Japan Business Communication Association – JBCA History
Former Name : Japan Business English Association
Since 1934
The origin of JBCA dates back to an organization meeting held at Kobe Rokkosan Hotel on the 20th of July 1934. The participants in the meeting include JBCA’s founders such as ISHII Takuya, KANAI Jiro, MITSUI Takehachiro, OKONOGI Tameji, TAKETSUNE Jota, TOMABECHI Hidetoshi, TORAO Shosuke, YAMAZAKI Munenao, and 16 other scholars and practitioners teaching English for business or commerce purposes in Japan’s old-education-system universities and academies nationwide. In the organizing meeting, the founders established articles of the newly born association, then named ‘Japan Association of Business English Teachers’. As the scale of international trade was rapidly expanding in Japan at that time, products made in Japan were beginning to fill in the markets all over the world, due to which the organizations and official publications studying English necessary for the negotiation with corporations overseas were drawing public attention.
‘Chronicles of the Japan Business English Association’, edited by Prof OZAKI Shigeru, one of the founders who also served as a secretary for the association for a long time, is available below. Please refer to ‘History of the Japan Business English Association’, edited by Prof OZAKI, for more details. The History of Japan Business English Association is compiled in the reprinted edition of Japan Business English Association Newsletters (1936-1956), thanks to the efforts of Prof NAKAMURA Hirosi, a former board chair of JBCA.