The Japan Society Annual General Meeting 2009The Society’s 2009 AGM took place on 10 June 2009 at the Embassy of Japan. Despite thestrike on the London Underground, the membership was well represented and we are gratefulto all who attended and who took the time to vote by proxy.
At this year’s AGM, members approved the adoption of a new set of articles of association toreflect new provisions of the Companies Act 2006, and made some additional minor
amendments. The principal changes are described in Appendix 1 to the Notice of AGM(please see below) and the full text is available for inspection at the addresses set out therein.
In addition to the above, Christopher Purvis was re-elected Chairman of the Company andelections / re-elections were held for Ordinary Council Members. Congratulations to all those
who were elected / re-elected.
If you wish to receive a hard copy of the annual accounts and Council Members’ report,
please contact us.
Minutes of the 112th Annual General Meeting of The Japan Society
Held at the Japanese Embassy, 101-104 Piccadilly, London W1 at 6.00 p.m. on Wednesday,
10th June 2009.
The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming all those present and in particular, theSociety’s President, the Japanese Ambassador, Mr Shin Ebihara, who had been a strong
support since arriving in London. He thanked the Embassy for hosting the AGM and theKnowing Me, Knowing You exhibition.
He thanked all those who had managed to travel to the meeting in difficult conditions anddespite the underground strike. A quorum was registered for the meeting.
Ambassador Ebihara
Ambassador Ebihara congratulated the Japan Society on its work. It was exactly one year
since his arrival in the UK and he had noted the wonderful job the Society was doing toenhance the Japan UK relationship. The Chairman, Christopher Purvis, and his colleagues
had done particularly well in fundraising at this time. In thanking Heidi Potter foradministering the Society and its members, especially those on the Council and various
committees, Ambassador Ebihara wished the Japan Society another fruitful year to come.
Christopher Purvis
Christopher Purvis explained that 2008 was the first full year after the merger with Japan 21.
It was very pleasing that a financial surplus had been achieved for the year, despite initial
indications that this would be difficult.
The AGM was a good opportunity for members to remind themselves that the Japan Society
was a charity, whose objects were to promote understanding of Japan and the UK and toencourage the bilateral relationship. The membership and outreach activities of the Society
should be focused on furthering its charitable objective.

Looking ahead, the Christopher Purvis pointed out that the Society would be celebrating its
125th anniversary in seven years’ time. The new board, elected at the AGM, would consider
the long term issues facing the Society including the balance between the programme forschools and non members and that for the Society’s membership; the role of publications inthe Society; and the role of the Board itself.
In the weeks preceding the AGM, Christopher Purvis had been pleased to hear from a numberof members with ideas and suggestions for consideration by the Society. He encouraged all
members to communicate regularly with the office and the Board at any time during the year.
In closing, the Chairman thanked all who had been involved in preparations for the AGM:
Satoru Yoshida, the treasurer; Richard Jones, the returning officer; and in particular, Nigel
Wellings and his team at Clifford Chance who had worked on the new Articles of
Association and who would be overseeing the voting.
Heidi Potter
Heidi Potter gave an overview of Japan Society’s new website which was now underconstruction and would be launched shortly. For the first time since the merger informationon all the Japan Society’s activities would be integrated on one site. It was hoped that thiswould make it easier for members to obtain information on the whole programme.
New features included a news area where regular updates would update members on mattersof interest beyond the public events programme, a clickable calendar with listings for allevents. Full details of the wider schools education programme, small grants, membershipmatters and Japan Society resources and publications, were also easily accessible.
While the new website would make it easier for members to keep in touch with the Society,those who were not regular internet users should not be concerned; paper copies of theprogramme and other materials would still be produced.
Members would be notified when the new site was launched and were encouraged to give
feedback and suggestions.
Agenda ItemsThere were four ordinary resolutions and one special resolution to be considered at the AGM.
Christopher Purvis explained the details and outlined the procedure for voting. Votes werecounted after the meeting and the results announced during the subsequent reception marking
the opening of the Japan Society members’ art exhibition ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’.
The following resolutions were passed as ordinary resolutions:
1. To receive and adopt the audited annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December
2008 and the council members’ report.
2. To reappoint Richard Place Dobson as auditors and to authorise the Council to approvetheir remuneration as thought fit.
3. To re-elect Christopher Purvis as Chairman of the Company.
4. To elect or re-elect Ordinary Council Members of the Company to fill certain vacancies
arising. There were nine possible vacancies for ordinary membership to the Council and ninecandidates. All were duly elected:

Ryoichi Bamba
Sean Curtin
Martin Day
Jun Kobayashi
Stephen McEnally
Masamichi Morooka
George Olcott
Keisaku Sano
Michael Spencer
Council members who had served during the year, but who were standing down were thankedfor their contributions to the Society: Marie Conte-Helm, Tsunao Kijima, Katsuhito Nishihori,Nick Reeve. Mami Mizutori, who had served ex officio as Director of the Japan Informationand Cultural Centre, had returned to Japan in December and Ken Okaniwa welcomed in herplace.
The following resolution was passed as a special resolution:To adopt new Articles of Association in the form produced to the meeting and initialled bythe Chairman for the purposes of identification in substitution for and to the exclusion of theCompany’s existing Articles of Association.