defense interactions. Atsumi is not compatible with concurrent MEXT or other full-funding government scholarships.
The SGRA network
Atsumi recipients automatically join the Sekiguchi Global Research Association (SGRA), which hosts an active research-forum network across former and current scholars. SGRA organizes annual conferences on Asian regional issues — Japan-China relations, Korea- Japan history, Southeast Asia development — that recipients are encouraged to participate in. This makes Atsumi distinctive: the financial support comes with a research-community membership that extends beyond the funding year. For broader funding strategy across the PhD, see our overview of PhD in Japan funding, duration, and English-track options. Browse all scholarships to identify additional Tokyo-area dissertation-year options.