Membership, Establishment and Objectives

Membership (as of August 2009)

The eleven members of the ASEAN-Japan Centre are (in alphabetical orders)

Establishment

The ASEAN-Japan Centre was established on May 25, 1981 based on the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment and Tourism (hereinafter, “The Agreement”) signed by the government of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), then consisting of the Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore and the Kingdom Thailand, and Japan. Later Brunei Darussalam (June 8, 1990), the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (February 12, 1998), the Kingdom of Cambodia (June 11, 2001), Lao People’s Democratic Republic (March 20, 2002) and finally, the Union of Myanmar (April 27, 2006) officially acceded to the Agreement. Now all the 10 ASEAN countries and Japan are members of the Centre.

Originally, the Secretariat was located on the 6th floor of the World Import Mart Building, Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. In April 1987, the Centre was relocated to the Central Building in Ginza 4-chome. In March 2009, the Centre was relocated to the Shin Onarimon Building in Shimbashi, where it currently remains.

Objectives

The three main objectives of the ASEAN-Japan Centre, as of April 1, 2009 are:

to promote export from ASEAN to Japan, particularly semi-processed and manufactures goods;
to accelerate the inflow of investment from Japan to ASEAN, including the transfer of skills and technology; and
to vitalize tourist traffic from Japan to ASEAN

The Centre has been revising the agreement for expansion of its activities.