JIFFA Report

8

2020

School Children Make Field Tour of Logistics Facilities
During Summer Vacation, Visiting Rail Freight Yard, PCC
The Public Relations Committee held
its annual summer vacation event on July25, 2019, taking children on a logistics
field trip. Launched in 2007, the field
trip was made for the 13th time lastyear, visiting a railway facility and avessel, good enough to call itself an
event to learn intermodal freighttransport. A total of 35 individuals
attended it, including parents. They left
East Japan Railway Co. (JR-East)’s

Rampway of “Daybreak’s Bell”(continued from page 1)

8th General Assembly Gives Nod
courses for the JIFFA transport terms andconditions in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.
Mr. Watanabe announced that it would
continue to enhance its education
programs in fiscal 2019.
At a question-and-answer session, thechairman and vice-chairmen answeredquestions asked by reporters. As for thePort of Tokyo’s congestion, they said
that JIFFA would make utmost efforts in avariety of ways, such as improvements inwork efficiency and procedures. As a new
attempt to provide education andtraining, it would consider introducing
electronic learning for the convenience ofmembers from distant municipalities who
intended to attend JIFFA education
programs and workshops.

Shinagawa station at 9:30 a.m. in achartered bus for the Kanagawa
Rinkai Railway’s Yokohama Honmoku
station, the first place to visit in the
program.
Covering a total area of 70,000
square meters, the Yokohama
Honmoku station was constructed
for shipments to be transported byrail to and from Honmoku, where
there is an international container
terminal. In the yard, there
were diesel locomotives;
top lifters, which are used
to hoist containers, andother equipment; anddouble-stack
empty
containers, among others.
Some children took a close
look at an actual steam
locomotive for the firsttime, which might havebeen similar to Thomas theTank Engine. They werehighly excided when goingup steps to the cockpit and touchingsome instruments, and looking into thekiln.
In the afternoon, they moved on to
the Port of Kawasaki, where theparticipants went on board theDaybreak’s Bell, a pure car carrier (PCC)owned by Prince Kaiun Co., Ltd. As the2020

WinterJapan

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 http://www.jiffa.or.jp
Issued in February 2020

8th General Assembly Gives Nod to Fiscal 2019 Business Plan and Budget
Cargo Throughput by JIFFA Members Achieves Another Record in FY2018
At the bridge

operator had temporarily stopped
loading and unloading shipments for thefield trip, they were allowed to walk on
the rampway, which is normally used tohandle motor vehicles. When seeing theautomobiles that had already been
loaded, they were surprised how closely
the cars were stack together.
During the field trip, Prince Kaiun
allowed them to enter the bridge of theDaybreak’s Bell as well. Children gave astare at an array of instruments andradars, while some had lectures fromcrewmembers. There was a binocular by
the window, which was very popular.
They held the binocular in both hands,
peering through it as if they had been
the master of the vessel.
Children experienced many things forthe first time throughout the day. Theireyes were highly impressive when shining
with curiosity.

Children and their parents

JIFFA convened its annual general
assembly at a hotel in Tokyo on June 13,
2019, approving fiscal 2018 (April
2018-March 2019) business andfinancial reports, and a business plan andbudget for fiscal 2019. After the general
assembly, the association held a meetingof its board of directors. Mr. Junichiro
Watanabe, senior managing executive
officer of Nissin Corp., assumed thechairmanship, while Mr. Chihiro
Sugiyama, executive officer of Nippon
Express Co., Ltd., Mr. Hiroshi Nishikawa,
managing director of Mitsubishi Logistics
Corp., and Mr. Masahiko Okuda,
executive managing officer of Sankyu Inc.
were elected as vice-chairmen.
Chairman Watanabe and otherexecutives held a press conference on
the same day, commenting on thepresent state of the freight forwarding
industry and the activities that JIFFA
would carry out in fiscal 2019 under the
initiative of its new leadership.
At the beginning of the press meeting,
Mr. Watanabe unveiled that the JIFFA

membership was growing. In fiscal
2018, the association welcomed
one new member, while in fiscal
2019, a total of three freight
forwarders joined it as official
members in April and May. On June
1, 2019, as such, the total numberof members had reached 521,
which consisted of 497 regularand 24 supporting members (14enterprises and 10 organizations).
“Customers’ business operations aredeveloping more and more globally,” hesaid to describe the largest factor behind
the growth of the JIFFA membership.
“Members are making cooperative
efforts,” the chairman added as anothermajor factor.
As for the volume of shipments thatJIFFA member freight forwarders handled
in fiscal 2018, exports from Japan surged
10.1% from the previous fiscal year,
while imports to Japan hiked 8.1%. The
total of exports and imports, as aconsequence, swelled 8.8% to break theprevious yearly record, reaching an all-General assemblytime high of 125.94 million tons.
Chairman Watanabe said the volume wasconstantly increasing.
When describing the activities thatJIFFA would carry out in fiscal 2019, the
new chairman said, “We will make efforts
to achieve higher quality in terms ofeducation and training, overseas logistics
research and the promotion of the JIFFA
B/L and other transport documents,
which are the most important missions
for JIFFA.” As part of its initiative topromote transport documents, in fiscal
2018, the association held introductory(continued on page 8)

At the press conference after the General Assembly: from left, Kazuyoshi Yamauchi, Senior Executive Director; Chihiro Sugiyama, Vice Chairman; Junichiro
Watanabe, Chairman; Masahiko Okuda, Vice Chairman; Koji Nishiyama, Vice Chairman; and Hisanao Kawachi, Executive Director & Secretary-General

JIFFA Report

2

2020

FIATA Hosts Its 2019 World Congress in Cape Town
Topics Cover Digitalization, Education, Freight Security and More
Hisanao Kawachi, JIFFA Executive Director & Secretary-General

FIATA convened its 2019 World
Congress on Oct. 2-5 in Cape Town,
South Africa. FIATA members met in
Africa for its World Congress for the firsttime in 15 years the meeting in
Johannesburg in 2004. From Africa,
representatives of more than 20
countries were participated at themeeting, making it a highly
African event. As it was anelection year for FIATA
executives, Mr. Basil
Piertersen, chairman of theSouth African Association of
Freight Forwarders (SAAFF),
was elected as theorganization’s new president.
Discussed below arehighlights made by theMultimodal
Transport
Institute (MTI) and theRegion Asia Pacific (RAP), both of which
are deeply related to JIFFA.

MTIWorking Group Rail Transport
The Working Group Rail Transport isverifying the acceptance of the FIATA
B/L for railway transport between Europe
and China. In partnership with theInternational Union of Rail (UIC), it isoffering the U.N. Commission on
International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) andthe International Chamber of Commerce(ICC) to be able to use the FIATA B/L forletter-of-credit transactions with Chinese
government.
Working Group Sea Transport
In the latest development by FIATA ,on September 13, 2019 the FMC
published a Notice of proposed
rulemaking related to an Interpretive Ruleon Demurrage and Detention under the
Shipping Act.
FIATA fully supports shipping
companies to impose surcharges whenthe International Maritime Organization(IMO) 2020 global sulphur cap limit is
implemented in 2020 insofar as they will

be collected for the right purpose, notfor the carriers’ profit.

RAP
FIATA WG Sea discussed about thecontainer cash deposits levied byshipping lines. It was suggested eachcountry/ region to do their own report,

JIFFA Reportrules implemented in India on Oct. 15,
2019.
The U.N. Economic and Social
Commission for the Asia and the Pacific(UNESCAP) solicited cooperation fromFIATA as there were many challenges intransport and logistics evolvement inSouth Asia that must be addressed andovercome by the entire region, not by
individual governments, such as visas andlicenses for truck drivers, and systemdevelopment.

OthersMr. Basil Piertersen

send it to the WG Sea to takeit forward to the FMC for further
discussion.
A briefing was given on the 24-hour

The attainment of the FIATA Diploma
was reported. In September 2019, it had
been granted to a total of 15,657
parties from 45 countries and regions, ofwhich high diplomas had been earned by
320 individuals. It was learned that
Southeast Asian and African nations are,in particular, making strong efforts topromote education, increasing thenumber of trainers as part of them.
On the last day of the World
Congress, an election was conducted toappoint new FIATA executives, and itcame to an end after deciding its 2022
World Congress in Panama

Workshop for Fresh Recruit Held in Tokyo
Attendees Take Lectures, Enjoy Port TourThe Education Committee organized
two-day new-employee workshops inTokyo on May 16-17 and May 23-24,
2019. It opened its door to those whoare not new employees and had newly
been assigned to the forwarding businessas well.
On Day 1, attendees learned fromrespective specialists English-related
efforts they need to make when engaged
in international logistics, such as the
production of English business letters;
the basics of freight forwarding and tradebusiness operations; transport
documents and relevant laws; andforwarding services for exporting andimporting shipments.
On Day 2, they took lectures on cargo
insurance and complaint management.
With help from the Tokyo Metropolitan

Government (TMG)’s Bureau of Port andHarbor and Tokyo Port Terminal Corp.,
they then went on board the Shin Tokyo
Maru, an inspection vessel owned by the
TMG, and looked at the Port of Tokyo
from its deck. They visited the Oi
Container Terminal at the end of theirtour, viewing a video there and having aview of the entire container terminal fromthe rooftop of a building.

Education Committee Chairman Nakagomedelivers opening address.

3

2020

Forwarding Committee’s Logistics Seminar Deals with
Logistics in ASEAN Countries Focusing on Dry Ports
LAOS/VIETNAM
The Forwarding Committee held aworkshop on June 10, 2019 to discuss
intraregional logistics in Southeast Asia,
focusing on dry ports. Mr. Michiharu
Nose and Mr. Kiyoshi Nakashima fromThe Overseas Coastal Area Development
Institute of Japan (OCDI) gave lectures.
Having conducted field research in a
total of four ASEAN nations, they spoke
on logistics routes in Southeast Asia,
which is expected to grow notably in the
future and already hosting many
Japanese enterprises.

Thanaleng, LaosIn the first half of the workshop, Mr.
Nose introduced dry ports in Thanaleng,
Laos and Nhon Trach, Vietnam. Locatedon the national border with Thailand, theformer port functions as a gateway toVientiane, the capital of Laos, while thelatter is situated near Ho Chi Minh City.
Unveiling the current state of the dry
ports, he discussed challenges facing
them and future prospects, among othertopics.
At the dry port in Thanaleng, which
covers a total area of over nine hectares,
three cranes and 12 forklifts are

Nhon Trach, Vietnam

operated mostly by humans. Some 48%
of all import and export shipments toand from Laos are moved by way ofThanaleng.
The Nhon Trach dry port is an inland
container depot (ICD) in Ho Chi Minh

CAMBODIA/THAILAND
In the second half, Mr. Nakashima
worked on Cambodia and Thailand. Three
dry ports in Cambodia were reported: thePort of Phnom Penh, which is a river port
near Phnom Penh, the capital of thenation, that is operated as a barge
terminal; Bok Seng Dry Port, which issituated in a special economic zone (SEZ)
near Phnom Penh; and So Nguon Dry
Port, which is situated near the borderwith Vietnam.
Phnom Penh Port, a new port launching
operations in 2013, is located some 309
kilometers from the old port. There are

City. As a riverside off-dock container
yard, it is responsible for handling
containerized shipments carried bybarge. The dry port processes 12,000
TEUs every month.

several problems, such as cargocongestion on the weekend and poor
access to arterial roads. Bok Seng Dry
Port is a privately-run dry port. It is
expected to grow when a new expressway
linking Phnom Penh with Sihanoukvillebecomes operational in 2023. So Nguon
Bavet Dry Port is situated near the borderto Vietnam and run by So Nguon Group
Co., Ltd., a Chinese enterprises doing
business in Cambodia.
As for a dry port in Thailand, he gave abriefing on Lat Krabang Inland Container
Depot (ICD), a huge dry port near
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand,
covering a total area of 260 hectares.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

CONCLUSION
The six dry ports that Mr. Nose and
Mr. Nakashima researched all play
important roles in connecting to outer
ports,
exportbases
andconsuming areas.
Currently,
however, they are
faced with various
challenges, such as
inadequate accessto railway systems,
the occurrence ofbottlenecks

resulting from insufficient capacity
improvements that do not keep pacewith growth in demand, and flawed
custom-clearance services.
In the global supply chain, theimportance of Southeast Asia—more
specifically, the importance of dry portsthat underpin intraregional logistics inthe region—is becoming more and more
important day by day. Proposals to bemade from the recent research are hoped
to contribute to raising logistics
efficiency at the dry ports and enhancing
the business operations in Southeast
Asia of Japanese logistics service
providers.

JIFFA Report

4

2020

JIFFA Report

World Economic Slowdown Has Dampening Effect on JIFFA’s Cargo Volume
Both Export & Import Cargoes Register Year-on-Year Decline in H1 FY2019
those to South Korea halved, plummeting
50% to 1.625 million tons, as the nation
boycotted products from Japan in reaction
to an enhancement in Tokyo’s export
control measures. Exports to Thailand
remained at fifth place, and they weresteady quantitatively, swelling 0.9% to
1.438 million tons.

In the first half of fiscal 2019 (April
2019-March 2020), JIFFA-affiliatedfreight forwarders exported from Japan atotal of 23.902 million tons ofmultimodal shipments from, down 2.6%
from year on year. Imports to Japan
shrank slightly from a year earlier,decreasing 1.1% to 38.548 million tons.
The total of exports and imports stoodat 62.45 million tons, declining 1.7%.

Imports
Imports to Japan of multimodal
shipments totaled 38.548 million tons inthe six months, waning by 0.418million
tons (or 1.1%) from a year earlier.
However, it was the second greatest sixmonth record after that registered in thefirst half of fiscal 2018.
Imports from China were on the top of
the list, but in terms of volume, they fell
0.2% to 18.445 million tons. Coming insecond place, in contrast, those from
Vietnam were brisk, growing 1.8% to3.226 million tons. Finishing in third,
volume from Europe decreased 8.9% to2.842 million tons. The lineup of the top
three import sources remained
unchanged from a year earlier. Thosefrom Thailand moved up from sixth tofourth, as they swelled 7.6% to 2.294
million tons. Imports from the U.S.
stayed at fifth place, but quantitatively,
they declined 0.9% to 2.216 million
tons.

Exports
In April-September 2019, exports ofmultimodal shipments from Japan shrankyear on year due to sluggishness in thegrowth of trade that resulted from adownturn in the global economy.
Nevertheless, they were the third-largest
volume on a six-month scale, after thosein the first and second halves of fiscal
2018.
Exports to China plunged 10.8% to4.294 million tons, suffering the firstyear-on-year contraction since thesecond half of fiscal 2017, but managed
to hold the largest share of the pie.
Ranked second were those to the U.S.,
which surged 11.2% to 3.394 million
tons and bumped up a notch from third
place. Shipments to Europe went up fromfourth to third, but in terms of volume,
they diminished 0.6% to 2.116 million
tons. Falling from second to fourth place,

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JIFFA member freight forwarders
handled a total of 62.45 million tons tofrom Japan in the first half of fiscal 2019,
down 1.7% year on year, creating thesecond highest record on a six-month
basis. The 60-million-ton line has been
exceeded for three terms in a row. As for
the Big Five partners, China defended its
title as Japan’s leading trade partner, toand from which 22.739 million tons weremoved, down 2.4%. Volume to and fromthe U.S., Europe and Vietnam all went up
by a notch to finish in second, third andfourth places, respectively. In terms ofvolume, they went up 6.1% to 5.61
million tons, down 5.5% to 4.958 million
tons and up 2% to 4.686 million tons,
respectively. Volume to and from South
Korea, which came in second place a year
earlier, plunged 36.3% to 3.832 million
tons, falling all the way to fifth.
To figure out actual container
throughput, JIFFA has decided to begin
compiling TEU-based statistics on top of
its revenue-ton statistics in the first halfof fiscal 2019. Exports from Japanamounted to 1.004 million TEUs, andimports to Japan, 1.514 million tons fora total of 2.518 million TEUs.

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2020

Barcelona Port Authority Sends Trade Mission to Tokyo,
Signs Cooperation Agreements with Japanese Counterparts
The Barcelona Port Authority sent a
multisector trade mission to Tokyo and
Yokohama in November 2019 inpartnership with port/harbor and tradebusinesses from Catalonia, Spain.
Consisting of some 60 members, thetrade mission was led by Mr. Damia
Calvet, minister of territory andsustainability at the government of
Catalonia; Ms. Angels Chacon, minister ofenterprise and knowledge; and Ms.
Merce Conesa, president of the port
authority.
For Japanese companies exporting theirgoods to Europe, the Port of Barcelona is
a southern gateway to the European

Container throughput

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5

Signing ceremonymarket, providing optimum connections
to North Africa and the Mediterranean.
Barcelona is the capital of theautonomous community of Catalonia,
with one of Europe’ s five busiest
commercial and industrial areas in thecity.
Catalonia accounts for 20% of the
Spanish economy, and embracers 30
percent of Spain's imports and exports invalue.
The port of Barcelona is connected to
17 major ports in Japan by nine regularlyscheduled shipping services, four ofwhich are container shipping services andthe remaining five are PCC services.
The trade mission, set up as
an initiative to promote
port/harbor logistics-relatedorganizations in Barcelona,
visited Japan to internationalize
Catalonia enterprises andencourageinteractions
between public organizations
and private businesses in bothcountries by making the mostof the Japan-EU Economic

Language Training Committee Commends
High Scorers of English, Mandarin Courses
The Language Training Committee
presented certificates of completion to
those who performed well at the practicalEnglish correspondence and introductory
Mandarin courses that it provided in thefirst half of fiscal 2019 (April 2019March 2020). From the English course,
two top performers were present at aceremony held on Oct. 29, 2019 at theJIFFA head office in Tokyo, who
represented 24 students who had passed
the final examination. Meanwhile, 11
students had passed the final examinationof the Chinese course, three of which
attended the ceremony.
“Email has become mainstream wheninteracting with overseas partners on
business,” said Mr. Junichiro Watanabe,chairman of JIFFA. “Having learned basics

of language, you can better communicate
with partners. “It will, as such, be more
and more important in the future [to doso],” he added. “For this reason, I am sure

Merce Conesa briefs benefits of Barcelona Port

Partnership Agreement (EPA), effected in
February 2019. The mission also hoped
to create more business opportunities
for both nations.
A business seminar was organized on
Nov. 11 at the Hotel Okura Tokyo. After
Ms. Conesa delivered a speech, theTokyo Metropolitan Government(TMG)’s Bureau of Port and Harbor aswell as five shipping and port/harborassociations of Japan reachedpartnership agreements with threeport/harbor organizations from
Barcelona. JIFFA, for its part, signed ones
with the Freight Forwarders Associationof Barcelona and the Organization for
Logistics, Transport and Custom
Representative(ATEIA-OLTRA
Barcelona).
the language skills that you learned fromthe courses will become a weapon and atreasure.”
The chairman conferred certificatesand extra prizes to the five attendees.
The ceremony came to an end after
ceremonial photographs were taken.

High scorers of foreign language courses with Chairman Watanabe (front row)

JIFFA Report

6

2020

Joint Fact-Finding Mission Visits Eastern Europe,
Looks into General Pictures of Logistics in Three Countries
Tatsuji Kasai, Chairman, International Exchange Committee

Although the trade friction between
the U.S. and China and other headwinds
are blowing against free trade, it is still
expected that Eastern Europe will
become a more attractive market withhigher demand for logistics, as the JapanEU EPA took effect in February 2019.
Eastern Europe is also the gateway inEurope of the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI), a development strategy promotedby China. However, there was much lessinformation than we had expected on
logistics in Eastern Europe. The
International Exchange and Forwarding
committees, as such, conducted joint
research on local logistics affairs in
Poland, Czechia and Hungary on Oct. 614, 2019, which was the first such an
attempt made by JIFFA.
PolandMalaszewicze is drawing attention as
the gateway/hub in Europe of the BRI. In
Malaszewicze, customs inspections are
conducted for shipments bound forEurope. There is a railway terminal in thevillage, where railway services withdifferent track gauges are linked. In linewith customs clearance and cargotransshipment, the Rail Waybill and otherdocuments are also turned over from one
operator to another. We confirmed thatconsignments notes were issued there,
which are called CIM consignment notes
in Europe and SMGS consignment notes
in Russia, Central Asia and China.
We also visited Wroclaw, where
Japanese automakers have business
footholds. We interviewed makers andlogistics service providers on local
production and logistics affairs, andlearned that some parts and components
are transported constantly by sea, rail
and truck from the Port of Koper inSlovenia.
Czechia
In Czechia, we called at manufacturers
and logistics service providers doing
business in Prague suburbs. We asked
questions on logistics routes for

JIFFA Report

and the use of the Japan-EU EPA.
General impression
In logistics in Eastern Europe, marine,
railway and overland routes are
combined, while customs services areprovided, requiring tariffs and VATs. For
these reasons, we felt that freight
forwarders can play an important role
Eastern Europe, and that intermodaltransport has its roots there. Having
withdrawn from the former communist
block and acceded to the EU, economies
in Eastern Europe continue to grow now,and the BRI is helping them develop
more briskly. Freight forwarders will playa more important role in the future.

procuring parts and components, the useof the Japan-EU EPA, the sales of
products in EU nations and customs
clearance and VATs. In respect tologistics for oceangoing shipments, we
researched routes to and from theGerman ports of Hamburg andBremerhaven and the Port of Gdansk in
Poland. We looked into the sea-, rail- andtruck-based international intermodal
cargo transport in Czechia, an inlandstate bordering on Germany and Poland.
Hungary
Hungary hosts many
production bases forcompleted motor vehicles.
Japanese automakers havelong been operating
facilities for assemblingparts and components.
We held hearing sessions
to obtain information on
procurement routes, lead
JIFFA Delegation and local support staff
times, customs clearance

members: Australia, Canada, Japan,
Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore. On
Jan. 14, 2019, Vietnam joined the groupwhen ratifying it. Meanwhile, the JapanEU EPA took effect on Feb. 1, 2019
At the workshop, Mr. Masamichi
Yamaguchi, head of the YamaguchiInternational Administrative Scrivener
Office, compared and contrasted EPAs ingeneral with the CPTTP and the JapanEU EPA. Using graphic
illustrations, Mr. Yamaguchi,
who is also a member of the
Association of International
Business Advisors (AIBA),
focused on three important
points: (1) features ofschedules of concessions, (2)features of regulations in placesof origin and (3) things to take
Mr. Yamaguchi details two agreements.
care of when applying EPAs.

2020

FIATA Region Asia/Pacific (RAP) Meets in Bangkok
JIFFA Reports on Japan’s Advance Filing Rules on Imports
FIATA convened its 13th Region Asia
Pacific (RAP) Field Meeting on June 10,2019 at The Sukosol Bangkok Hotel in
Thailand. At the beginning of theassembly, which was attended by some
60 individuals, Mr. Barbar Badat,
president of FIATA, gave the opening
address. To keep up with rapid changes
in trade, FIATA plans to relocate its
headquarters and consolidate its two
education-related advisory groups, he
said.
Relocation of HQ
As for the relocation of the FIATA
headquarters, a plan to make Brussels acandidate site had once been rejected ata world congress. However, Mr. Badat
proposed at the meeting that it berelocated to Geneva, as the city hosts
many global organizations, and that it iseasy there to secure highly able humanresources.

Multimodal Transport Institute (MTI).
MTIThe MTI unveiled that theInternational Chamber of Commerce(ICC) would officially publish Incoterms
2020 to the world in September 2019,
and that it would take effect in January
2020.

Japan’s AFRs
It was very meaningful for JIFFA todeliver a presentation on the latest stateof Japan’s Advance Filing Rules on
Maritime Container Cargo Information(AFRs). A briefing was given on a similar
subject when a meeting was held in
February 2019 by the Working GroupSea Transport. JIFFA, however, gave thepresentation to accommodate a request
made by FIATA.

Delegates from RAP member countries

ASEAN Language Workshops Attract 32 Participants
To Lean Introductory Dialog, Communications

International Exchange Committee Holds Seminar on
CTPPT, Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement
The
International
Exchange
Committee held a workshop on May 29,
2019 at the association’s head office inTokyo to work on the Comprehensive
and Progressive Agreement for TransPacific Partnership (CPTTP) and theJapan-EU Economic Partnership
Agreement (EPA).
Also known as TPP11, the CPTTP wassigned on Dec. 30, 2018 by the first six

7

Mr. Hara speaks on AFR.

Consolidation of educational groups
A proposal to consolidate the FIATA
Logistics Academy (FLA) and theAdvisory Body Vocational Training(ABVT) was thrown out at the FIATAWorld Congress convened in 2018 in
Delhi, India. Nevertheless, FIATA
submitted the proposal again, as it thinks
much of education. The international
federation intends to amalgamate thetwo groups and upgrade theconsolidated unit to an institute.
Currently, FIATA has three institutes:
the Airfreight Institute (AFI), theCustoms Affairs Institute (CAI) and the

The Language Training Committeeorganized seminars on Southeast Asian
languages in July 2019. Morespecifically, two workshops were held on
Indonesianand Thai.
It was thesecond timeto teach theIndonesianlanguage. As
she did last
time,
Ms.
Ms. Yumiko Horas
Yumiko Horas,a part-time lecturer at Tokyo Universityof Agriculture’s Faculty of International
Agriculture and Food Studies, gave alecture. A total of 16 students learned
basic greetings, how they can introduce
themselves, and so on.
Indonesian is the common platform inIndonesia, where the people fromdifferent ethnic, cultural and religious

backgrounds speak different languages. A
survey conducted after the workshop
indicated that all of the attendees had
been satisfied about and highly rated it.
Meanwhile,Thai
wastaught for thethird time. Ms.
M a r i n
Nakajima, who
had
been
responsible
for the course
Ms. Marin Nakajima
since it washeld for the first time, lectured a wide
variety of topics to 18 students,
including the history and culture ofThailand, the background of the Thai
language and Thai people’s mind andways of thinking. The students
successfully learned to give greetings andhave basic conversations by repeatingthem under the guidance of the lecturer.