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Kiroshi Foundation 公益財団法人キロシ財団
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We help people see, and we keep watch over the machines that help them.

The Kiroshi Foundation has paid for eye care, vision research and the safety of optical implants since 1978. In the year to March that meant 61,240 cataract operations, eye tests for 1,482,906 people and help for 11,870 people whose implants their makers had stopped supporting.

Our programmes Our relationship with Kiroshi Opticals Read the chart yourself

The year

The year to 31 March 2026

Spent on charitable work
¥24.3bn
Cataract operations
61,240
Good outcome after cataract surgery, including patients not followed up
72–78%
People screened by Mieru
1,482,906
Pairs of spectacles
74,113
Reports to the Implant Register
27,416
People with discontinued implants helped
11,870
People in low vision rehabilitation
9,320

Audited figures from the annual report. Every outcome above is defined, and its gaps admitted, on the page about how we measure outcomes.

Programmes

Six programmes, one organ

  • Sight restoration

    視力回復

    Cataract surgery, corneal transplants and retinal implants for people who could not otherwise pay, through 41 partner hospitals in nine countries.

    61,240 cataract operations funded in FY2025

  • Mieru vision screening

    見える

    Eye tests for schoolchildren and older people where they already are, with free spectacles the same month. Mieru means “can see”.

    1,482,906 people screened in FY2025

  • Implant safety

    安全

    The Independent Implant Register, which records harm from optical implants of every make, and fourteen free aftercare clinics.

    27,416 reports to the Register in FY2025

  • Continuity

    継続

    Help for people whose implants their makers no longer support: repairs, firmware kept safe in escrow, and a fund for replacements.

    11,870 people with discontinued implants helped

  • Living with low vision

    暮らし

    Rehabilitation, mobility training, braille and magnification for people whose sight cannot be restored, and work with employers who will hire them.

    9,320 people in rehabilitation programmes

  • Shared Sight

    共視

    A way for implant wearers to donate anonymised vision data to research on low vision, under rules set by a data ethics board.

    68,402 wearers donating data

Fig. 1. Cross-section of the human eye A side view of the eye. Parallel rays of light enter from the left through the cornea, pass the iris and are bent by the lens to meet at the fovea, the small pit at the back of the retina. The optic nerve leaves the back of the eye below it. Callout 8 marks a small rectangular array lying on the retina above the fovea: the place where a retinal implant sits, if one is fitted. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  1. 1Cornea
  2. 2Iris
  3. 3Lens
  4. 4Vitreous humour
  5. 5Retina
  6. 6Fovea
  7. 7Optic nerve
  8. 8Implant interface, where fitted
Fig. 1The eye in cross-section. Most of what we fund happens at 1, 3 or 5; an increasing share at 8.
Stories
A classroom in Kurigram, seen from the back benches Children sit on long wooden benches facing a blackboard. Beside the board hangs a chart of Landolt rings, rows of broken circles that get smaller towards the bottom, and a teacher points at one of the lower rows. Through the window on the left a river runs past with a small boat on it. In the front row a girl with a braided plait tied in a red ribbon wears spectacles; only their red arms are visible from behind.
Mieru vision screening · Kurigram District, Bangladesh

“I thought the board was meant to be blank”

Mitu sat at the front of her class for four years and copied her lessons from the girl beside her. Then a teacher she already knew held up a chart of broken rings.

22 September 2026 · All stories

Open calls

We fund through open calls, assessed by panels on which our own staff are a minority. We never charge a fee.

CallForAmountCloses
Implant aftercare clinics, 2027 roundClinics and hospitals offering free aftercare to wearers of any make of optical implantUp to ¥60 million over three years
Research grants in visual science, 2027Researchers at universities and public institutes in any country¥10 million to ¥40 million over up to three years
Kiroshi Fellowships, 2027 to 2028 cohortEye surgeons and low vision specialists in low- and middle-income countriesA year’s salary, travel and training
Continuity small grantsGroups repairing or documenting implants their makers no longer supportUp to ¥8 millionRolling

Search 408 grants awarded since 2016 (101 active)

Kiroshi Opticals

23.8%

of Kiroshi Opticals K.K. is owned by the Foundation, making us its largest shareholder. Its dividends paid for 81% of our work last year.

Kiroshi Opticals makes cybernetic eyes, retinal implants and intraocular lenses, among other things. Some of what we fund uses its products, and some of what we fund exists because of them. We think you should know that before you read anything else we publish, so we say it here.

We do not take instructions from the company. Since 2023 it has submitted its perception models for independent evaluation by Frothly’s Blackwall programme, at our request.

The relationship, in full

Research and open standards

The Chiba Centre for Visual Science studies how people see, and how devices see on their behalf. The open standards we publish are free to implement, and written so that an implant made by anyone can be serviced by anyone.

Since 2021 we have been research partners of Frothly, the independent institute that runs the Turing Registry.

News

News

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