13 December 2020
The Right Honorable Lord Mance, Honorable former President Dr. Ward,
distinguished members of the International Law Association and itsBranches, Honorable Director General Okano, distinguished participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank Mr. Okano for conveying the congratulatory
message of His Excellency Mr. MOTEGI Toshimitsu, Foreign Minister ofJapan, to the 79th Biennial Conference of the ILA and to the Japan Branchon its centenary. It is a great honor and pleasure for all members of theJapan Branch to be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its foundation onthis very day, December 13th, at the Closing Plenary Session of the 2020
Kyoto Conference. We are delighted to reach this landmark in the presenceof many members of the ILA Headquarters, its Branches, and participantsin the Conference. I wish to thank Lord Mance for having given us
additional information about the background and activities of Dr. Thomas
Baty, who helped found the Japan Branch. In 2004, we held acommemorative seminar entitled “Contributions of Dr. Thomas Baty andTheir Reappraisal” at the University of Tokyo. The Japan Branch has
steadily expanded its activities in public and private international law andhas grown to more than three hundred members.
This year, when the decision was made not to hold the Kyoto
Conference in August as originally planned, I was really concerned. I was
not sure if the meetings of the Plenary and committees could be heldsmoothly online, and even if they could, I was afraid the event would turnout to be quite modest. So, I am glad to report to you that everything turned
out fine. 488 participants registered and, over the past two weeks, 14committees and five study groups were held very successfully. This wasmade possible only with considerable help from the Headquarters and theBranches concerned. I thank Lord Mance, Professor Bodeau-Livinec,Professor Tzanakopoulos, Ms. Martin, Ms. Tridgel and other officers of theHeadquarters for their extraordinary efforts to overcome difficulties
presented by the online format. I also wish to recognize the contributions of1

Mr. Kunzelmann and other hard-working reporters. My thanks also go toProfessor Asada, who chaired the Organizing Committee of the Japan
Branch, Professors Furuya, Shibata, Teraya and Ko as well as to othermembers of the Japan Branch for their thorough preparations and efficientconference management.
At the Full Executive Council meeting this week, I heard that Lord
Mance would retire from the Chair of the ILA by November next year andthat the 2020 Kyoto Conference would be his last Biennial Conference.
Since 2009, I have had the pleasure of working under his able leadership at
Executive Council meetings and Biennial Conferences. I always admire not
only his legal mind, but also his administrative skills with which heresolves the most difficult issues. Moreover, he does so in a gentle manner.
I take this opportunity to once again thank him for having rescued theJapan Branch not once but twice. Once Lord Mance helped us out when
our Branch had to postpone the holding of a Biennial Conference in theaftermath of the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011. He rescued us fora second time this year under the most difficult pandemic situation. I canhardly imagine the ILA without Lord Mance as its Chair, but I hope that hewill continue to help us with his wisdom.
In addition, I would recognize the tireless efforts made by thechairpersons and members of the Committees and Study Groups to achieve
their mandates and decide on future programs of work. Just a few minutesago, the Plenary adopted seven resolutions endorsing the reports of six
Committees and one Study Group. These resolutions constitute the main
outcome of this Biennial Conference. The topics of these resolutions are:“Procedure of International Courts and Tribunals”, “Global Health Law”,“Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, “The Role ofInternational Law in Sustainable Natural Resources Management forDevelopment”, “Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary
International Law”, “Intellectual Property and Private International Law”,
and “Content and Evolution of the Rules of Interpretation”.
Another highlight of this Biennial Conference has been the active
participation of young scholars. We exempted the scholarship students from2the registration fee to encourage participation. I am happy to tell you that26 scholarship students registered. At the business part of the Closing
Plenary, we heard excellent presentations by three young scholars, Ms.
Julia Emtseva, Dr. Constantinos Yiallourides, and Ms. Aylin Yildiz. Iwelcome them to the 2020 Kyoto Conference and congratulate on theirsuccessful work. I would like to thank Mr. Mauleverer, Patron of the ILA,
for his initiative to promote participation of young scholars in the work ofthe ILA and for his strong support of the program for them. In thisconnection, I would like to recall that December 9th was designated as“Young Scholars Day”. I also wish to stress the importance of this program,as young scholars are the ones who will carry the future of the ILA on theirshoulders. They are indeed bridging for the future.
As I said at the Opening Plenary Session, the unavoidable switch tothe online format of the Conference made many of the preparations for theoriginally planned August Kyoto Conference moot and created additionaldifficulties, especially in finance and conference organization. I would liketo thank, once again, the ILA Headquarters, Professor Hofmann, Treasurerof the ILA, and many Branches for kindly offering various forms of help. I
am especially grateful to the Headquarters as well as to the American,
Australian, British, Dutch, French, German and Portuguese Branches forhaving given the Japan Branch generous financial assistance which allowed
it to go forward with the 2020 Kyoto Conference and into the future.
My thanks go as well to the Kyoto International Conference Center
for waiving the cancellation fee for the conference rooms. We also are
grateful to a number of Japanese institutions that made financial
contributions to support the Conference in the online format. These include:
the Egusa Foundation for International Cooperation in the Social Sciences,
the Tokyo Club, the Suenobu Foundation, the 21st Century Public Policy
Institute, the Soka Gakkai International and the Nippon Foundation.
Additionally, we thank the Polaris Secretaries Company for providing uswith excellent conference services at the preparatory stage and for themeetings of the Plenary and committees during the past two weeks.
We in the Japan Branch are particularly happy that the next 80th ILA
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Biennial Conference will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, because Portugal is
the first European country that Japan encountered almost five centuries ago.
The first contact occurred in 1543, when a Portuguese ship became
stranded at Tanegashima, a small Japanese island South of Kyushu. The
local people rescued the crew and saw new things from Europe, including
muskets. This later changed the balance of power among feudal lords inJapan. Japan has enjoyed friendly relations with Portugal ever since thosetimes.
As for me, it is a great honor to serve as President of the ILA until the80th Biennial Conference in Lisbon in 2022. I see daunting task ahead, but
my predecessor, Dr. Ward, had given me a fine example to follow. After theKyoto Conference, I would like to share my experience with the biennial
conference with Professor Manuel de Almeida Ribeiro. He will begin
making arrangements for the Lisbon Conference right after the closure ofthe Kyoto Conference. I earnestly hope that the Portuguese Branch will beable to host the event in the normal in-person format. Nevertheless, ourexperience with the online meetings might be useful in the early stages ofpreparations. I would like to be optimistic, but covid-19 seems determined
to continue at least through much of next year. My mid-term goal is tostrengthen the worthwhile program for young scholars. Looking long term,
one of my main goals for the ILA is strengthening the structure byencouraging more private international law scholars and practitioners tojoin us. And I certainly welcome the role of the Standing Steering
Committee on Studies in support of the Committees and Study Groups thatare the main engines of the substantive work of the ILA.
The 2020 Kyoto Conference is coming to an end. In my view, thesubstantive work has been done quite successfully. For that, we have all theparticipants to thank. Your full cooperation allowed us to persevere, despite
constraints of the online format. Nevertheless, I do have a few regrets. I am
sorry we were not able to give any lunches, dinners, receptions, culturalperformances, and excursions. And I have a confession to make: I started
singing opera lessons about 15 years ago when I was 68, and had been
looking forward to singing a few Italian arias to entertain you at the closing
reception. I very much regret the loss of that opportunity. But perhaps you4may not.
In closing, on behalf of the Japan Branch, I would, once again, like tothank all the members of the ILA and its Branches as well as all
participants for their kind understanding and strong support. Without that,the 2020 Kyoto Conference could not have been a success. I also extend
my best wishes to Professor Manuel de Almeida Ribeiro, President of thePortuguese Branch, for what I am sure will be a splendid Conference in2022.
Shunji Yanai
President, Japan Branch5