Initiated by the Society on 20 November 2006, at the suggestion of the Honorary Patron of the Society, HIH Princess Takamado, the Young Scholars’ Programme (YSP), provides doctoral- level researchers with a valuable opportunity to present their research on Japan and Asia, and to field questions in English. In 2021 the programme was held online for the first time, opening the doors for young scholars to participate from all over the world. 

This year, the Asiatic Society of Japan (ASJ), is greatly honoured to host a special hybrid event celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the programme. Held at Temple University, Japan Campus, this milestone event showcases the work of exceptional global young researchers.

The ASJ Young Scholars selected for this year are listed below in alphabetical order, followed by their brief biographies and presentation abstracts on pages 3-7: Mr. Mathieu Gregg, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Mr. Yassine Limam, University of Tunis, Tunisia, Ms. Ching Yee Pang, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong and Ms. Wing-yin Pang, Tsinghua University, China and Yale University, U.S. The Young Scholars’ Programme remains a vital part of the Society’s core activities. We sincerely hope that as many members as possible will join us to celebrate this landmark event, either in person or online. 

2026 ASJ Young Scholars’ Programme

‘The Girl I Left Behind Me: Memoires and Memories of the Anglo-French Garrison, (1863–75)’ 

Mr. Mathieu Gregg

Brief bio 

Mr. Mathieu Gregg is a 3^rd Year PhD candidate in International Relations, at the Graduate School of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. He received his BA in

Modern Languages, specializing in Japanese at the University of Texas, San Antonio, US, in

2017 and an MA in International Relations at Ritsumeikan University, examining the Japan Times and the 1940 Tokyo Olympics, in 2023. Mr. Gregg’s current research focuses on the French Empire in East Asia and the French Garrison in Yokohama, 1863–1875.

Abstract 

This paper employs personal recollections produced by the Anglo-French Garrison of Yokohama (1863–75) to better understand the treaty port and early Western interactions with Japan. The ‘opening of Japan’ in the mid-1850s lead to the signing of the ‘Ansei’ Treaties with the US, Britain, Netherlands, Russia, and France. These treaties resulted in an influx of new technologies, ideas, and foreign residents, however, such drastic changes exacerbated existing political and economic tensions within Japan. These culminated attacks on diplomats, foreign residents, and their allies by the Shishi (‘Men of Honour’) under the Jōi (‘Expel the Barbarians’) banner. The danger caused by this movement led the Treaty Powers to relocate their diplomatic base from Edo to Yokohama. However, the attacks continued. In response, France and Britain decided—with the Tokugawa Shogunate’s reluctant support—to station troops in Yokohama from 1863. The responsibility of this force was two-fold, first to protect the foreign settlement from attack by the Shishi, and second, to provide other forms of security (policing, firefighting, etc.) to the settlement and the surrounding area. The services provided by the garrison stabilized the treaty port encouraging trade, cultural exchange, and research to flourish in Yokohama. Such benefits were visible in the establishment of various institutions, medical provision, and cultural activities through sport, musical performances and academic pursuits—including Henry Hadlow, a member of the garrison and former Vice-President of the Asiatic Society of Japan.

      Unfortunately, most examinations of the history of Yokohama to date centre the lives and influences of merchants, diplomats, missionaries, and/or academics, with the Anglo-French garrison receiving little, if any, attention. This exclusion is noteworthy as the garrison was, at times, the largest foreign population in Yokohama, shaping its culture and institutions. Of the existing works on the garrison, most utilize high-level governmental material, silencing the voices of the garrison in favour of diplomats and governmental officials—a gap that this research seeks to fill. A major reason for this neglect was the low literacy rate of soldiers in the British and French military, resulting in fewer accounts being produced and published. Despite these conditions, members of both garrisons still produced works that have yet to be examined, and by doing so this paper restores their contribution and voice within Yokohama’s history.

      This paper will use these under-examined and often unused, works produced by members of the garrison to better understand the views, activities, and impact of the largest Western population in the early treaty port. Alongside exploring the influence of the changing position of Japan on the content of memoirs published in later years, this work will contrast the views of the men at the time with some of their later reflections, revealing the interconnected nature of memory and the production of history. These memoirs and firsthand accounts will also be supplemented and contextualized with contemporary travel journals, newspapers, and government documents from French, British, and Japanese sources, to create a nuanced and wholly original perspective of Yokohama’s early militarized history and its place in memory.

‘From First Encounter to Sakoku: Japanese Visual Representations of the Western Other, 1543–1639’ 

Mr. Yassine Limam

Brief bio 

Mr. Yassine Limam is a 2^nd Year PhD candidate in Early Modern History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, at the University of Tunis in Tunisia. He received a BA in History in 2020 and an MA in Early Modern History in 2024 at the University of Tunis. Mr. Limam’s research focuses on Japanese Representations of the Western Other (1543–1912), examining issues of isolation and openness.

Abstract 

Mr. Limam’s research examines the historical construction and transformation of Japanese representations of the Western Other through visual sources. It forms part of his doctoral research, ‘Between Isolation and Openness: Japanese Representations of the Western Other (1543–1912)’, which investigates how Westerners were perceived, categorized, and represented in Japan from the first encounters with Europeans in the sixteenth century to the end of the Meiji period. For the Young Scholars’ Programme, he focuses specifically on the period from the arrival of the Portuguese in 1543 to 1639, a formative period encompassing the Christian century and the gradual establishment of the Tokugawa regime’s restrictions on Christianity and foreign relations. The central question of this research is how Japanese represented Westerners, and how these representations changed as the nature of Japan’s encounters with Europeans evolved. The arrival of the Portuguese in 1543 initiated sustained encounters involving trade, Christianity, diplomacy, and many fields belong to cultural exchange. During the following decades, European merchants and missionaries became increasingly visible within Japanese society, creating new forms of knowledge and representations of foreign peoples. These representations, however, were not uniform or static. They developed in response to changing political, religious, and social circumstances and to the changing position of Europeans within Japan. 

      Mr. Limam approaches visual materials as primary historical sources rather than merely as illustrations of historical events. His research therefore draws upon a range of visual media according to their relevance to the historical question, including ‘Nanban byōbu’ (folding screens depicting Europeans and their activities), ‘Emaki’ (illustrated handscrolls), paintings, and other visual representations produced during the period. Particular attention is given to the ways in which these images constructed distinctions between Japanese society and the foreign

Other, through representations of physical appearance, clothing, gestures, religious practices, commercial activities, ships, and other markers of cultural differences. The chronological framework of 1543–1639 allows him to examine these representations against the major transformations in Japan’s relations with the West. The initial period of encounter was characterized by curiosity, commercial exchange, missionary activity, and cultural interaction. Over time, however, the growing political concerns surrounding Christianity and foreign influence contributed to increasingly restrictive policies. The suppression of Christianity, the expulsion of Iberian merchants, and the regulation of foreign contacts under the Tokugawa authorities profoundly altered the conditions under which Europeans could be encountered and represented in Japan. Methodologically, his research draws upon the history of representations, visual history, and cultural history. Mr. Limam combines close analysis of visual sources with their historical contexts in order to examine how images were produced, circulated, and understood, and how they contributed to the construction of perceptions of foreignness.

      Ultimately, this research seeks to demonstrate that Japanese representations of Westerners during the period 1543–1639 were dynamic rather than fixed. They reflected the changing nature of Japan’s encounters with Europe, moving across a complex spectrum of curiosity, fascination, interaction, differentiation, and increasing distance. This early period provides an important foundation for understanding the subsequent transformations in Japanese representations of the Western Other that Mr. Limam’s doctoral research follows through the Tokugawa and Meiji periods.

‘From Internationalist Foundations to Wartime Dilemmas: Japanese Christian Women’s Negotiation of Pacifism and Nationalism in the YWCA in the early 20^th century’ 

Ms. Ching Yee Pang

Brief bio 

Ms. Ching Yee Pang is a 2^nd Year PhD candidate in China Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, the University of Hong Kong. Her current research project investigates the historical agency of Chinese and Japanese Christian women via a comparative case study of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in China and Japan. Ms. Pang received a BA in Contemporary English Studies and History from Lingnan University in 2008, and an MPhil in History from the University of Hong Kong in 2011. She served as a teaching assistant at the Department of History of the University of Hong Kong prior to embarking on her doctoral studies.

Abstract 

Ms. Ching Yee Pang’s dissertation investigates how Christian women in China and Japan negotiated the intersecting pressures of imperialism, nationalism, and internationalism through the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) between 1905 and 1949. Analyzing multilingual publications produced by local YWCA members, she examines how Christian women articulated modernity, internationalism, evangelism, and pacifism during escalating Sino-Japanese conflicts. Rather than treating the YWCA in China and Japan as an extension of Western missionary power, her project foregrounds the agency of East Asian Christian women and demonstrates how they shaped institutional development, wartime mobilization, and transnational Christian diplomacy. Ultimately, this project moves away from Euro-centric approaches to narrate history directly from local Christian women’s perspectives.

Ms. Pang’s methodology centers on close textual analysis of Japanese YWCA print culture, supplemented by diplomatic, missionary, and international organizational archives. Key publications include Meiji no Joshi, Joshi Seinenkai, and Josei Shinbun, which capture Japanese Christian women’s debates on women’s education, internationalism, wartime responsibility and relief work, as well as their reflections on modern womanhood. Archival materials from the Michi Kawai Collection at Keisen Jogakuen, the National Diet Library, the Smith College YWCA Archives, and the World YWCA Archives, and UN Lytton Commission documents further illuminate how Japanese Christian women positioned themselves within domestic militarism and global Christian internationalism.

Ms. Ching Yee Pang will present a focused case study examining how Japanese Christian women — particularly Tokyo YWCA activists — responded to rising militarism and Japan’s expanding imperial project. Michi Kawai, the first Japanese General Secretary of the YWCA in Japan (1912-1926), will be the primary focus of this paper. Drawing on official YWCA publications and writings by Michi Kawai, Ms. Pang analyzes how Japanese Christian women framed pacifism within the constraints of state nationalism, navigated pressure to support “national defense” while maintaining ties with Chinese counterparts, reshaped internationalist rhetoric to justify or resist imperial expansion, and experienced the fracturing of transnational Christian networks under wartime conditions. Although Michi Kawai resigned from the Japan YWCA in 1926, her prewar leadership remained foundational to the organization’s intellectual trajectory, establishing internationalist principles that later generations of YWCA women had to reinterpret under intensifying nationalism and wartime mobilization. Even after leaving the organization, Kawai continued to shape the broader landscape of Japanese Christian women’s activism through her writings, educational work, and transnational engagements, which circulated among Japanese YWCA members and informed the intellectual environment in which they negotiated their roles as Christian women in a militarizing nation. Essentially, this paper demonstrates that Michi Kawai’s prewar leadership formed the intellectual foundation upon which later generations of YWCA women and other Christian women in Japan negotiated nationalism, pacifism, and internationalism during the Sino-Japanese conflicts.

‘A Chinese Classic Made in Tokyo: The Asiatic Society of Japan and an English Mozi, 1927’ 

Ms. Wing-yin Pang

Brief bio

Ms. Wing-yin Pang is a 4^th Year PhD candidate in Philosophy at the School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, China and a Visiting Doctoral Student at Yale Divinity School, Yale

University, US. She received her BA with First Class Honours (2021) and MPhil (2023) in Religious Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was a Visiting Research Associate in the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong (2025–26).

Her research focuses on Mohist ethics and the modern global reception of the Mozi, with particular interests in Christianity, translation, and intellectual exchange between China, Japan, and the West. Her recent work ranges from the reception and translation of the Mozi in late Qing and Republican China to the ethics of human–AI relations from a Mohist perspective. She has published on these and related topics, including in Synthese.

Abstract 

Ms. Pang’s research explores how the Mozi came to acquire its modern global identity and Japan’s role in that transformation. On 16 June 1927, at the German Embassy in Tokyo, members of the Asiatic Society of Japan heard Leonard Tomkinson lecture on “Meh Tse, an Unorthodox Chinese Philosopher.” The Society subsequently published his translation, The Social Teachings of Meh Tse, in its Transactions, with over 150 pages of the Mozi in English appearing before Mei Yi-pao’s better-known 1929 translation. Ms. Pang’s presentation recovers this forgotten chapter of the Society’s history.

Drawing on archives and periodicals in Britain, China, Japan, and the United States, Ms. Pang reconstructs the Tokyo network behind the lecture and publication. Evacuated from Anking after the Nanking Incident, Tomkinson was living in Tokyo by May 1927. There he lodged with Gilbert Bowles, a Quaker internationalist who had served on the Society’s Council and helped found the Japan Peace Society. Tomkinson taught at the First Higher School alongside Bowles’s son, moving within the city’s Quaker and internationalist circles. His translation left aside the chapters on the defence of cities, then widely regarded as not Mozi’s own. Its pacifist cast lay less in omission than in framing, above all in his renderings “Universal Reciprocal Love” and “Against Aggressive Warfare.”

Begun in China, the translation found print in Tokyo. Ms. Pang argues that interwar Japan’s international community served as a hub where texts, translations, and ideas circulated among China, Japan, and the West, and helped shape the modern image of the Mozi as a classic of pacifism and universal ethics. Nearly a century after Tomkinson read his paper to the Society in Tokyo, Ms. Pang brings his story home, inviting today’s audience to listen across the years for an echo of that afternoon in 1927.

The Asiatic Society of Japan is deeply appreciative of the Hugh E. Wilkinson Foundation for its contribution to support the Young Scholars’ Programme. The Hugh E. Wilkinson Foundation was inaugurated at the 2018 Asiatic Society of Japan’s Young Scholars’ Programme which was held at Aoyama Gakuin University and 2026 marks the ninth year that the Foundation has supported the programme. The Foundation awards research grants to the four successful young scholars to continue and deepen their academic studies. Professor Hugh E. Wilkinson was President of the Society from 2003-2005.