SYLFF (pronounced as "sylph") is The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund that was established in 1987. As for April 2006, 69 universities, including Jagiellonian University, and consortia (a total of 88 institutions of higher learning) in 45 countries have received endowments of US$ 1 million from The Nippon Foundation.

These SYLFF institutions use the interest generated from their respective endowments to provide fellowships to promissing graduate students in the social sciences, humanities and the performing arts in their home institutions or abroad. (SYLFF at Jagiellonian University - only abroad).

The term "SYLFF program" is frequently used to encompass the entirety of this fellowship program. "SYLFF institutions" to denote universities or groups of institutions that have received an endowment, and "SYLFF fellows" in referring to the more than 10,000  students who have received fellowships.

The Scholarship Division of The Tokyo Foundation administers the SYLFF Program and its follow-up programs:

• Program Development Award (PDA)
• SYLFF Network Program (SNP)
• SYLFF Prize
• SYLFF Regional Forum