Issue:

Big changes are afoot at the FCCJ, as the formerly disenfranchised Associate Members finally get a say in Club governance

That the Dalai Lama drops by every time he visits Tokyo is just one of the things that distinguish the FCCJ from a mere social club. And being part of the place “where the news is made” is a key reason why even those who are not journalists take pride in belonging to one of the world’s last fullfledged professional press clubs.

For FCCJ Members who are not foreign correspondents, however, there has long been a flip side to that pride: taxation without representation, the same issue that triggered the American Revolution.

The FCCJ membership consists of three castes. Regular Members (accredited foreign correspondents) are a privileged minority who pay low dues and enjoy the right to vote and the use of all Club facilities. Associate Members (typically businesspeople) pay higher dues, have no vote and are restricted in their use of Club facilities. In between is a group not unlike the “Cape Coloureds” of apartheid-era South Africa: “Professional Associates” (typically unaccredited writers and photographers) who pay low dues but get no vote.

It has taken decades, but change is here at last. Under the Club’s revised Articles of Association taking effect April 1, Associates and Professional Associates will have the right to elect three directors to the FCCJ Board in the upcoming June election.

Under the new system, positions that were previously directly elected (e.g. Treasurer) will now be appointed by the Board from among the talent pool of elected directors. This will allow the new Board to allocate responsibility for positions requiring special management skills (e.g. finance, human resources, house & property and marketing) to elected Associates. And it should solve a thorny longterm problem: journalists being typically more literate than numerate, Treasurer has always been the hardest office to fill.

An Associate nomination panel led by Joan Anderson is seeking willing and talented individuals to stand for election. Associates and Professional Associates who have been Members for at least one year are invited to put their names forward by April 25 via email to: fccjassociatenomination@gmail.com

A LONG TIME COMING
“Having Associates on the Board will strengthen the management of the Club,” said Associate Liaison Committee chair Kurt Sieber, a Swiss expatriate who has been an FCCJ Member for nearly half a century. “And, hopefully, it will harmonize relations between Regular and Associate Members.”

“There are many small things,” Sieber said, ticking off a list of longstanding Associate grievances ranging from tables in the Main Bar reserved for “Correspondents” to overly strict restrictions on Associates’ opportunities to ask questions at press conferences. Two years ago, many Associates were appalled by a proposal to spend their money on building a private bar for Regular Members.

“Some Associates are fed up with being treated as walking ATMs,” Sieber said. “We pay eighty percent of the Club’s dues, but until now we’ve had no representation. We have been second-class citizens… and we have had to watch decades of financial mismanagement. So we need to have people with a solid financial background on the Board.”

Sieber sees this second-class status as one major cause of the Club’s declining membership. “We have lost 333 Members over the past two years most of them Associates,” he says. “We need to offer a better value package to retain Members and bring back those who have left.”

By way of example, Sieber cited one reform in recent years that has made life easier for retirees on fixed incomes. Associates who reach age 75 after paying dues for 30 years are now eligible for Senior Membership, with dues reduced by half. From a management perspective, this allows the Club to retain Members who otherwise would have been forced to quit.

Although the list of Associate grievances is long, their strong commitment to the Club was in evidence at the Feb. 21 Associate General Membership Meeting. More than 50 Associates and Professional Associates turned out on a Friday night to learn about their coming emancipation and participate in a spirited discussion on the Club’s future prospects.


John R. Harris is a speechwriter and freelance journalist based in Onjuku on Chiba’s Pacific coast . . . and a professional associate member.