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Kyoto International Conference Hall (KICH, from 1966 to 2006)
Kyoto International Conference Center (ICC Kyoto, since 2007)

Backgrounds

Aim

Computerization of the International Congress Data started with the computer that had been used for 1979 CIE (International Lighting Commission) Kyoto. It was so called "office computer" which was developed by the Maruzen Co. Ltd. using the Mitsubishi precision by the name of the "Maruzen Micromate. The language was BAIL and programs were developed by seminar students of Prof. Miyano of the Kyoto Sangyo University. At first 2,000 data was the target.

As for input data, we used questionnaire for International organizations and the International Congress Calendar issued by the JNTO (Japan National Tourist Organization) that was established in 1959, however, the Convention Bureau in it started in 1965) As for the conference history, we did not include them on the data but keep on filling them in on the conference record card we had made so far.

First step was to know each conference if it had already been held in Japan or not, which led us to identify its international organization and its counterpart in Japan. We went through individual data one by one, however, you had to know where it should be located in the whole picture. In other words, you would like to know the connections of data among them and find out your consistent marketing method.

Data Input

We started to make conference cards of scientific organizations according to the code of the directory of International Scientific Organizations, 1970 edition of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ), and the directory of Japanese Scientific Organizations, 1970 & 1976 edition issued by the secretariat of SCJ, in which Japanese and English title, address and telephone number of each organization, title and duration and number of participants of the international conference held or to be held in Japan were filled. Out of 1,175 international organizations on the directory, several hundreds had been completed on the cards by that time.

We also had about 200 returned questionnaire survey from international scientific organizations. Based on Congress Bulletin of the ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association established in 1964) we sent questionnaires to headquarters of those international scientific organizations that had not have their conferences in Japan yet or seemed to have possibilities to have their next meetings in Japan in the future. As its distribution was up to individual staff, we made a common file and about 200 data were available for input. We started data input with these questionnaires and followed the JNTO Congress Calendars since 1963.

However, there happened overlapping between the first 200 data and those on the JNTO Congress Calendars. And because there were no information on International organization of each meeting on the JNTO Calendars, we suffered a lot with the identification of its international organization, which was a big problem.

For this work, we used the directory of International Scientific Organizations, 1979 edition of the SCJ. We tried this identification one by one putting the SCJ organization code number on each meting in the Calendar before the input. However, this was quite difficult for us with no technical knowledge on this that might have caused miss identification to a certain degree.
Other than the directory of International Scientific Organizations, 1979 edition of the SCJ, the directory of International Organizations that Japan has joined, 1978 edition of JNTO was available.

Identification of the International Organization

We noticed that examining an international conference on this process led us to examine its international organization, that was to consult the UAI (Union des Associations Internationales) YEAR BOOK, 1974 edition. Collation of the congress data with organization code number of the UAI YEAR BOOK and Head Office File No. of the ICCA Congress Bulletins and the input work made us realize further relation between international meetings and international organizations. The perception that when an international organization holds a meeting, it becomes an international meeting, came out very fresh to us. Meeting is one of the basic activities of the organization

Then we checked the conference data against the conference record card and transcribed the history on the card, which meant the collation with the ICCA Congress Bulletin or the UAI YEAR BOOK and the JNTO Congress Calendar. We arranged the conference record cards according to the first open date for updating.

This troublesome work was not so rewarding that immediately led us to an actual sales..

The Maruzen Micromate was upgraded to the Micromate 2000, office computer, in 1981. The language became Extended Basic. Mr. Fujiwara, SE of the Maruzen Co., Ltd., was in charge of it. Data transfer seemed to cause unexpected signal trouble in blank record and we suffered a sorting error.

Identification of the Japanese counterpart

Though the directory of International Scientific Organizations was useful, it was not satisfactory to deal with rapidly increasing international scientific organizations in medical field and so forth. When identifying those other than scientific international organizations, there was no way but relying on the UAI YEAR BOOK. To find Japanese counterparts, we used the committee members lists of the Science Council of Japan, Dantai Meikan (Organization Directory) by the Mikami Marketing Institute Co., Ltd. <currently Siva Co. Ltd. > and the directory of Medical Scientific Societies by the MICS Co., Ltd. Information on the corresponding organization described in the questionnaire was also useful.

After going through data on the JNTO International Congress Calendar, we got back to the rest of organizations and their international meetings of the directory of International Scientific Organizations by the SCJ and finished them. Since then we have continued updating them mainly according to the JNTO International Conference Calendar, the ICCA Congress Bulletins, and the UAI Congress Calendar.

On Japanese characters

Because Micromate 2000 could not support Japanese characters, we had to use word processor "the JDL Bunsaku" to make future possible International Congress list of about 300 data according to the first open date to include Japanese items. We included major domestic scientific congresses on the JDL Bunsaku list, however, we refrain from adding them on our International Congress list even if there were a certain number of foreign participants. Though the introduction of FACOM9450Σ, the Fujitsu office computer, in 1986, which supported Japanese characters, seemed to be a solution to this problem technically by adding corresponding Japanese items on the record, replacing Roman alphabetical Japanese organization names. adding Japanese congress titles was such a hard work as to review the whole directory of International Scientific Organizations by the SCJ again and update them one by one from the beginning to the end.

Computerization in the UAI

Change of organization codes of the UIA YEAR BOOK also gave us hard work to update them. Rapidly increasing number of international organizations and the change of their international character brought them to adjust their section classification code and to respond to the computerization of increasing data. The computerization of the international organization data in the UAI started in 1972, and the data were preserved and managed by an outside company in Brussels in the form of the magnetic tape file, and the updating work was continued in the UAI secretariat.

It was moved to a network in Britain in the middle of 1985, being upgraded to Novell Netware 286 systems using MS-DOS 3.1 environment and it is composed of 14 microcomputer workstations linked with Corvus Omninet or Arcnet. The main disks are 291MB which has a fairly large capacity. Application software is Revelation G, the Cosmos (Seattle) Co. and for printout is used the laser printer of the Hewlett Packard Co..

It was breathtaking when a huge code conversion table was sent from the UAI due to a big rearrangement of section code in 1980, and we had to do the converting job manually all one by one. 1981 version (19th Edition) YEAR BOOK became a joint issue of the UAI and the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) and from 1983 version (20th Edition), the editing work and publication of the YEAR BOOK was entrusted to the K.G.Saur Verlag KG, specified issue company of the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations), and the modification was made to the section code every year. Corresponding the modifications not only took time but was so troublesome that not a few could remain unrevised or miss-revised at that time.

ICCA computerization

Computerization of the ICCA Congress Bulletin seemed to start in 1980, which was planned by Alwin Zecha in his final term of the presidency, and succeeded by the next president, Enrst Stock. Ms.Sherry Dean, the seminar coordinator with the ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) was headhunted to the information section of the CCA Head Office for this plan. The system was developed with IBM-System 34, and was updated to IBM-System 38 in 1984, which could make on-demand pay conference information service on the name of MMIS (Multinational Meeting Information Service). This was the joint development of the IBM and the CEP Consultants and new company, MMIS, BV was established to undertake this business in 1987 with Ms. Sherry Dean as the Managing Director. The number of data has exceeded 10,000 in 1988.

We expanded our data capacity to 3000 in 1981, and to 4000 in 1988 and the numbers of data came to 3100 as of October, 1988.


Data collection and its problem

JNTO International Congress Calendar

JNTO's International Congress Calendar is usually compiled and issued twice a year on February and July. It consists of the data given by congress organizers themselves to the JNTO and mostly reported by members of the JNTO with the questionnaire survey, which was the only International Congress Calendar publicly made. Though a big volume of JNTO annual statistics on International congresses held in Japan was available next year, in which only Japanese title, duration and venue were mentioned. And as the Japanese character was not usable on computers at that time, it was not possible to add them on our data. Consequently the issued JNTO International Congress Calendar seemed to cover only major meetings, about 20 percent of the whole data, which became good reasonable selection among them.

In 1980 when the administrative reform prevailed, the JNTO, an external organization of Ministry of Transport, was not an exception and had to cope with budget cuts. The JNTO managed to ask the member private companies if they could afford a personnel to deal with the Calendar. This apparently assumed the data leak to the company providing a staff which was the problem. Organizers provide data because the JNTO is the public sector of Ministry of Transport. In 1981 when the International Convention Business Association was organized among members of the JNTO, the work was returned to the JNTO business. (In 1985 the JNTO intended a tie-up with prefectural Convention Bureaus in Japan and built up the Japan Convention Promotion Council. In 1988 Ministry of Transport took initiative to merge the International Convention Business Association and the Japan Convention Promotion Council into the Japan Convention Promotion Association, a foundation which was reformed in 1995 to the Japan Congress Convention Bureau, a private sector.)

In the middle of the 1980s the JNTO started to sell a volume of International Congress Calendar at a cost of 500 yen a copy. Hotels were quite aware of the meeting markets and the related industries followed. Surplus moneys were forwarded to invest hotel constructions, which spread to local cities, and major local governments launched projects on International Convention and Exhibition Facilities and Convention Bureaus to invite International Events. There came a time when you could sell or buy a list of International Events.

This brought a rapid increase of International meeting data in JNTO list. Members of the JNTO tried to increase the data held in their own site or organized by themselves as PCOs, and the local convention bureaus collected as much data as possible in their area and submitted them to the JNTO. This obviously revitalized the role of the JNTO as the center of congress data collection in Japan, however, also caused inclusion of data which did not fill the criteria of International meeting used in the UAI or the ICCA.

In 1979 version of the JNTO list, along with an organizer of a meeting or its contact, the corresponding International Organization was mentioned, which was epoch-making, however, it had ended in the middle of 1980s when data made a rapid increase, which was really disappointing. You should know about the international organization of the international meeting when you would like to take part in the meeting business.

Definition of International Congress

This is a contentious issue, however, there was a tacit understanding that those meetings like top-level summit talks, governmental negotiations, private companies meetings should be excluded from the International Congress Calendar. Inter-governmental meetings pursue their own national interests, and do not become marketing targets for private sectors sales activities. Enterprises pursue their own profits, and it is inadequate to deal with on the same basis as association meetings where intercommunications of members, exchanges of information and public disclosures are critical. Thus the incentive meeting market has been separately considered. In US they also separate the Corporate market and the Association market and corporate overseas meetings are regarded as the Offshore market.

In fact they were not clearly divided but blended together in the list. Furthermore, the definition of "International" was vague in the JNTO list. Meetings between two countries such as Japan-U.S. and Japan-France, so forth were included in the international Congress Calendar which was the Japanese characteristics as an island country. They have taken it as an international meeting if there participated a few foreigners from America or Europe in a meeting, and there was a psychology that they wanted to increase the number of international meetings in Japan.

In the UAI they do not regard it as international If the members of at least three countries or more do not participate in a meeting. This comes from European situation that several countries are situated in the range of 500 km, which is quite different from in the United States and Japan and it will be hard to agree with the definition. Furthermore the definition is so Western Europe oriented that European meeting are called international and the same criteria meetings in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Oceania are called regional meetings.

In the UAI, they classify a meeting according to the category of the international organization that hold it. International Organizations are usually classified into three categories; Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs), International Non-Governmental (Non-Profit) Organizations (INGOs) and Multinational Enterprises.

IGO is an organization which is established by an agreement of parties of three countries or more. INGO (usually NGO) is an organization which is established by representatives of three countries or more, which is not a matter of any governmental agreement but whether it represents 'three countries or more' is a matter. Internationality of those organizations are classified into the following types.

A

Federations of International organizations

B

Universal membership organizations

C

Inter-continental membership organizations

D

Regionally defined membership organizations

E

Organizations emanating from places, persons, other bodies

F

Organizations having a special form, including foundations and funds

G

Internationally-oriented organizations grounded in a particular country

H

Inactive or dissolved International organizations

J

Recently reported or proposed International organizations

R

Religious orders, fraternities, and secular institutes

S

Autonomous conference series

T

Multilateral treaties and agreements

U

Untraceable(or currently inactive non-conventional) body


Further efforts are made to express the character of an international organization that can not be described with the above Internationality. The following characters are added to the organization type above.

b

bilateral

c

conference series

d

dissolve, dormant

e

commercial enterprise

f

foundation, fund

g

inter-governmental

j

research institute

n

previously international body, now national in scope

v

individual membership only

x

no recent information received(directly or indirectly)

y

international organization membership


It will be a long and hard way for the UAI people to get through all identifications giving individual code number.

Secretariat of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ)

We have done our work according to 1979 edition of the directory of International Scientific Organizations issued by the SCJ (oversea research section, scientific organization department ) 177 organizations were included in 1965 edition and, 995 organizations were investigated in 1979 edition. You could not have done it without these directories to input data systematically, however, as ten years have passed since 1979 edition, the next edition is waited for.

The Science Council of Japan has national budgets to helps scientific organizations holding International scientific meetings sharing a certain amount of basic expenditures. The standard of the selection is as follows.

General meeting of the international scientific organization where the SCJ itself is a member.

General meeting of the international scientific organization where sections or commissions of the SCJ have close connections.

General meeting of the international scientific organization where sections or commissions of the SCJ should have close connections.

Meeting of subordinate body of the above international scientific organization.

Meeting sponsored by international scientific organization where the SCJ itself is a member.


An organizer can make an application 3 to 4 years prior to the meeting. The application will be submitted to the International Conference section of Research Division of the SCJ and passed to the relative section chairman and discussed in the section meeting. To be a winner you should have the influence on the section meeting. As the result of discussions of the meetings were brought together as a minute, you will be able to apply for the inspection.

International scientific meetings' data together with domestic ones are compiled in a list by the International Iinformation section of the SCJ Secretariat for distribution to the related organizations, which I have seen for the first time in this autumn and wonder why we have been out of it up to now.

The ICS issued the first conference magazine in Japan, Congress & Convention, in 1987, in which not a few pages of the convention calendar were included, and ranked next to the JNTO Calendar.

ICCA Congress Bulletins

They are sent to the members of the ICCA in every two weeks. Questionaires are sometimes included in them asking members to fill in meetings data of their own. These bulletins were computerized in the 1980's, and it seemed to be more than 3000 data that had been processed. As the meeting histories are on the bulletins we made the questionnaire surveys according to the frequency of the conference looking for the next possibility of the conference to be held in Japan.

We sent the questionnaires to secretary generals of international headquarters and got a considerable replies at that time, however, quite a few data led us to the direct sales and most of them were only filed on the desk. But it could tell us that there was no or less or a little possibility to keep on the sales and as was already mentioned that we started putting them in computer, it helped us to develop our database.

About 30 ICCA Bulletins came every two weeks and if not coming for a while, a certain volumes of them came together at once. Anyway updating them was so annoying that you had to collate them by the international organization of printed out data before you would use your computer, because there was no such function as finding and listing data on the display at that time. Also you could not collate them by sorted meeting titles because they have Int Conf, Int Congr, Int Symp, whatever in front of the title, which was like looking for 'Wally' in a picture. You had to count on your memories. The Fujitsu 9450Σ made it possible, however, the retrieval time was so long that you would not be able to stand it.

The ICCA members had reached to 400 in 65 countries in 1987 and from the business point of view, those meeting data which had more than 100 participants from at least four countries or more were picked up and updated for bulletins. As for the data collection the ICCA seemed to distribute questionnaires not only to the member but also to international headquarters, conference organizers and also seemed to refer meeting calendars of leading international organizations, various meeting magazines and so forth.

After MMIS, the ICCA started so called tailor-made service that sells print-out data or diskette data according to the member's request. This seemed to be the response of the ICCA to the UAI that had developed the computerization and the computer online service of the YEAR BOOK and the International Congress Calendar.

On our database we made it accessible to both ICCA and UAI database by putting ICCA Head Office File Number and UAI international organization code number on our data item. This mutual access by ICCA bulletin number and UAI organization code number will greatly help both members of the ICCA and the UAI.

From the last meeting date and the frequency of the meeting, you will know the next possible date of the meeting, so called first open date (FOD) in the ICCA. If you know FOD of the meeting, it turns out the next possibility only comes after that date. Sometimes there is a mistake in those information and Europeans likely take Kyo-to as To-kyo and we used to check ICCA data with UIA data. As we posted meeting histories on ICCA Bulletins to our conference cards with our own data number and SCJ code number, we filed them according to FOD. About 300 major ones were updated.

However, there are persons who would rather like to make unsolicited calls to professors of the Kyoto University and so forth than to take time doing such a troublesome work. He that shoots oft at last shall hit the mark. If you do not want such shooting, you had better make a limited questionnaire survey in advance for targeting the call.

When you start with the response of the questionnaire, sometimes It takes time reaching the right person on Japanese counterpart. In Japan those who are good at foreign languages are likely to be proposed for the office of the International organization and a chairman or a secretary general of the organizing committee becomes someone else. It will be difficult to find out who really has the influence on the decision making. If you happen to contact someone in rival or in question, you shall have to have a hard time. So the correct information is very much appreciated and welcome.

UAI Congress Calendar

Though more than 14,000 international organization data started to be computerized in 1972, It was in around 1980 and 1981 that the data access to external organizations was realized. The unveiling was announced in Brussels in September in 1981. The theme of the conference is THE ASSOCIATIONS-CONGRESSES DATA BANK. With the cooperation of SLIGOS BENELUX, the highlight was the data online services, if you wish it. It was updated in 1982 to Congress Calendar "tailor-made" to your requirements either in a geographical and chronological or sponsoring organization order, and in 1984 started the sales of the List of International Organization Meetings: Past & Future, 600 pages including more than 13,000 international meeting data at the cost of US$350. The ICCA was stimulated to this movement and started the development of MMIS.

The AIPC (Association Internationale des Palais des Congres: inauguration in 1958) was also stimulated to this movement, and the data exchange among member centers was tried. Mr. Jean Delobel, secretary general of the Versailles Congress Center in 1980, was eager to make it, however, it was impossible to make it something like UAI or ICCA data, which unfortunately ended with his getting through his term of office. (The AIPC headquarters is not permanent but alternate by the member's mutual election.) There was rising concerns for the conference data, and the PCVB (Philippines Conventions and Visitors Bureau) was appealing to parties concerned in the world, distributing the international conference list of the country.

Major concern of the UAI is to understand and show the trend of international organizations. They have especially considered about the character and function of the NGOs, Non-Governmental Organization, in which they have focused attention on the role that could not be achieved by the Governmental Organizations or IGOs, Inter-Governmental Organizations, pursuing national interests on their top priority. Members of the UAI consist of mainly persons, which does not seem to correspond to the necessity of International Congress Calendar, however, supporting members such as the JNTO and the KICH are included as organizations, International Congress Calendar is indispensable source of information for members. It will click if you think over the basic activities of International Organizations such as holding various meetings, issuance of the minutes and the collected papers, adoption of the recommendations and so forth.

When a meeting is not covered by the ICCA bulletins, you can refer to the UAI Congress Calendar or event history section on each international organization in the YEAR BOOK. When a contact is a PCO in the JNTO list, the organizers or committee members are often found out in the UAI Congress Calendar, where at the same time you can get the information on the corresponding International organization, which is a great advantage.

Statistics and the definition of international organizations are attached to the YEAR BOOK. You will understand there has been a growth of international organizations behind the increase of international meetings, which will be proved by the statistics. You will also know that the number of headquarters of international organizations the city has become a barometer of the internationalization of the city and will be the outcome of its policy, management and culture as an autonomous city.

The meeting industry has been regarded as investment and speculation target, or advancement opportunities for young people and women these days, however, the UAI never forget to basically consider the role and function of international organizations reflecting the World War I and II.

Other Sources

The weekly Medical Newspaper by the Igaku-Shoin Ltd., the Biological Science News by the editorial committee in the Zoological Society of Japan, the weekly Science Newspaper by the Kagaku Shinbunsha Ltd., the Medical Society Directory by the Mikusu Ltd. are available and the daily news papers and the posters of the university campus are also sources. Academic journals are available but you may be annoyed getting through the entry to the library of Kyoto University, On the other hand, free inspection to the library of the Department of Medicine is convenient. the procedure is annoyed though each journal might be inspected. Academic journals in the Prefectural Library are unexpectedly not many.

The first magazine that featured the articles on the meeting industry might have been the monthly Hotel and Ryokan (Inn). However, it might be the Congress & Convention issued by the ICS at that time that could represent the industry.

The UAI issues a journal, the Transnational Association which was previously titled as the International Association.

The ICCA doesn't have its own journal but make use of TW magazine (TAGUNGS-WIRTSCHAFT Convention Industry, The international magazine for fairs, meetings and incentives), and publish ICCA NEWS on it.

The journal of the AACVB (Asian Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau) is the MICE ASIA, and the MICE (Meetings/Incentives/Congress/Exhibitions) Communications, Ltd issues it, and the chairman is Mr. Alwin Zecha, president of the ICCA in late 70s. The ASIAN MEETINGS-Incentives & Exhibitions was the predecessor of the MICE.

From US, the MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS, the SUCCESSFUL MEETING, the MEDICAL MEETING, and the INTERNATIONAL HOTEL REVIEW are forwarded and from Britain, CONFERENCES & EXHIBITION, from Italy, the CONGRESSI, the European magazine for Congresses, Meetings & Incentives, and the WORLD MEETING aiming the restoration of European market and so forth are also sent to us.

They paid much attention to who would take a leading on the meeting industry magazine in Japan and it might be the ICS with the Congress & Convention. But volumes of translations of articles on international tourism made by the Information and Research Department of the Japan National Tourist Organization were something that should be well remembered.

Database in Japan

It is DB-ICIS (Data Base-International Convention Information System) that has appeared with the catchphrase of data base on convention and its related information for the first time in Japan. The Toyo Information Systems Co., Ltd, the inter group Co., Ltd. and the Dick Co., Ltd have tied up and developed it, which mainly covers meeting data and includes congress and exhibition facilities, hotels, local, state and national information, and they are willing to get wide participation, starting member recruitment since the end of 1987.

The meeting industry is traditionally regarded as an independent part of the tourism industry, and the Ministry of Transport has had jurisdiction at an administrative level in Japan. However, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry also has launched this field adopting the event industry as its slogan when they have focused attentions on the convention industry as investment targets, and on corporate incentive meetings as independent marketing targets by economic magazines. Other Ministries and local governments have also launched their own big events and conventions whatever to get new industry segments or to reorganize their traditional industry segments. The Japan National Tourist Organization is no more the only public sector agency on meetings and conventions.

In March 1988 the Transportation Economy Research Foundation has submitted a surveillance study concerning the strategy building up a convention data base. According to the report, the Ministry of Transport is planning to establish the IP Cooperation Association (tentative) in the JNTO where a considerably big data base of 9000 data, 15 MB initially and 25,000 data, 40 MB will be scheduled. The model is said to be the FAIRBASE by the Hannover Fairbase Database Ltd. in West Germany and the MEETING-AGENDA developed by the Materials Department of the French Atomic Energy Commission. The chairman of the committee is Prof. Kato, dept of science and technology, Sofia Univ. and committee members are from the JNTO, the JTB, the JAL, the JCS, Hotels, Yokohama City Economic Affairs Bureau and the Nikkei McGraw-Hill Ltd. and a specialist of the data base from the data communication business headquarters of NTT is invited to a working committee.

The Ministry of Transport would like to take the initiative with this database scheme together with its international convention city plan, however, as the examined input items are too many to be updated, the data maintenance after initial data input could be the problem. Public sector's data base on this kind had better be simple if it fills the dictionary function.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry is going to wrap up reports of the Study Group on Events, a private advisory group of the head of Industrial Policy Bureau, and to work out a policy to support holding trade fairs and the exhibitions through the JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization). Meetings are handled as a category of events. The Ministry of Education is setting up the Science Information Center in April in 1986, and its future plans include the building up online science information data base connecting universities around country.

A Corporate meetings data base could not be made according to Japanese business customs. You will not be able to find out so-called Meeting Planners in Japanese private companies who have mutual information exchange over the framework of the company system. After all, it has to be up to the statistical research survey by newspaper companies, magazine publishing companies or research agencies.

A meeting database does not merely cover meeting information but does cover the organization itself that holds the meeting as is described above that considering a meeting is to consider the organizer or the organization. A meeting database should have close connection to the organization database.

A database which satisfies everything does not exist. You should make your specific database, but never forget the mutual access each other providing some easy mutual access code.

There is no constant association number given in the Japanese Organization Directory. The SCJ (Science Council of Japan) fails to update the directory of International Scientific Organizations and the JNTO does not refer to the association number of the International Organization provided by the UAI, making a directory of Japanese corresponding Organization.


Data statistics

Classification of data

The number of international meeting held in Japan is as of November 18 in 1988. The classification is according to the directory of International Scientific Organizations, 1979 edition, issued by the JNTO. For errors on classification, I shall be to blam as I have done it as an total amateur on that.

Total number of data is 2473, which is available for the moment according to my arbitrary data collections. First of all I picked up data which were related with the directory of International Scientific Organizations, and classified them according to its own classification code from A (Humanistic Studies) to G (Inter-Governmental Organization) and then separate into major ones and the others.

I picked up a regular scientific meeting or general assembly of the organization as a major meeting and as for a committee meeting of an organizations like IUPAC if a committee has its own secretariat and holds regular meeting, I assumed it as a major one.

I also have included a regional meeting and executive committee meeting and so forth of an umbrella organization.

I classified meetings other than those related to the directory of International Scientific Organizations in the same categories on my own, which included my arbitrary distinction. There were meetings which could not be included in this classification and I added H (Government and local government) and I (Enterprise) for them. Still there were far more data which were left out of this statistics, this might be a visible part of the whole picture.

In the UAI they start with separating them into NGO and IGO, and in the US magazines, Association and Corporate.

Data listing

I have used two types of data listings. One is computer data print out with meeting titles, contacts, organizers and so forth, and the other is spreadsheets with organizations in which year and type of the meeting held are filled manually.

I made two printed out lists. One was sorted according to the SCJ organization code number and the other was sorted according to the year that the meeting was held.

Printed out items were both English and Japanese title of the meeting, corresponding International Organization, corresponding Japanese Organization or contact person, year and duration of the meeting, SCJ organization code number, UAI organization code number, data number and so forth. For the reference purpose to save the space, if an item consisted of three records, one record was cut out. Also abbreviation was used, however, there was a difference between the SCJ and the UAI. Prepositions were also cut out to shorten the space and time. Data after 1989 are scheduled ones.

According to the whole list of the organizations attached to the directory of International Organizations by the SCJ which were arranged considering their correlations, I made a copy on a spreadsheet filling out the year and the type of the meeting held from 1963 to 1990. This is something we have done on paper since 1980 after the marketing and planning section started.

Evaluations of numbers of international meetings

Numbers of international meetings with no SCJ code marks a rapid increase after 1985 on our data. You have to be well aware of the fact that the numbers are not always up the reality but to reports made. For reference I put the post survey numbers of meetings by the JNTO for comparison in the table below.

1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986

With SCJ code

40
48
21
36
20
28
30
39
53
41

No SCJ code

38
32
28
41
31
55
63
79
130
168

JNTO (P.S.)

236
389
315
320
371
456
384
408
438
503

NGO (A.I)

178
180
186
170
169
155
142
119
127
79

IGO (A.I)

61
47
68
48
47
27
31
13
17
10

(P.S.:Post-Survey done in the next year) (A.I.: Annual Increased number of organizations)


The annual increased number of UAI international organizations was another comparison. It marked rapid increases in the 1970's, which have served as driving forces of an increase of international meetings in the world.

In our data remarkable increases are found from 1964 to 1965, in 1970 and in 1985. 1964 was the year of the Tokyo Olympic Games, when the Japanese travel ban was lifted and the Tokaido Shinkansen opened. In 1970 the EXPO '70 was held in Osaka and Japanese GNP was ranked as No.2 in the world. In 1985 the SCIENCE EXPO was held in Tsukuba and privatized and split up the New Den Den (Telecom company) and the JT (Japan Tobacco company) started, and the 1986 summit conference of leading industrially advanced nations was held in Tokyo. These are all domestic factors of Japan.

Since the United Nations was inaugurated after the World War II in 1946, around 20 IGOs and 100 NGOs have been organized annually and in late 1950s the annual increase of NGOs reached to one hundred and several tens and in 1970 to 220, which was the peak, and in 1975 it was 205 and after that it has been decreasing as is shown on the table.

In late 1970s market researches on conventions started as a specific market field, and in 1980s it came to be the word wide trend and data banks on conventions appeared at the time. It might be because so called office computers became available with reasonable price range and simplified programming languages such as BASIC has been developed.

Hiroyuki Ueda, Sales Div., in November, 1988