Thomas Blake Glover Scholarship

Aberdeen Asset Management is pleased to sponsor the Thomas Blake Glover Aberdeen Asset scholarship through the Japan Society of Scotland.

The scholarship is open to young people who are at a post secondary educational level. Preference is given to candidates who have a business focus in their interest in Japan. The scholarship funds them to travel to Japan to undertake a period of intensive study of the Japanese language at the International Christian University (ICU) Summer Programme from July 4 to August 14 2009. The scholarship provides a grant of £5,000.

In October 2008, Aberdeen Asset Management announced a business and capital alliance with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (‘MUTB’), under which MUTB will promote selected Aberdeen products to the Japanese institutional market. MUTB has also purchased approximately 10% of Aberdeen’s issued share capital, with the right to purchase further shares in the market up to a maximum holding of 19.9%.

Thomas Glover (1836-1911), the Scottish born entrepreneur embarked on a career in South East Asia when he joined the Scottish trading house, Jardine, Matheson & Co in Hong Kong from where he went to Japan. He created Glover and Co. in Nagasaki in 1859, and played a leading part in the modernisation process ushered in by the Meiji Period (1868-1912). Glover imported the first locomotives to Japan. He also established a brewery that later became associated with the famous Kirin brand. He is credited with influencing the development of Mitsubishi as an industrial conglomerate. Glover House in Nagasaki draws thousands of visitors every year, thus earning him an enduring place in the history of Japan’s awakening as a world power in the second half of the nineteenth century. Other Scots made important contributions to Japan in the fields of civil engineering, education and public administration, but Glover remains the symbol of commercial involvement and enterprise.

The modern origins of Mitsubishi date from the acquisition of Glover's mining and shipbuilding interests. Lord Bruce, Honorary Patron of the Japan Scoiety of Scotland explains, "Thomas Glover and his generation of Scots who left an indelible mark on this formative period in Japanese history. The launch of the Glover Scholarship Fund honours their role in the foundation of modern Japan. But above all it will give opportunities to young Scots to forge their own links with Japan, and perpetuate that special relationship which emerged from the first contact between our countries 150 years ago."

In the photograph, David McCraw, Head of Aberdeen's Structured Products team, based in Aberdeen's Edinburgh office, celebrates the cherry blossom season in Edinburgh in the Spring of 2009, with the Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh, Mr Kenichi Suganuma . David offers as a gift a bottle of Speyside malt whisky that has specially bottled for Aberdeen Asset Management.

The Japan Society was formed by a group of academics and business people in 1986 to enhance friendship, goodwill, and cooperation between Scotland and Japan. These aims have widened to include dissemination of information about Japan in Scotland and promotion of commercial and cultural relations. The Japan Society of Scotland is a registered Scottish Charity: SC037309.