Issue:

WITH JAPAN’S OBON HOLIDAY approaching, I want to assure FCCJ Members that your Board is moving forward with promised reforms.

This entails (among many other things) negotiating with Mitsubishi Estate in an attempt to ensure that the planned move (inherited from a previous administration) to new premises does not impact the FCCJ’s revenue adversely and thus worsen what is already the less than robust financial position of the Club.

The design of some aspects of the new premises is still not well suited to our needs and thus it continues to be a major task for the Board to secure the best arrangement that will safeguard the interests of both sides.

Likewise, the transition from IRS the principal provider of outsourced Food and Beverage (F&B) operations at the Club to our new outsourced services provider, AIM, is occupying a great deal of BoD attention at present as the new arrangement will take effect as from Sept. 1, 2017.

Transitional arrangements between the outgoing and incoming companies involved will require some small limitation of operating hours and menus for several days at the end of August. The General Manager will be providing members with details very shortly and we will do our utmost to ensure that any inconvenience is kept to a minimum.

I ask on behalf of the Board for your patience and understanding in these matters and take this opportunity of reminding members that this Board is dedicated to preserving and strengthening the “volunteer spirit” within all of the Club’s organs and activities, and to ensuring that all revenues connected with Club activities accrue to the membership as a whole.

On the FCCJ committees, the Publicity Committee (HR) led by Dan Sloan, will be assigned to the activities related to Tokyo Olympics 2020. This world class event that is watched by the globe, is one of the new venues of which FCCJ can explore more activities to cover, support and “participate” in the Olympics with the goal of winning gold medals as one of the most important hubs for media globally. I have attended a meeting with the Organizing Committee and they told me they pin high hopes on FCCJ on the media front.

In this regard, the Club will regularly host IOC and 2020 Organizing Committee officials, athletes and speakers with relevance to the Games and Japan.

I invite FCCJ members to step forward and participate in the activities of this Olympic and other committees. Please contact the office and indicate which committee you would be interested in. As before, please feel free to contact me with any issue you might have.

Lastly, I would like thank to Gregory Starr and Andrew Pothecary, who have served ably as editor and art director for the No. 1 Shimbun for the past several years, as they will end their involvement with the magazine this month.

Again, thank you.
Happy and cool summer.


– Khaldon Azhari