Brief History

The history of ABIC is summarized as follows:

April 2000: 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.

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: Mikio Sasaki, Chairman of Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc. and Chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation
President: Toshio Sampei, Managing Director of Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc.
Managing Director and Secretary-General: Keiji Meikyo, General Manager of Social Contribution Group of Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc.

Members

ABIC memberships are divided into the following three categories:

Regular members

Regular members consist of fifteen corporations and five individuals in addition to the Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc. They have the voting right at the general assembly to decide basic policies for ABIC’s activities. Included in the above corporations are Associated Lumber & Trading Co., Ltd., Chori Co., Ltd., Hanwa Co., Ltd., Hitachi High-Technologies Corp., Inabata & Co., Ltd., Itochu Corp., JFE Shoji Holdings, Inc., Kowa Company, Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Nagase & 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 330 individuals are enrolled and the number of members is steadily increasing.

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 1,720
Those who have experience being stationed overseas: About 1,550 (about 90%)
Those who can speak a foreign language(s) besides English: About 860 (about 50%)
Those who want to work overseas: About 1,030 (about 60%)