The Japan Foundation is Japan’s principal agent for cultural relations between Japan and overseas countries and exists to promote a wider knowledge of Japan abroad and to promote mutual understanding between nations. The Japan Foundation provides financial support for a range of international cultural exchange programmes, working principally in the fields of Japanese studies and the social sciences, in Japanese language education, in the arts, and in media exchange. Miya Itabashi, PhD student in History of Design has received funding from the Japan Foundation, London, for her research into Japonisme in Britain from the 1890s to the 1930s.