Japan Academy of Business Administration (JABA)

Institutional Information

History

The Japan Academy of the Business Administration (JABA: Nihon Keiei Gakkai; Former Name is JASA) is one of the oldest and largest academic societies of economic study field in Japan. It represents its home country in the field of business and management studies Its principal aims involve the furtherance of research and diffusion of business and commercial studies, the facilitation of collaboration and socialization between researchers, and the opportunity for networking between societies and groups in Japan and overseas.

Its inaugural convention was held in Tokyo in November 1926, at the Tokyo Commercial University (now Hitotsubashi University), at which 207 professors and 135 businessmen gathered under the chairmanship of Professor Ueda Teijirou of the same university. Beginning with these 342 members, the society passed the two thousand mark in 1994 and, as of September 2003, had reached a membership of 2,176, including 23 from overseas. The institutions to which its members are affiliated include 277 universities, 99 junior colleges, five vocational schools, 24 foreign universities and 56 private enterprise groups, along with 56 businessmen. The Society is therefore strongly characterized as an association of business studies and commercial studies teachers, centered on universities and junior colleges, a make-up influenced from its early days by its association with the Society of University Teachers of Business Administration in Germany, founded in 1921. The establishment of business administration departments at universities all over the country and the dramatic rise in the number of university academic staff and researchers that went hand-in-hand with the post-war high growth of the Japanese economy, particularly in the 1960s, has been a factor in the increase in membership that can be seen today. In Autumn 1996 this Society celebrated it’s seventieth anniversary.

Before the Second World War, affinitive associations were found, after JSBA was born in 1926 (the membership is the number at present of the year 2001.

year of foundation	membership
Japanese Economic Association (1934)	2,832
Japan Society for Commodity Science (1935)	240
The Japan Accounting Association (1937)	1,734
Japan Economic Policy Association (1940)	1,279
The Japanese Society of Insurance Science (1940)	1,114

After the Second World War, new Societies or Associations gradually were established in accordance with segmental development of management research field as follows:

Year of foundation	membership
The Japan Society of Public Utility Economics (1949)	425
Japan Society of Commercial Science (1951), Japan Society of Marketing and Distribution	980
The Academic Association for Organizational Science (1959)	1,690
Business History Society of Japan (1964)	896
Japan Society for applied Management (1967)	560
Japan Academy of Advertising (1969)	609
Japan Society of Human Resource Management (1970)	868
Association for the Study of Socialist Enterprise (1976), Japan Association for the Comparative Studies of Management since 1994	240
Japan Finance Association (1977)	484
Nippon Academy of Management Education (1979)	851
Japan Association for Management System (1981)	510
The Academy of Management Philosophy (1984)	312
The Japan Association for Research on Business Administration Behavior (1991	406
Japan Scholarly Association for Asian Management (1993)	426
Society for the History of Management Theories (1993)	329
Japan Society for Business Ethics Study (1993)	332
Japan Academy of International Business Studies (1994)	582

JSBA effectively functions as an umbrella organization in which almost all of those who teach or research business administration participate. Most members, as well as being affiliated to JSBA, are also affiliated to other smaller societies in the fields forecited. Many of these smaller societies gradually came into being from the 1960s onwards, founded by JSBA members looking to pursue more specialized research.

Organization

To obtain membership at the JSBA, applicants must have conducted research in management (including the accounting field) or commerce for at least two years after they graduated from college or university, and be recommended by two members of the Society. The qualification of the applicants is inspected on the Council and their admittance is approved on the general assembly. Members of JSBA receive annals and journals every year. These are usually available in the commercial book market.

JSBA comprised of six divisions segmented by the geographic area: Kanto (near Tokyo and Yokohama,924 members), Kansai (near Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe,586 members), Chubu (near Nagoya,263 members), Tohoku (North Japan,106 members), Hokkaido (the north Island,97 members) and Kyushu (south Island,175 members). Each division organizes its own research meetings several times a year, while JSBA holds an annual conference on a specified pivotal theme decided by the program committee and on a voluntary theme selected by the committee of each division.

The officials of the Society comprise board chairman, eight standing council members, 27 regular council members (including the chairman and standing members), two auditors, and ten officers. Council members are elected by vote on the general assembly, and their administration term is three years and within two terms. The president is elected from 27 Council members by vote, and 8 standing council members are appointed by presidents. The president also appoints 10 secretaries apart from the council members. Two auditors are elected on the general assembly. The standing council members share five duties: 1) general affairs, 2) chairman of the program committee for the annual conference, 3) treasurer, 4) international relations, and 5) chief editor of the “Journal of Business Management

Activities

Our Society’s primary activity is to hold n annual conference in every year. For each conference, a pivotal theme is selected by the program committee comprising of the chairman and the members of staff of the host university based on the proposals issued by each division’s council from amongst current prominent topics. All papers are compiled into a proceeding and distributed to all participants, and the papers of the main topics are later published as a book from the publisher before the next annual conference. The editor of the book is the chairman of the organizing committee of the host university.

Recent pivotal themes are as follows;

2000 New Era of Management : Review and Perspective of 100 years history
2001 Perspectives and Challenges of 21st Century Management Theory and Reality
2002 IT Revolution and Business Management
2003 Globalization and Business Management
2004 Challenges for Revitalization of Japanese Business and Enterprises

The editorial committee of JSBA also publishes the Journal of Business Management periodically two times in spring and autumn a year with the inaugural copy in spring 1977. The journal is basically in Japanese, but brief English summaries are attached. The number of members in the editorial committee is 24, and they are appointed by the president. The term of editorial members is 6 years, and 12 members are appointed every three years.

A recent development, to take account of the rise of international exchange and the need to publish full papers in English, is the decision to affiliate with the launched international journal from Palgrave-Macmillan, Asian Business & Management. (ABM). Special Issue was published under JSBA president as the guest editor of ABM (June 2004, Volume 3, Number 2).

The council also promotes international exchanges with both Western and East Asian Associations. JSBA periodically sends representatives to IFSAM, the German Associations and the American Academy of Management.