We had a meeting for research presentations by the scholarship students in the year 2019 on March 7, 2020 at the annex of Kajima amid the pandemic of COVID-19 overcoming all the difficulties. In order to prevent the spread of the infection, the number of participants was limited to a small number, and measures were taken to suspend the social gathering, and almost everyone appeared in masks, which made the atmosphere different from usual. It was also a good opportunity to go out and meet people and feel good, probably because we stayed home longer than usual, as events were canceled one after another due to self-restraint.
The meeting started with the greetings by Managing Director, Itsuko Atsumi. She explained about Dolls for the Girls Festival (on March 3) which were set on display shelves at the entrance of the meeting room. According to her, the dolls have close connection with the Atsumi family. This research presentation, which was originally composed of 16 presenters, was to be the largest in the Atsumi Foundation's history. However, due to the epidemic of the new coronavirus, Antonin Ferre (France) and Miss. Chen Zhao (China) could not come and Mrs. Zuzanna Baraniak-Hirata, who was about to give birth, took a leave and after all 13 Atsumi scholarship students of the 25th batch made the research presentation.

I was unable to participate in the last year research meeting because I joined Atsumi family in September last year. So, the only reference I could refer while preparing the presentation materials was the following passage written by Director Imanishi. "Please explain easily so that even the children can understand it" Although it was very challenging to summarize the doctoral research in a 12-minute frame and convey it to non-specialists immediately, but it was a good opportunity to review my research content, initial problem awareness, and significance for more people.

It was the first time for me to know exactly about researches of my colleagues whom I
have talked mainly at get-togethers and dinner parties. From each research theme, I was able to understand the concern about the problem, and I was also able to know the rich life experiences of each of them.
The research presentations of 13 members are as follows:
Ms. Nahed Almeree (Syria): Nursery rhymes by Kaneko Misuzu at the Taisho period
Ms. Chen Lu (China): Kitamura Tohoku and formation of romanticism thought in the early time in the Meiji period
Mr. Guo Chiyang (China): Philosophical discourse and its review in the Meiji period
Ms. Kim Sinhye (China): Korean areal supporting system to prevent committing suicide by the old
Ms. Lai Sihyu (Taiwan): Fairy faith (Nyo-sen) in East Asia
Mr. Lee Taekjin (Korea): Aesop's Fables and publication culture in the early modern ages in Japan
Mr. Jun Nohara (France): Development of Chinese "Navy-ism" and People's Liberation Army after the foundation of the Republic of China
Mr. Franco Serena (Italy): Reasons for existence of the International Trade Law
Ms. Shin Hyewon (Korea): New "areal societies" in Shin-Ohkubo
Myself (Wang Wehlu): Connections in Asia from viewpoint of Catholic doctrine
Mr. Xie Suhang (China): Confucian basis in Japanese modern Herbal medicines (Hon-zo-gaku)

Also, as a Science researcher which is the minority in AISF, Mr. Tang Rui (China) presented his researches of optical integrated circuit for optical communication, optical imaging and optical calculations.
Mr. Jin Hongyuan (China) reported about numerator mechanism of mimicry patterns of
larvae of swallowtail butterfly.

When I listen to a wide variety of research contents, I remember one phrase "everything is different, but everything is wonderful" quoted by Miss. Nahed from a nursery rhyme of Kaneko Misuzu and I had a feeling that every presenter have strong passion toward their researches.

After our presentations, we had comments from Prof. Tatsuji Kataoka, Prof. Hitoshi Hirakawa and mentor of Mr. Jin Hongyuan, Prof. Haruhiko Fujiwara from Graduate School of the University of Tokyo. Prof. Kataoka commented, having quoted request "Please explain easily so that even the children can understand it" that you have to express and convey your researches responsibly so that everybody can understand. In order to express your research responsibly, you must look down upon your research first and share problem awareness with other people. It is important to know more deeply about real society for the purpose of sharing problem awareness. In my future working place, I would like to pursue knowledge that can fuse both fields, humanities and science and that can be shared by all human beings. I listen to Prof. Kataoka words seriously and approach them.

I think that the lives of many raccoon families are greatly affected by the global outbreak of COVID-19. I hope the pandemic will end as soon as possible.


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Wang Wehlu / 2019 Raccoon, Fellow Researcher in Tokyo College in the University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study

Translated by Kazuo Kawamura
English checked by Sabina Koirala