On April 19 at the Keidanren Kaikan facility in Tokyo's Chiyoda City, the 10th Grant Award Ceremony of the Canon Foundation was held. There, the sixteen individuals finalized as recipients of grants-in-aid were awarded a Grant Award Certificate by Canon Inc. Chairman & CEO Fujio Mitarai, who also serves as Councilor & Chairman of the Canon Foundation.

After congratulatory greetings were given by Councilor & Chairman Mitarai, Canon Foundation Chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa expressed his hope and encouragement towards the researchers, saying, "The research concepts of everyone who was selected to receive aid amid a competitive selection rate were highly varied. They included ideas that inspire visions of a dream-like future, those that carry a strong social impact, and those with a considerable level of practical utility. My hope is that those ideas will develop in the future to the point that they qualify for a Nobel Prize. Please continue from here on out to trust your sense of curiosity and tackle your research from a free perspective."

Afterwards, Yoshihito Osada, Chairman of the Screening Committee for the "Creation of Industrial Infrastructure" Research Grant Program, and Shinichiro Ogaki, Chairman of the Screening Committee for the "Pursuit of Ideals" Research Grant Program, gave comments on the screening process and words of encouragement to the researchers selected to receive grants-in-aid. This was followed by the conferment of a Grant Award Certificate by Councilor & Chairman Mitarai to the sixteen researchers finalized to receive grants-in-aid, and statements on behalf of the researchers by Associate Professor Kazuya Ando of Keio University and Professor Junko Kyozuka of Tohoku University, who expressed their gratitude for the grants-in-aid and their ambitions for the future.

At the end of the presentation ceremony, a guest lecture titled "Southern Ocean: The Key Factor of Climate Change" was given by Assistant Professor Takeshi Tamura of the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), one of the recipients of grants-in-aid under the 4th "Pursuit of Ideas" Research Grant Program. On the theme of general oceanic circulation, which has lasted for two millennia, Assistant Professor Tamura remarked, "The seas of the earth are by and large thousands and thousands of meters deep. There, significantly large currents that serve to stir the seas as a whole (in other words, general oceanic circulation) occur. If those currents change, the impact on the global climate would be considerable. The polar seas, where this general circulation originates from, are highly susceptible to the intensification of global warming. It is our role to ascertain changes in those seas without delay and assess the corresponding changes to the environment." He also enthusiastically shared anecdotes from the time he was selected to receive a grant-in-aid and stories of subsequent developments in their research interspersed with humor, which the venue reacted to with great liveliness.

At the social gathering that followed the Presentation Ceremony, the researchers were the center of vibrant interaction with the Foundation officers, Screening Committee members and other invitees who were on hand, bringing the proceedings to a successful close.

The 10th Grant Award Ceremony

• Greetings by Councilor & Chairman Mitarai
• Greetings by Chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa

• Comments by Osada, Chairman of the Screening Committee
• Comments by Ogaki, Chairman of the Screening Committee

• Statements by Associate Professor Kazuya Ando on behalf of the researchers on "Creation of Industrial Infrastructure"
• Statements by Professor Junko Kyozuka on behalf of the researchers on "Pursuit of Ideals"

• Guest lecture by Assistant Professor Takeshi Tamura
• The social gathering

The funded researchers of "Creation of Industrial Infrastructure"

• Kazuya Ando, Associate Professor
  (Keio University)
• Shintaro Izumi, Associate Professor
  (Kobe University)

• Hideomi Itoh, Researcher
  (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)
• Yasuhiro Iba, Associate Professor
  (Hokkaido University)

• Shigeru Kawakami, Professor
  (Nagasaki University)
• Shouhei Kidera, Associate Professor
  (University of Electro-Communications)

• Kazunobu Sawamoto, Professor
  (Nagoya City University)
• Hirokazu Tanimoto, Lecturer
  (Yokohama City University)

• Tatsuya Shoji Lecturer
  (Yasuyuki Tsuboi Professor's substitute)
  (Osaka City Universirty)
• Akira Nakagawa, Lecturer
  (Ishikawa Prefectural University)

• Kosuke Nagashio, Associate Professor
  (The University of Tokyo)
• Akihiko Yamaguchi, Assistant Professor
  (Tohoku University)

The funded researchers of "Pursuit of Ideals"

• Yukihiro Ito, Associate Professor
  (Tohoku University)
• Junko Kyozuka, Professor
  (Tohoku University)

• Tatsuya Shimizu, Professor
  (Tokyo Women's Medical University)
• Homei Miyashita, Professor
  (Meiji University)