During his time working as a translator and missionary in Japan, Péri became interested in Asian philosophy and made extensive studies of the Chinese Buddhist canon. In 1904, he organized the publication of Mélanges, (Mélanges japonais after 1907), a journal aimed at missionaries but publishing widely on historical, philosophical, and literary aspects of Japanese culture. Péri contributed summaries of recently published Japanese works that surveyed Buddhist canonical literature and mythology, contributing significantly to knowledge of the Buddhist canon in the Francophone world. Mélanges was the first foreign journal devoted to Japanese topics, and remained so for the first several years of its publication. However, in 1910 Catholic authorities- possibly the same faction that had previously disagreed with Péri's approach to Tenchijin- forced Mélanges japonais to suspend publication.
