One of the sales points for being a Tokyo American Club member has been that the club has been
1/3 Japanese Members
1/3 American Members
1/3 Other Nationalities
With the challenges of the disasters in 2011, as well as the major financial planning blunders when building the new club, the membership ratio has changed.
It’s official, the Japanese national membership is now over 50%. Although, it is nice to have an haven away from many ‘Japanese language only’ environments in Tokyo for the foreigners, the biggest group concerned about having too many Japanese is the current Japanese membership. They too want a haven from the public eye.
Now with Japanese over membership over 50%, do we see many differences around the club? Some people have noticed an increase in old Japanese men with their young ‘nieces’ having dinner at the club more. Others have noted that now there are some Japanese membership in the club that don’t speak English. Does it matter? As always, that’s something that the Tokyo American Membership will decide.
Perhaps the club should be renamed and called what it now is with the change in membership profile: “Tokyo International Club”.
Awhile back a bit inebriated Japanese members told me point blank that a group has been carefully working for many years to increase the Japanese membership over 50% so they can legally take it over and remove it as an expatriate club.
Rather than start a club they correctly figured that with the Postwar Anericans who they could never fool gone, a new generation of politically correct could be used and they could get a club in the cheap by simply taking it over, over time knowing the foreigners would be transient and each Japanese permanent.
For comparison the “Japan Clubs” overseas are an average 95% Japanese with only a tiny non-Japanese membership to satisfy local laws.
Non-Japanese other than symbolic areas are practically kept out of any leadership roles.
To the wise.
Document on club web site from AGM says Japanese membership is 49% going to 48% and then 45%. So never 50% and not official.
So the original posting is wrong, in fact.
It also says new Japanese members are frozen.
Apparently, it’s the Japanese members who actually don’t want so many Japanese members as it makes it less of an honor or special membership.
Probably not a logical comparison to some silly American’s attempt to control people through PC (political correctness).
Actually, the Japanese membership ratio is not over 50% according to Club documents.
All of this smells. Imagine if the Japan Club in America complained about too many Americans. Unthinkable.
The 50% has nothing to do with the financial crisis or 3/11.
It has been carefully planned and orchestrated to change TAC from an expatriate club to a Japanese Club.
It was accomplished by formally removing the English Requirement in 2010, the Backround check, stopping of English language advertising and massive Japanese language promotion.
The purpose of the rebuilding was to serve as the vehicle to accomplish this in the time honored Japanese method of takeover – cause to overbuild then step in to save.
Losing TAC as an expatriate club removed Tokyo as a competitive World City unable to compete with Singapore, Hong Kong, Peiping each with dozens of expatriate clubs.
No international company will move staff to a city without schools, hospitals and a club.
The Japanese Government desperately needs TAC as the only expatriate club in Tokyo and will provide all needed to clear the foolishly incurred debt through a combination of corporate, quasi government and disaster funds.
A betrayal of 87 years of history from 1928 when TAC was formed when all Americans were expelled from all private clubs in Tokyo could not have happened without high level involvement.
TAC can still be saved by clearing the debt, restoring the language and backrou d check, restoring the historic 40% American, 30% Foreign and 30% Japanese ratio.
Every one of the “Japan Clubs” overseas are over 90% Japanese.
There is still time.
If action is not the next action on their agenda is to change the name based on the self created percentages.
This is the historic pattern used to take over every foreign founded institution in Japan and in 100% of the cases in the end the foreigners are no longer welcome in the very institutions they founded.
Yes, this is a big problem, and it’s mostly because they needed the money due to past poor financial management and the exorbitant redevelopment.
The plans to increase foreign members have been a good step, but the proportion of Japanese is simply too high in my opinion. The Japanese members will never leave, while foreign members come and go all the time, and expats are not on the rise.