Deadline: 03-Nov-2025
The Sumitomo Foundation offers this Grant Program so that cultural properties outside Japan, which are the common heritage of humankind, may be handed down to future generations.
Projects aimed at the protection, preservation, and restoration of cultural properties—such as fine arts or archaeological sites—located outside Japan, which are tangible, old, and possess artistic or academic value worthy of being passed down to future generations. This also includes preliminary surveys directly connected to such projects.
These cultural properties may form part of structures or buildings, including elements like murals and sculptures. For archaeological sites, the grant scope is confined to projects concerning the protection, preservation, and restoration of historical materials that form part of, or are excavated from, the sites, along with directly related preliminary surveys. Projects focused on the preservation or restoration of entire archaeological sites, as well as digital preservation projects, fall outside the scope of this grant.
The total grant budget for fiscal 2025 is set at ¥35,000,000, with approximately 15 projects to be selected. Each project will have a one-year duration, from March 2026 through March 2027.
The applicable expenses include those directly required for the projects, such as transportation, accommodation, communication, rentals, procurements, remuneration for survey cooperators, survey assistants, and other third parties, as well as printing, dissemination, and meeting expenses. Administrative expenses and remuneration for applicants themselves are not covered.
The outcomes of restoration projects must be detailed in a “Restoration Report” by the restorer and/or conservator. Results of preliminary surveys must be published as academic papers or by other means, with clear acknowledgment of The Sumitomo Foundation’s grant support.
Applicants eligible for this grant include owners or administrators of cultural properties and researchers who will actually conduct preliminary surveys. However, profit-making corporations and individuals who own cultural properties for profit or private use are not eligible.
The selection process will be carried out by the Selection Committee of The Sumitomo Foundation, based on the following criteria: significance as a cultural property, urgency of the project, feasibility of the project plan, and need for the grant. Additionally, the project’s relationship to Japan may be considered, such as whether the cultural property is a Japanese work of art, has influenced Japanese art, or involves Japanese researchers or institutions.
Submissions should include the prescribed application form, a letter of recommendation from a person of high academic standing, digital images of the cultural property, and any other relevant materials. All documents must be written in English and/or Japanese, and applications may be made in Japanese yen or U.S. dollars.
Applications must be submitted by November 30, 2025.
For more information, visit The Sumitomo Foundation.
