Reflections on the 31st National Conference of Japan Scholarly Association for Asian Management at Kwansei Gakuin University on September 14 & 15 in 2024

Chairperson of the Organizing Committee for the 31st National Conference,　
Takeshi Fujisawa, Professor, School of Business Administration, Kwansei Gakuin University

The 31st National Conference of the Japan Scholarly Association for Asian Management (JSAAM) was held on September 14 and 15, 2024, at Building G, Nishinomiya-Uegahara Campus, Kwansei Gakuin University, with a total of 92 participants. While face-to-face sessions were the rule during the conference, a hybrid format was adopted for the English sessions because some members came from China to present their papers.
First, on Friday, September 13, the Board of Directors Meeting and the Newly Appointed Directors Meeting were held in a conference room in Kwansei Gakuin Kaikan, and the meeting moved to the Board of Directors Reception in the evening.
On Saturday, September 14, 21 reports were presented in the Free Discussion Session and 3 in the English Session. After all the free topic presentations on the first day were completed, Mr. Shintaro Sasakura, President and Representative Director of Sasakura Corporation, was invited to give a lecture titled “Sasakura's Asian Business Development and Future Strategy. From the perspective of strategic management theory, Mr. Sasakura explained the strategic roles of subsidiaries established in Indonesia, China, and Taiwan, how management decisions are made, and how to solve problems related to management localization, such as dealing with management culture and labor practices in each country and introducing incentives, The lecture by Mr. Sasakura attracted a great deal of interest from the participants, who asked many questions one after another, exceeding the scheduled time.
After the lecture, Mr. Isao Yanagimachi, the 10th President of the Asian Management Association, presided over the General Membership Meeting, where all the proposals were approved.　
To conclude the first day of the conference, a reception was held at a Western-style restaurant near Hankyu Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station, where 63 members gathered to deepen their friendship.
In the Unified Topic Session on September 15 (Sun.), the Program Committee Chair Yukiko Shinomiya and the Conference Organizing Committee Chair Takeshi Fujisawa proposed the theme “Foreign Direct Investment Activities and Industrial Agglomeration of Asian Firms,” and Motoshi Kanatsuna, Kohei Mishima, and Ruihong Gao presented highly academic research based on their specialized research results. The discussion on the three presentations was led by Mayumi Tabata and Katsunori Yokoi, who pointed out important points, which deepened the discussion and facilitated a smooth transition to the panel discussion. Following the moderator, Mr. Huang Ya-sen, who explained the main points, the panelists discussed the issues raised by the panelists, which helped to deepen the understanding of the research reports and reaffirm the significance of the research. Finally, the presenters of the Unified Thesis took questions from the floor, and as they repeated their answers from time to time, all participants became united in the hall.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Jun Aso for his invaluable support from the planning stage of the 31st National Conference of the Asian Management Association to the venue setup, program preparation based on requests for presenters, discussants, and chairpersons, and the financial report for this conference. Ms. Yukiko Shinomiya has provided us with a great deal of support from the planning stage to the closing of the conference, not to mention the management of the Unified Thesis Sessions. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to both of them. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the staff of the Research Promotion Organization, the Information Technology Promotion Organization, the Faculty of Commerce, the Faculty of International Studies, and the Research Reference Room of the Faculty of Commerce at Kwansei Gakuin University for their support and cooperation not only on the day of the conference but also before and after its opening, which made it possible to successfully conclude the conference.
In addition, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Kwansei Gakuin University's Research Promotion Organization for providing us with a subsidy for holding our national conference on campus. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Kwansei Gakuin and the Research Promotion Organization.