President's Message

Debbie Howard
2004 ACCJ President

Dear ACCJ Members and all who have an interest in the ACCJ,

Individual members may be the fundamental building blocks of the ACCJ, but our committees, subcommittees, and task-forces are really who we are. The 2004 Annual Report makes this a little plainer to see in the column on the right, which represents our most active committees. Assuming you are viewing this online, please click on each for their 2004 reports.

When the Board of Governors met in January to map out our course for this year, we agreed that the Chamber was basically delivering the right types of activities to fulfill its brand promise to ACCJ members in the core areas of advocacy, information, and networking. However, we also felt that there was room for improvement in all areas.

The Board therefore adopted a "multi-dimensional approach to enhancing value for ACCJ members." At the core of this approach was a two-phased member satisfaction research project, managed by the Membership Relations Committee with my personal involvement.

Using the results from the member satisfaction research to guide us, we made significant progress in 2004 in a number of areas.

The first phase of this research provided quantitative measurements based on the responses to a questionnaire received from a statistically valid sample of 402 responses . . . representing 13 percent of membership.

In phase two, we obtained a more qualitative assessment from six structured group discussions that addressed specific areas of concern. The entire process took several months, and I would like to acknowledge the pro bono support of the AMT Group, which facilitated the group discussions, as well as Celsius Research for analyzing the numbers.

Although the results showed member satisfaction was at a consistently high level compared to the last survey in 1998, they also yielded a raft of excellent suggestions for improvements. Many of these ideas are already being implemented.

The ACCJ's advocacy efforts continued to raise our prominence and expand our influence in the policy arena. Over two hundred articles appeared in the Japanese and international media on the ACCJ and our views on the critical economic and business issues facing this country. Our voice is respected and heard by both the Japanese and U.S. governments.

We started off with a big hit early in the year. Working directly with members of the Diet and U.S. Senate, and in cooperation with Japanese and U.S.-based business organizations, we helped push through early ratification of the bilateral tax treaty (by March 31st) by the Diet and the Senate, which paid off in hundreds of millions of dollars in savings for American businesses.

Then early in the Fall, the great success scored by the Foreign Direct Investment Task Force last year was matched by the Privatization Task Force, which under intense time pressure issued a statement of principles drawn from global best practices and, separately, analyses and specific recommendations on the privatization of the Japan Post system and Narita Airport. Read more about it by clicking on the Privatization Task Force link in the right column.

We also formed a Competition Policy Task Force that authored a paper to inform the Japanese government of the ACCJ's expectations in this important area in which debate is just beginning to heat up.

In the U.S., ACCJ leaders had nearly fifty meetings over a three-day period during our D.C. Doorknock in early May, includinge with Senators Bingaman, Brownback, Nickles, and Hagel, as well as Congressmen Lantos, Levin, Burton, Sensenbrenner, Tuner, McDermott and Leach.

On the homefront here in Japan, ACCJ committees again issued a host of Viewpoint papers and public comments this year on an ever-widening range of issues. These included papers on hospital functions, Nagoya's Komaki Airport, the postal privatization process, investment trusts, patent law, government procurement of information technology, a level playing field for the insurance industry, and security interest registration for movables, counterfeit goods and pirated property, personal information protection, and Narita user charges.

Keeping with the upward trend of years past, the ACCJ's 9th Diet Doorknock (November 9-11) was bigger and better than ever before. Over 90 ACCJ members spanning 20 committees and subcommittees participated in this year's event and met with over 80 Diet members. There were an unprecedented number of top-level meetings, including 7 Cabinet Ministers, 6 Senior Vice-Ministers, 3 Parliamentary Secretaries, LDP and DPJ Party Leadership and 7 Diet Committee Chairs. By advocating the ACCJ's FDI, Privatization Global Best Practice, and committee Viewpoint positions, Diet Doorknock participants were able to provide Japan's lawmakers with significant insight into the perspectives of international business organizations operating in Japan.

I am also pleased to note that in response to ACCJ members' request to make the advocacy process more transparent . . . we have developed a one-page insert that will appear in the ACCJ Journal every quarter. Called the "Advocacy Insider"-this communication will serve to better acquaint our members with the huge amount of work that the Chamber is doing to make the business environment in Japan more open, more fair, and easier for all ACCJ member companies to operate in.

Moving on to membership, a New Member email newsletter was created to help new members become active and engaged more quickly - while also increasing the probability of longer term membership.

At the other end of the membership cycle, a questionnaire is now sent to resigning members and their responses are tracked for follow up and evaluation. Meanwhile, our recruiting brochures were updated and redesigned in both English and Japanese, and are particularly useful in recruitment efforts involving guest attendees at ACCJ programs.

The Membership Relations Committee - in addition to focusing on member feedback through the Member Satisfaction research process -- intensified further efforts to connect new members with committees by sending new member information to committee chairs directly.

The popularity of the monthly new member orientations held at the ACCJ office continued to grow, and the feedback from participants has been very positive. An additional call is now made to new members who have been inactive during their first three months to encourage involvement. And Commercial Members now receive added value from their membership by having their company homepage linked to the ACCJ public website.

I am also pleased to congratulate the Membership Department and Communications for reducing the expenses for this year's membership directory by 10 percent and bringing it in on time and well under budget.

Total ACCJ membership closed 2004 at 3,116, compared to 3,154 at the beginning of the year. It is important to note that there had been a three-year decline in membership dues revenue that showed no signs of stopping - to the tune of 9%. The good news is that with the dues restructuring, we will be able to reverse this trend, and will recover the full 9% within the next fiscal year.

The 3-year decline in membership dues revenue that I am referring to was an important aspect of the financial situation that prompted the Board to determine at the January planning session that it was necessary to redress the balance between operating expenses and dues revenue.

After much study and deliberation - and on the recommendation of the Business and Financial Affairs Advisory Council, the Board agreed to seek the voting membership's approval of a new, progressive dues structure. This dues schedule was approved by voting members on May 21, 2004, and went into effect at the beginning of October.

Through this effort, the ACCJ should begin to gain the financial stability that has eluded us for the past 3-4 years. I am pleased to report that today, the reaction to the dues restructuring is quite positive, and we are seeing very little attrition or downgrading.

The dues restructuring that we have implemented will provide financial stability for the future . . . and the ACCJ is now in a much better position to enhance value for ACCJ members.

ACCJ CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COMMUNITY

Before closing, I would also like to mention another important aspect of the ACCJ's involvement in Japan - and that is "charitable giving" to organizations who help the less fortunate in our community.

Through our Community Fund Committee, headed up by Board of Governor Tom Jordan, we contributed 3.0 million yen to several non-profit organizations in 2004, including the Kids Earth Fund (which helps disadvantaged children by promoting peaceful co-existence and environmental conservation through art), the YMCA Challenged Children Support program, the Franciscan Chapel Center and Tokyo Union Church food for the homeless programs, Nonohana No Ie home for disadvantaged children and abused families, and Niigata Karitsu Kai Infant Care Home, which suffered a broken heater in the recent earthquake, and was otherwise without heat.

As you know, the ACCJ also contributes through its annual Charity Ball. We raised 8.0 million yen in 2002 and 4.8 million yen in 2003, and this year's fantastic event raised 5.83 million yen after expenses, which was donated to three organizations: Hope worldwide Japan, Asian Women's Shelter and Second Harvest/Food Bank Japan.

Add that to the very successful fundraising effort of the ACCJ Chubu Chapter, which raises approximately 5,000,000 yen through its Walk-a-thon event held in mid-May each year.

In total, the ACCJ donated 15.82 million yen to non-profit organizations in Japan in 2004.

ACCJ member companies are long-term investors in Japan, and it is important that we take a leadership role in setting an example as good corporate citizens. I encourage you to give generously through the ACCJ's efforts at charitable fundraising.

We are already a very powerful chamber, and I am constantly amazed at what we accomplish as a group.

However, the year 2004 has been an important one in terms of refocusing on our mission, and re-examining the way that we do things in order to reach a new and more powerful level of effectiveness.

I believe our investment in analyzing member needs will further contribute to our deeper understanding of the changing needs of ACCJ members.

I applaud both our volunteers and ACCJ staff, who work so hard as always to ensure the continued success of the ACCJ.

Sincerely,

Debbie Howard
2004 ACCJ President