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Miss Pauline Chakmakjian received her BA in English Language & Literature (Whittier) in 1996 along with a fine art merit scholarship in drawing and painting during her undergraduate studies, her DipLaw (London) in 1997, and her MA in Modern French Studies (London) in 2001. She transferred her Doctoral studies from University College London, Faculty of Laws to the University of Wales, Lampeter, Department of History to be under the supervision of Professor Andrew Prescott. She lectures on Freemasonry in relation to eighteenth-century British and European salon culture, but her current research and publications deal more with contemporary Japanese Freemasonry in relation to Japanese ritual, religion, and society. She is so fond of both the original use of The Freemasons’ Hall for salon-style events like lectures and concerts as well as Japanese history and culture having lived in Kyoto, the ancient capital for some time, that she founded a cultural salon, The Japan Room, which meets occasionally in Lodge Room No. 11 at Freemasons’ Hall in London. The Patron of The Japan Room is George Francis, Senior Grand Warden of the Craft and Second Grand Principal of Royal Arch Freemasonry within the United Grand Lodge of England.
Synopsis: Japan is a country about which relatively little is known as regards masonic participation, and this paper provides an overview of the activities of The Grand Lodge of Japan, which was formed in 1957. The paper not only emphasises and expands on key points from an earlier paper by the same author, ‘Seeking Enlightenment: Initiation and Ritual of Oriental Candidates’, delivered at the 2005 Canonbury Conference (printed in The Canonbury Papers: Volume 4. London, 2007), but also brings to light the more recent involvement of Freemasonry with one of the chief aims and objectives of the fraternity – charity. Zaidan Hojin Tokyo Masonic Association, the charitable foundation of freemasonry in Japan, and its kind and helpful Board of Trustees have disclosed to the author several details surrounding the charitable agenda of freemasons in Japan. This, together with a consideration of the issues involved in increasing the membership and influence of Freemasonry in Japanese society, aims at making this an anniversary paper worthy of representing the maturity which the Grand Lodge of Japan has attained over the past fifty years of its existence.