2017 Spring Conferment of Decorations on Foreign Nationals
Dr Eric Albone, MBE
The Government of Japan bestowed the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, upon Dr Eric Albone, Co-founder and Director of the Clifton Scientific Trust, in recognition of his significant contribution to strengthening and developing relations between Japan and the United Kingdom over many years.
Dr Eric Albone eric.albone@clifton-scientific.org founded the Clifton Scientific Trust to promote science through innovative educational projects, and established the UK-Japan Young Scientist Workshop Programme bringing post-16 school and college students from Japan and the UK. Since the beginning of the programme in 2001, a thousand talented students from our two countries have participated in nineteen such workshops hosted in universities in both countries, and have enjoyed a unique experience through working together in science and engineering projects. His achievements have helped to nurture both Japanese and UK students’ interest in science as well as to build new international relations.
Furthermore, just after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, using funds he raised, Dr Albone made it possible to host 21 students and their teachers from six schools in Japan in areas afflicted by the disaster, covering all their costs in the UK and of their flights from Japan. In subsequent years he has continued to welcome students from these areas into the workshop programme. His generous actions have encouraged young generations in these areas through giving them hopes and dreams, which in turn has made a large contribution towards reconstruction in these areas.
The Government of Japan highly appreciates the significant contribution Dr Eric Albone has made throughout his career. Dr Albone therefore greatly deserves to be honoured for his outstanding contribution to Japan-UK relations.
Dr Joy Hendry
The Government of Japan bestowed the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette on Dr Joy Hendry, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the promotion of Japanese studies in the UK and thus to deeper mutual understanding between Japan and the United Kingdom.
Professor Hendry is best known as a pioneer of Japanese studies in the area of anthropology, having engaged in research on Japan and conducted fieldwork there for more than 40 years. Having graduated from King’s College London in 1966 and earned a DPhil in Social Anthropology at Oxford University in 1979, she taught at Oxford Brookes University (Oxford Polytechnic until 1993) from 1980-2010. Other than her current positions of Emeritus Professor at Oxford Brookes University, Senior Member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, she has previously served as Reader at the Scottish Centre for Japanese Studies, University of Stirling, the first Director of the Europe Japan Research Centre at Oxford Brookes University, the first Secretary-General of the Japan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS), President of the British Association for Japanese Studies, and Vice-President of the European Association for Japanese Studies.
Her research into various issues related to Japan includes Japanese views on families, marriage, education, politeness and cultural display, as part of her tremendous contribution to introducing and analysing Japan in the field of anthropology in the United Kingdom, the rest of the English-speaking world and continental Europe. In 1984 she co-founded the Japan Anthropology Workshop and served as its first Secretary-General. This initiative has since expanded significantly, now boasts around 240 members from more than 20 countries, and has held meetings in almost as many. Throughout her career, Professor Hendry has offered her interpretation of Japan from an anthropological point of view at a large number of venues including universities and institutions where she has held visiting professorships. She has thus made a huge impact on Japanese studies in the UK, continental Europe, and the wider Anglophone world.
Her activities have resonated in Japan, too. In 2002 a Japanese edition of her seminal work An Introduction to Social Anthropology was published, and it has since become one of the essential textbooks for anthropology courses in the country. Professor Hendry herself contributed to the development of anthropological education in Japan by giving a keynote speech at the first international conference of the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology held in Tokyo in 2014.
In the UK, Professor Hendry played a leading role in establishing Japanese Studies at Oxford Brookes University as well as the university’s Europe Japan Research Centre in 2001. She was appointed a professor in 1993, in which role she began with Japanese colleagues to develop Japanese Studies at the university. Meanwhile, as President of the British Association for Japanese Studies from 1994 to 1996, she twice oversaw successful annual fora and dedicated herself to the Association’s subsequent development.
In view of Professor Hendry’s sterling work outlined above, the Government of Japan considers that she well deserves to be honoured for her outstanding contribution to the promotion of Japanese Studies in the UK and thus to deeper mutual understanding between our two peoples.
The Government of Japan recognises her significant contribution described above, and she therefore greatly deserves to be honoured with this decoration.