President's Message

Dear members,

On March 27 we held our General Membership Meeting, where the budget and business plan for next year were approved, along with an amendment to our Articles of Association. We needed two-thirds of Regular members to vote, and through your participation and our General Manager’s persistence, we were able to approve all matters, including a continuation of the levy. At the GMM, we welcomed for the first time in recent history all Professional Journalist Associate and Associate members, and the input from all made for a more informative and compelling evening.

March 2025

Dear members,

We are just weeks away from our General Membership Meeting, when the Finance Committee will present our budget for the next business year. Tremendous consideration goes into this plan, and I’d like to thank Treasurer Anthony Rowley and his finance team for leading the Club towards a stronger path of sustainability. I hope to see you all at this quarterly meeting on March 27. Dinner will be served for 1,000 yen for those in attendance.

Dear members,

We ended January with our new year’s Hacks & Flacks party, as well as excellent PAC speakers including the ambassadors of Israel, the U.S., and Palestine. Now we want to keep that momentum going.

Dear members,

Happy new year from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. In early 2025, we will host (hopefully) the U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and a memorial for former director Mary Corbett on January 10, followed by our Hacks & Flacks party on January 23. Please note that space for this shinnenkai event will be limited and reservations are already peaking, so book your tickets soon to ensure a place at Japan’s best networking night.

Dear Members: We held an Extraordinary General Membership Meeting in late November and saw the election of Martin Fackler as Kanji and the passage of some key amendments. The Treasurer and I invited Rick Dyck as a special Finance Committee observer, who added insights to matters related to the Club. In these discussions at the meeting and with the General Manager, I am confident that our cash position is not only explicable, but firm as long as the FCCJ continues its current levy and sees the higher initiation income generated so far this year. Do we still have challenges? Of course, but those charged with managing these are working diligently to address them.

Dear members,

Just days after Japan's lower house elections and less than a week before the U.S. chooses a new president, the uncertainty surrounding both votes is palpable. We are hosting a viewing of the U.S. election results at the club on Wednesday November 6, and hoping that Japanese opposition party leaders visit to detail their plans for a coalition government later this month. The FCCJ is where news is made, so expect more speakers and analysis in a very consequential month ahead.

Dear Members,

It took a while, but a new BoD now represents the FCCJ and held its first meeting on August 9. I will serve as president, Khaldon Azhari as First Vice President, Randy Schmidt as Second Vice President, Anthony Rowley as Treasurer, and David Umeda as Secretary. Completing our directors are Shuri Fukunaga, Taeko Nagayama, Suvendrini Kakuchi, and outgoing President Dave McCombs, and Simon Farrell as Kanji. Milton Isa will serve as Reserve Director.

There is one open Kanji position and I hope to be able to update on next steps for this role shortly, as well as who will lead our many FCCJ Committees.