■Brief History

The history of ABIC is summarized as follows:

April 2000: Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc.（JFTC）organized an NPO as one of its internal departments under the name of “Action for a Better International Community”（ABIC）.

May 2001: ABIC was granted corporate status, becoming an NPO corporation.

July 2002: ABIC obtained a license as a fee-charging employment agency.

April 2020: ABIC published a 20th anniversary magazine and held commemorative events.

■Mission

In the articles of incorporation, ABIC’s mission is stated as follows:

With abundant human resources well versed in international businesses, ABIC aims to make social contributions domestically and internationally, while providing physical support to government agencies, local municipalities, private enterprises, educational organizations and others.

■Officers

Chairman: Tatsuo Yasunaga, Chairman of JFTC and
　　　　　   Representative Director, Chair of the Board of Directors of Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
President: Fumiaki Miyamoto, Managing Director of JFTC
Managing Director and Secretary-General: Jun Iwata, General Manager of JFTC

■Members

ABIC memberships are divided into the following three categories:

Regular members

Regular members consist of eighteen corporations and twelve individuals. They have the voting right at the general assembly to decide basic policies for ABIC’s activities. Included in the above corporations are Chori Co., Ltd., Hanwa Co., Ltd., Inabata & Co., Ltd., Itochu Corp., Iwatani Corp., JFE Shoji Holdings, Inc., JFTC, Kanematsu Corp., Kowa Company, Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Nagase & Co., Ltd., Nippon Steel Trading Corp., Sanyo Trading Co., Ltd., Sojitz Corp., Sumitomo Corp., and Toyota Tsusho Corp.

Associate Members

Associate members are individuals and corporations who agree with ABIC’s goals and pay the membership fee to support its activities. About 170 individuals are enrolled.

Registered Members

Registered members are individuals who have registered with ABIC to participate in activities of some kind or another. Most of them are older employees retired from sogo shosha, general trading companies. The following shows some of their aspects.

- Total number of registered members: About 3,050
- Those who have experience being stationed overseas: About 2,580（about 85%）
- Those who can speak English: About 2,790（about 92%）
- Those who can speak a foreign language (s) besides English: About 1,420（about 47%）