JIFFA Report

8

2023

JIFFA Attends FIATAInternational Exchange Committee
HQ Meeting
Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA) traveled to
Switzerland to attend the 2023 HQ
Meeting of the International Federationof Freight Forwarders Associations(FIATA) in March 2023. Contacting andinteracting with various overseasorganizations is an important activity of
JIFFA, as part of which it was present at
the meeting in Geneve.
Most FIATA members are industry
organizations of various countries andregions, although some are individual
enterprises. From Japan, threeorganizations are affiliated, including
JIFFA. There are two occasions a year on
which FIATA members gather fromaround the world. One is the World

Congress, which members take turns toheld in the countries and regions they
represent; the other is the HQ Meeting,which is held in March at FIATA’s
headquarters in Geneve. FIATA resumed
its in-person HQ Meeting in 2022, but
at that time, JIFFA only attended it
online. As such, it was the first time infour years when JIFFA had taken part in a
FIATA event in person.
FIATA consists of committees incharge of judicial affairs, information,
education and so on, just like JIFFA does.
At committee meetings, reports are madeon past activities and future activity
plans.
FIATA also has various in-housebodies. Multimodal Transport Institute(MTI), in particular, handles subjects thathave much to do with JIFFA member
freight forwarders. At an MTI meeting,reports were unveiled by threesubgroups—Working Group Sea,
Working Group Rails and Working Group
Road—as MTI covers many extensive
areas of business.
At the FIATA 2023 HQ Meeting,many in-house organizations exchanged
views on the Import Control System 2(ICS2), which has been introduced inEuropean nations. The system requires
the provision of information on the
security and safety of commodities
before they arrive in destinations in theEuropean Union (EU) member states. In
March 2021, the ICS2 was applied to all
postal and express
consignments, andin March 2023,
goods in air traffic
were covered. The
system is scheduledtobecomeapplicable to goods
in maritime andinland waterways aswell as road and rail
traffic in March
2024. For these2023

SummerJapan

International

Freight

Forwarders

Association INC.

4F, Across Shinkawa Bldg. Annex, 16–14, Shinkawa 1-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104–0033
Telephone 81 3 3297 0351 Facsimile 81 3 3297 0354
URL https://www.jiffa.or.jp
Issued in September 2023

JIFFA Holds 12th General Assembly
reasons, it attracted attention frommeeting participants. The U.K. is,meanwhile, working to develop a customs
system on its own to ensure security andsafety. The ICS2 can have major effects
on maritime freight forwarders. JIFFA will,
therefore, continue to garner informationon the system and forward it to its
members.
JIFFA intends to continue efforts tointeract with various overseasorganizations in years to come.

Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA) held its 12th
general assembly at 4 p.m. on Thursday,June 8, 2023. Out of the association’s
521 regular members, 137 gathered at
the Primavera banquet room in the DaiIchi Hotel Tokyo in Minato Ward, while
247 were present by proxy for a total of
384 attendances.
JIFFA Chairman Junichiro Watanabe
gave the opening address at the
beginning of the general assembly andwas elected by the attending members topreside over the meeting.
At the beginning of the general
assembly, Executive Director andSecretary-General Hisanao Kawachi gavebriefings on 1-1) a fiscal 2022 business
report and 2-1) a fiscal 2022 accountsettlement report. The latter report wasapproved after an audit was made by
Auditor Shuji Yamaguchi. Then, 1-2)
fiscal 2023 business and income andexpenditure budget reports were
unveiled. As for 2-2) the directors toleave their positions, the retirement of
seven was discussed and approved. The
meeting unanimously agreed on 2-3) the

provision of retirement benefits to retired
full-time executives. After the general
assembly, the directors convened their
51st meeting, at which Mr. Chihiro
Sugiyama and Mr. Tsuneo Suzuki were
elected as new Vice-Chairman and Senior
Executive Director, respectively.
In fiscal 2023, JIFFA plans to organize
courses for qualifying international
intermodal transport specialists in Tokyo
and Osaka, workshops for new andmidcareer employees in Tokyo and apractical English correspondence coursein Tokyo. Also, online English
presentations will be put on the table.
Other events in review include an
introductory Chinese course, a seminaron a Southeast Asian language, a survey
on overseas logistics affairs, a basic
course to learn JIFFA’s transport terms
and conditions and e-learning and otherworkshops. JIFFA intends to organize alogistics field trip for school children, takepart in internship programs in thelogistics industry and create an
educational video. The association will
also share information on theInternational Federation of Freight

Chairman Junichiro Watanabe

Forwarders Association (FIATA) with its
members; promote its transport-related
documents; hold activity briefing sessions
in Fukuoka, Kobe and Nagoya; participate
in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism (MLIT)’s
committee and working group for
promotingport
andharborcomputerization; consider holding
logistics seminars; and attend meetings
convened by the MLIT, the Cabinet
Office, the Japan Customs and othergovernmental ministries and agencies,
industry group and others.
Chairman Watanabe’s opening address
is outlined below.
I am giving the opening address for the
12th general assembly of Japan
International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA).
First, I am informing you that we aresmoothly advancing all activities despite
various changes in circumstances
surrounding us. I would like to take thisopportunity to be deeply grateful to you
all for always supporting and helping us.
(continued on page 2)

JIFFA Report

2

2023

JIFFA Report

Public Relations Committee Holds Seminar on ‘2024 Problem’
Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA)’s Public Relations
Committee held an online seminar on
March 1, 2023 to discuss the so-called
2024 problem in logistics. The seminar,
at which Managing Director Hiroaki
Oshima of NX Logistics ResearchInstitute and Consulting, Inc. gave alecture, was attended by as many as 350
individuals from JIFFA members, whichindicated that freight forwarders are
deeply concerned about the anticipatedproblem.
Labor shortages are escalating in thelogistics industry. It is a pressing issue for
freight forwarders to address them. Truck
driver shortages are also a serious issue

due to worsening labor conditions andvarious other factors. As part of Tokyo’s
work-style reform act, the amount ofovertime premiums that small andmedium businesses pay to employees
who work 60 hours or more a month wasraised from 25% to 50%. In April 2024,
in addition, an annual cap of 960
overtime hours for truck drivers will takeeffect. As such, the logistics industry isfeared to suffer severe adverse impacts,
such as leftover cargo resulting fromweakened transport capacity and overall
cost increases from higher wages.
As discussed in the online seminar,
trucking companies alone cannot solvethe 2024 problem. Cooperation fromshippers and all of the other interested
parties is inevitable. These ideas wereshared by many of the attendees.
JIFFA will continue to transmit
information on issues in which member
freight forwarders are highly interested.

Looking back at the last one year, theeconomy was always decelerated. Itbegan with surges in resource prices due
to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was
followed by accelerations in global
inflation. To keep it from escalating,governments imposed belt-tightening
policies. The Japanese economy, for its
part, did not fully return to a recovery
track, as import prices went up under the
influence of the weakening of theJapanese yen.
As such, the total volume of NVOCC
cargo handled in fiscal 2022 by JIFFA
member freight forwarders only minutely
grew from the previous fiscal year, as it
was impacted by slowdowns in the global
economy, or more specifically, theChinese economy. Although exports
increased 2.2 %, imports decreased
0.2%. In total, they amounted to 123.37
million tons, which slight increase 0.7%.
Although the improvement was minute,we have maintained year-on-year growthin throughput for two back-to-back years.
The volume itself was greater than prepandemic levels. It was accomplished as
all of our members made relentlessefforts, for which I would like to show myprofound respect.

JIFFA’smembership is
growing every
year. In fiscal
2022, there
was an increaseof 11 newmembers fromthe previous
fiscal year. We
welcomed two
more in andafter April, andas of June 1, our regular members
numbered 548, consisting of 521 regularmembers as well as 16 supporting
enterprises and 11 supportingorganizations. JIFFA is expanding
constantly, and I believe that we areleading the recovery of the Japanese
economy in the future.
The coronavirus pandemic has madevarious adverse impacts over the last
three years, such as supply chain
disruptions as well as container andshipping space shortages, which havegenerated delays in marine cargotransport. However, such problems are
finally going away, and I am sure thatJIFFA’s activities will return to what they
were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA) member freight
forwarders moved a combined 61.729
million tons of cargo to and from Japan in
the second half of fiscal 2022 (October2022-March 2023), which increased aminute 0.4% from the corresponding six
months of the previous fiscal year.
Shipments to and from Japan plunged
in the first half of fiscal 2020 due tolockdowns worldwide and the state of
emergency declaration in Japan, both ofwhich resulted from the coronavirus
pandemic. However, they have been on
the rise since returning to the 60-million-

ton line in the second half of fiscal 2020.
Exports from Japan turned upward,
increasing 5.8% to 24.941 million tons.
They surged in the first half of fiscal
2021, rebounding from a severe decline
a year earlier, but continued to shrink
year on year afterward. Imports to Japan,
on the other hand, fell 2.9% to 36.788
million tons owing to steep rises in raw
material prices and the depreciation of
the Japanese yen. Due to Russia's
invasion of Ukraine, cargo volume with
the CIS plummeted, and total imports
and exports fell by 68.1% to 84,000
tons.

（1,000 revenue tons）

62,00060,000Total

60,51661,017

61,461

61,64361,72958,00056,00054,00052,00050,00051,991

48,00046,00044,00042,000We will continue this fiscal year topromote support for human resource
development, mainly by proceeding witheducation and training programs. We plan
to resume our suspended overseas
logistics surveys. We will also continue towork hard to contribute to thedevelopment of the freight forwarding
industry by holding various seminars,
addressing digitalization, cooperating with
relevant governmental ministries andagencies and so forth.
Before finishing my opening address, I
would like to humbly ask each affiliatedfreight forwarder and each committee
member to continue to support and help
us to further enlarge our business
operations.

2023

Exports Turn Upward, Imports Slightly Fall Due to Yen
Depreciation Forwarding Committee

64,000(continued fro
om pagee 1)

340,000 Import
38,00035,95137,09237,89638,04023,56523,60336,78836,00034,00032,000 33,745
30,00028,000 Export
26,00024,56523,92524,00024,941

22,00020,00018,24618,0000

FY2021
FY2021 FY2022
FY2022
FY2020 FY2020
2H
2H
2H
1H
1H
1H
Apr 2020 Oct 2020 Apr 2021 Oct 2021 Apr 2022 Oct 2022
Sep 2020 Mar 2021 Sep 2021 Mar 2022 Sep 2022 Mar 2023

year on year
-16.7%
in total+6.7%+17.4%

+1.6%

+1.0%

+0.4 %(1) Exports
In the second
half of fiscal 2022,
JIFFA members
carried 24.941
million tons ofexports from Japan,
which improved
5.8% year on year.
Quantitatively,
exports were evengreater than in thesecond half offiscal 2020, when
they exceeded prepandemic levels.
Accounting forthe largest part of
the total, exports
to China picked up
5.7% to 5.093
million tons, which
remained on an
upward trend fortwo consecutive
terms from the first
half. Coming insecond,incontrast, those to
the U.S. turned
downward,
decreasing 6.5%
to 2.838 million

tons. Ranked third were exports to
Europe, which remained robust, swelling
9.8% to 2.302 million tons. They were
followed by those to South Korea, which
plunged 13.1% to 1.608 million tons,
continuing to mark a double-digit
contraction for two halves in a row. At
the bottom of the top five were
shipments to Vietnam, which bumped up
a notch from sixth by growing a notable
26.7% to 1.531 million tons. Those to
Taiwan rose from seventh to sixth by
expanding a more remarkable 28.7% to
1.486 million tons. Exports to otherparts of Asia almost doubled, soaring
94.1% to 1.479 million tons to finishedin seventh place. Those to Thailand
shrank a minute 0.3% to 1.459 million
tons, going down to eighth place.
In terms of TEU, exports to China
amounted to 250,195 TEUs, up 0.6%,
holding the leading share of the pie. As
for exports to other destinations, thoseto the U.S. came to 121,283 TEUs,
down 0.8%; to South Korea, 96,041
TEUs, down 0.7%; to Europe, 89,068
TEUs, down 7.2%; and to Thailand,
78,501 TEUs, up 1.7%.
(2) Imports
In October 2022-March 2023,
imports to Japan decreased 2.9%
36.788 million tons. They suffered theirfirst year-on-year decline since thesecond half of fiscal 2020.
Imports from China slid 2.4% to18.529 million tons but managed tocome on the top of the list. The second
largest source was Vietnam, from which
3.242 million tons were imported, which
contracted 4.4%. Those from Europe, incontrast, swelled a significant 29.1% to3.055 million tons. Ranked fourth andfifth places, imports from Thailand andthe U.S. were both stagnant, which
waned 4.8% to 2.265 million tons and5.5% to 1.785 million tons, respectively.
On a TEU scale, imports from China(continued on page 4)

JIFFA Report

4

2023

JIFFA Report

JIFFA Attends JALoT-Organized FY2022 Logistics Business
Seminar in Tokyo Public Relations Committee
Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA)’s Public Relations
Committee held a job fair for job-hunting
students as part of the fiscal 2022
seminar for studying the logistics
business organized in Tokyo on Feb. 3,
2023 by the Japan Association for
Logistics and Transport (JALoT). Morethan 100 such student gathered at
Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade
Center Hamamatsucho-Kan in Minato
Ward, where the seminar took place,
visiting booths of enterprises andorganizations affiliated with the JALoT.
The seminar was given in six 30minute sessions. In the first three
sessions, JIFFA outlined sea and airfreight
forwarding services at its booth inpartnership with the Japan Aircargo
Forwarders Association (JAFA). In the last
three sessions, JIFFA then held online
discussions to encourage students to
exchange views with JIFFA and/or JAFA
members including NRS Corp.; Kintetsu
World Express, Inc. (KWE); Overseas
Courier Service Co., Ltd. (OCS); andVANTEC HTS Forwarding, Ltd., which
was renamed LOGISTEED Express, Ltd. in

April. The attending students asked
many questions as the online discussions
were a precious opportunity to directly
speak with first-line workers in charge offreight forwarding in other countries. The
students heard from their discussion
partners what hardships they have had
and what job satisfactions they haveacquired in their places of work,
prehistories of their overseas
assignments and so on.

(continued fro
om pagee 3)

place, and 5.357 million tons were
exported to and imported from theregion, which ballooned a remarkable
20%. Shipments to and from Vietnam
increased 3.8% to 4.773 million tons,
rising from fourth to third. On the other
hand, freight to and from the U.S. slid
6.1% to 4.623 million tons, falling fromsecond to fourth place. Thailand finishedin fifth, with exports to and imports fromthe Southeast Asian nation totaling
3.724 million tons, which declined 3.1%.
In TEU terms, exports to and imports
from China amounted to 1.05 million
TEUs, down 2.4%; to and from Europe,
205,374 TEUs, down 1.5%; to and fromthe U.S., 182,871 TEUs, down 5.5%; toand from South Korea, 179,836 TEUs,
down 5%; and to and from Vietnam,
178,050 TEUs, up 0.2%.

were down 3.3% to 799,334 TEUs;
from Vietnam, down 2.8% to 119,357
TEUs; from Europe, up 3.3% to116,306 TEUs; from Thailand, up 0.9%
to 94,349 TEUs; and from South Korea,
down 9.5% to 83,795 TEUs.
(3) Export-Import Total
JIFFA-affiliated freight forwarderstransported a total of 61.729 million
tons of cargo to and from Japan in thesecond half of fiscal 2022, which
increased 0.4% from a year earlier andhas continued to grow year on year since
the second half of fiscal 2020.
Japan’s leading trade partner was
China, with 23.622 million tons moved
between the countries, which fell 0.7%.
Europe stepped up from third to second

JIFFA will continue to support humanresource development activities.

5

2023

JIFFA Holds FY2022 Courses for Qualifying International
Intermodal Transport Specialists Education Committee
Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA)’s Education
Committee organized its annual courses
for qualifying international intermodaltransport specialists in Tokyo and Osakain October-November 2022. The
courses were given in a total of 30
lectures on 10 days during the periods
from Oct. 6 to Nov. 22 in Tokyo andfrom Oct. 19 to Nov. 29 in Osaka.
In fiscal years 2020 and 2021, thecourses were organized on a smaller scale
to prevent coronavirus infections, only
assembling one-half of their normal
enrollment limits. In fiscal 2022, however,the courses finally returned to normal, but
students were still encouraged to fully
take infection-prevention measures, suchas wearing masks and taking their bodytemperatures and washing and sanitizing
their hands when entering classrooms.
On Dec. 14, the final examinations
were given in both Tokyo and Osaka for

224 course attendees, 221 of which
passed them and became qualified asinternational intermodal transport
specialists. The highest score gained was
96 points out of 100, while the average
was 78.78 points. Now, JIFFA has
produced a total of 6,509 international
intermodal transport specialists so far.
On Jan. 25, 2023, JIFFA held aceremony at its head office in Tokyo tohonor five top performers. JIFFA Chairman
Junichiro Watanabe
himself conferredinternational
intermodal transport
specialist certificatesto them, saying hehopes they will
become importantmembers of theindustry by making themost of the knowledge
they had from theJIFFA Honors Top Performers at FY2022 Chinese, English Courses
Language Training Committee(4) Fiscal 2022
In fiscal 2022, JIFFA members
exported 48.544 million tons ofinternational intermodal cargo fromJapan, which increased 2.2% from theprevious fiscal year, thanks to a recovery
in freight movement in the second halffrom sluggishness in the first half. On theother hand, imports declined 0.2% to74.282 million tons. Unlike exports, they
were brisk in the first half but turned
down in the second half, impacted by thedepreciation of the Japanese yen andother factors. In total, they transported
123.372 million tons to and from Japan.
Although there was only a marginal
growth of 0.7%, it was a year-on-year
improvement for the second consecutive
fiscal year.

Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA) held a ceremonyon Jan. 31, 2023 to confer certificatesof completion to students who had madeoutstanding performances at the final
examinations of its foreign language
learning courses.
JIFFA’s Language Training Committee
commenced its annual introductory
Chinese and practical English
correspondence courses in June 2022 at
the association’s head office in Tokyo.
The Chinese course was made up of 15classes with one class given on one day,while the English course consisted of 36
lectures with three provided on each of
12 days. The Chinese and English
courses both continued until October.
After the final examinations wereconducted for both courses, theEducation Committee’s grading board
convened a meeting to pick up top
performers. The Chinese course wasattended by three students, all of which
passed the final examination. The English
course was given to 23 students, morethan half of which attended all of the 36
lectures and 20 of which passed the final
examination.
The ceremony was held at aconference room in JIFFA’s head office tohonor the top performers—one from the
Chinese course and three from theEnglish course. Certificates of completion
were granted to them by JIFFA Chairman
Junichiro Watanabe. “I show
my respect to you all forworking so hard as to behonorably recognized today,
although you might havekeenly felt how hard it is tocontinue to learn a foreign
language and made efforts to
do so,” he said. “I am sure
you will make the most of theassets that you acquired fromcourses. Chairman Watanabe and thestudents were later joined by thechairman and vice-chairman of the
Education Committee for a meeting, at
which the students expressed theirimpressions of the courses.

the courses in your daily businessroutines.”
After the ceremony, the students werejoined by individuals from six freight
forwarding newspaper publishers. In a
mixed atmosphere of nervousness andhappiness, they enjoyed a pleasant timewith the visiting newspaper people,
talking about why they had attended thelanguage courses, what hardships theyencountered during the coronavirus
pandemic and while taking the courses,
how they managed cooperation at home
and work, what career goals they will
pursue in the future and so on.

JIFFA Report

6

2023

JIFFA Report

JIFFA Holds FY2023 Workshops for New Employees
Education Committee
Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA)’s Education
Committee held its annual workshop in
May 2023 for new employees of its
member freight forwarders and those who
had been newly assigned to freight
forwarding-related business tasks.

In the first part, the Education
Committee gave a lecture on May 24 at aconference room of the Sompo Kaikan
Hall in Tokyo. Attendees, 90% of which
had joined their companies within the last
two months, learned basics of theinternational freight forwarding business,such as technical terms, export and importflows, Incoterms, transport document
contents and the importance of insurance.
The committee played a DVD that JIFFA
had produced on the forwarding ofinternational seagoing cargo. The visual
aid, which had just been updated for the
first time in 15 years, was introduced to
the lecture to help the students

2023

JIFFA Holds Workshop on Present,
Future of Chinese Economy
International Exchange Committee

understand how shipments are carried
from Japan to overseas.
In the second part, the Education
Committee joined hands with the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government (TMG)’s
Bureau of Port and Harbor to take theattendees to local logistics facilities
on May 25-26.
The party first called at Tokyo
Freight Station, a railway freightterminal operated by Japan Freight
Railway Co. near the Port of Tokyo’s
Oi Container Terminal. After having alook around the entire facility from its
rooftop, they went around it on abus. They were allowed to see at avery close range how freight cars areloaded with cargo.
The party then moved to Aomi. At
the Exhibition Room of the Tokyo
Waterfront Area, known morecommonly as Tokyo Minatorie, thestudents had a lecture on the Port ofTokyo from Bureau of Port andHarbor officials. They also had an
opportunity to learn the history of
the port at the exhibition room. Froman observation room, they enjoyed aview of the Port of Tokyo’ terminals
and saw containerships and otherlarge vessels coming in and out of theport.
The second part of the program
came to an end when the party
visited Berths Y1 and Y2 of the Port

7th Update of NACCS to Become Available (Oct. 2025)
Draft Compiled for Details
IT Committee
In preparation for the commencementof the seventh update of Nippon
Automated Cargo and Port Consolidated
System (NACCS), Japan International
Freight Forwarders Association Inc.
(JIFFA)’s IT Committee has attended
meetings of a dedicated committee as well
as a subordinate working group and subworking group at Nippon Automated7

Cargo and Port Consolidation System, Inc.
The IT Committee was present at thefirst meeting of the dedicated committeein August 2019 as a member. It has sincejoined 20 working group and three ACL
sub-working group meetings. After thefifth meeting of the dedicated committee
on Feb. 2 and a meeting of NACCS’
information handling and operatingof Tokyo’s Container Terminal in theOuter Central Breakwater area, where
there are the port’s latest facilities. Froman observation area on the fifth floor andthe rooftop, they enjoyed a view of theentire terminal.

Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA)’s International
Exchange Committee held a workshop on
March 14, 2023 to discuss the Chinese
economy, focusing on how it isdeveloping now and will advance on
post-pandemic days.
President Xi Jinping of China secured athird term in office in October 2022. At
a time when the nation is raising its
international presence in both economy
and diplomacy, its policies are facing aturning point. Beijing has, for example,

taken several steps to place its economy,
damaged by the coronavirus pandemic,
on a recovery track, such as lifting its
zero-COVID policy and discontinuing
centralized quarantine for inboundtravelers.
JIFFA-affiliated freight forwarders domuch business in China, which is also
Japan’s greatest trade partner. The
workshop was organized for thesereasons, at which Mr. Kodai Kataoda
from the Japan External Trade
Organization (JETRO)’s Research ＆

JIFFA Goes on Logistics Field Trip to Kobe with
Public Relations Committee
Children in Spring

council, a draft was compiled for detailed
specification of the seventh version of
NACCS.
Preparatory work is ongoing to makethe seventh version of NACCS go into
operation in October 2025. An
agreement on the draft will be a major
milestone. Specific details are describedon NACCS’ BBS.
NACCS is scheduled to begin briefing
sessions in April. JIFFA, for its part, intends
to gather information and give it tomembers.

Japan International Freight Forwarders
Association Inc. (JIFFA)’s Public Relations
Committee went on a field trip to thePort of Kobe on March 27, 2023. It was
the first such event in three years as
several previous events had beencancelled due to the coronavirus
pandemic. The committee launched the
project in 2007 to take children of
employees from JIFFA-affiliatedcompanies to logistics facilities.
The 2023 field trip started on board
the Royal Princess with support from
Kobe Bay Cruise Co., Ltd., the city of
Kobe’s Port and Harbor Bureau and the
Kobe Tourism Bureau. After having abriefing on the Port of Kobe, attending
school children observed submarine
dockyards, Kobe International Airportand container terminals from the cruise
ship. They enjoyed a view of Mount
Rokko from a deck on the third floor of
the Royal Princess. They had a fresh
impression of the Port of Kobe as it musthave looked very different from the port
they usually see. Blowing in bracing sea
breeze, they had a pleasant time.
After having lunch, the children wererelocated to Kamigumi Co., Ltd.’s fruitand vegetable warehousing complex.
They had a lecture on fruit distribution
and storage, the bond system andtemperature management. Questions
were asked by the students one after
another. One asked why bananas there
were green, not yellow, while another was
curious about how green bananas turnyellow. The lecture was so interesting as
to attract their parents, too. The
attendees learned the distribution offoodstuffs they are familiar with in their
daily lives is made on many ideas andmuch hard work.
Then, the children moved to the Kobe
International Container Terminal (KICT),the last place to visit in the2023 program. Staff
members of Shosen Koun
Co., Ltd. outline theterminal on a monitor andgave a briefing on theterminal’s latest facilities
from the top of a building.
The children also enjoyed abus tour around theterminal. They were taken

Analysis Department gave a lecture. JIFFA
received applications to attend the eventfrom so many people, which counted
more than 200, as to indicate thatmember freight forwarders were highlyinterested in it.
About the same time, the governmentof China convened its 14th National
People’s Congress in Beijing on March 513. As such, discussions were held on thenation’s latest policies at the workshop,such as economic growth targets, which
helped it provide attendees with more
up-to-date information.
JIFFA will continue to disclose
information on overseas affairs in avariety of ways.
near water where safety is ensured andtook commemorative photos there. It
must have been very exciting to view agantry crane from underneath. They werehighly impressed to see containers neatly
loaded on board a gigantic containership.
Their shining eyes seemed to beautifullyreflect the future of logistics.