Asabuki Tomiko, born February 27, 1917 in Tokyo and died September 2, 2005, is a writer and translator. She belongs to a family originally from Kyûshu who played an active role in the birth of modern Japan during the Meiji Restoration. Coming to France at a very young age to study there, she returned in Japan in the 1950s and has since shared her time between the two countries. Sartre said that she was both "France seen from Japan and Japan seen from France". Her moving tribute to Sartre and Beauvoir, with whom she had close ties of friendship, is symbolic of the spirit of exchange and fulfilling encounters that L'Asiathèque wants to promote.