On May 16, 2019, the IJCC held their Annual General meeting at the Irish Ambassador’s Residence in Tokyo.

The IJCC Patron, the Ambassador of Ireland to Japan, Paul Kavanagh, opened the meeting with an overview of the Embassy’s activity. The President Paul Gilsenan gave an overview of the previous year’s activity. A year in which we grew our membership, launched the IJCC Newsletter, ran Ireland's largest Irish cultural festival and developed new business events for our members.

The board and members voted unanimously to re-elect Paul Gilsenan and Richard Grehan and welcomed a new Director, John Blakeney, to the board.

Commenting on the year ahead, Paul Gilsenan said “I'm looking forward to an exciting year, as we approach Rugby World Cup this September. I welcome the new Director, John Blakeney. I'm confident he'll make a strong contribution to the board and to the IJCC community. I also thank John and Lorcan for their contributions and wish them both well in their future endeavours”

Immediately following the AGM, the new IJCC board held their first board meeting. During their meeting, Paul Gilsenan was re-elected to the position of President and Yoshihiro Tsuchiya as Vice President.

IJCC Board for 2019 to 2020

·       Paul Gilsenan - President

·       Yoshihiro Tsuchiya - Vice President

·       John Blakeney* - Director and Treasurer

·       Conor Canavan – Auditor

·       Matthew Connolly - President Emeritus

·       Phillip Greenan – Director

·       Rick Grehan - Director

·       Tamaki Hashimoto - Director

·       Elliot Milton - Director

·       Eamonn Murphy - Director

·       Andy O'Doherty - Director

* new board member