About JTREC
revised on August 16, 2019
■ JTREC Establishment and Registration
JTREC (Japanese EC Promotion Organization for Travel, Tourism and Leisure) was established on Oct.1, 2007 in Tokyo, after being formally approved as a non-profit entity by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and registered as it on the same day.
The origin of JTREC was started in June, 1992, when the Ministry of Transport (now reorganized into the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) initiated the Study Group on UN/EDIFACT by getting the participants from almost all the major travel and transport related associations and companies.
■ Objectives of JTREC
The primary objective of JTREC is to join the activities of UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) to promote global trade facilitation and electronic business, and contribute to develop related business standards based on the needs of Japanese travel and tourism businesses or customers. The incorporation of JTREC is to make the organization execute specified activities and earn the fund to pursue the primary objective.
In 2010, JTREC proposed to initiate the TT&L WG (Travel, Tourism and Leisure Working Group) in AFACT (Asia-Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) to promote trade facilitation and electronic business in the region, which was approved by the Plenary of the year. Since then, JTREC has been working for UN/CEFACT and AFACT.
As non-profit entity, JTREC could function in those activities listed as follows.
a. Survey and research on electronic business both in Japan and/or the world
b. Managerial and technical consultation for travel and tourism related businesses or entities to facilitate trade by electronic business
c. Software development and contents distribution to promote electronic business
d. Advertisement for and publication on electronic business
■ JTREC Members and Working Committees
JTREC has now about 20 private members, working directly or indirectly, and 10 travel and tourism related companies and associations. It has the two committees, one of which is Travel & Tourism Promotion Committee, and the other of which is Japanese UN/CEFACT Travel/Tourism (T/T) Domain Committee. In the later committee, the two working groups to contribute to the activities of UN/CEFACT and AFACT are organized. They are Japanese versions of UN/CEFACT and AFACT T/T Domain related Projects, which are Business Standards for Sustainable Tourism Project and Experience Programs Technical Artefacts project.
■ JTREC Activities in UN/CEFACT and AFACT
The origin of JTREC joined the activities of UN/EDIFACT Travel, Tourism and Leisure Working Group in 1992, when it was only two years later after the beginning of the WG in UN/EDIFACT. They first participated in the activities to develop reservation, information exchange, and payment settlement related messages used for airlines, chained hotels, rental cars, railways, etc. by using the later defined interactive UN/EDIFACT syntax rules.
Around 2000 JTREC began to study trading Ryokan lodging products globally with the Japanese Association of Ryokan for International Visitors. Ryokan is a common name for a Japanese traditional, regional, and cultural lodging house, which has been loved by Japanese consumers historically. JTREC proposed UN/CEFACT Bureau to start the SLH (Small scaled Lodging House) related projects with the country supports of Sweden and Austria, other than of Japan. In May, 2004, they were approved by the Bureau to develop business standards for SLH trading by using XML (extensible Markup Language) based on the then newly created ebXML technical specifications. All the projects were completed by January, 2013. And then JTREC initiated the Pilot Implementation Project to use the above mentioned outputs with the members of AFACT. The purposes of the project were, on one hand, to prove the SLH outputs available to the use in the Asian regions and, on the other hand, to let the UN/CEFACT standard development procedures understood by the participating members. This project could be completed with a certain output by 2016, though there remained some international and operational issues.
It was around 2015 JTREC had an intention to take so called ‘Experience Programs’ to some standardization process as they were emerging to prevail in Japan and many other global regions. Indian and Taiwanese members were also quite supportive to the idea. In UN/CEFACT, the Green Paper Project on Sustainable Tourism ~ Experience Programs was approved by the Bureau in October, 2017 with the Indian leadership. JTREC had a working group on this and contributed to the completion in December, 2018, which was formally published in April, 2019.
In about October, 2017, T/T Domain joined the UN/CEFACT Blockchain White Paper Project and JTREC did their best to complete the report on the global trend of its implementation with the Domain members. The project also made their White Paper published by April, 2019.
In May, 2019, JTREC decided to begin the new projects as mentioned above.
■ Cooperative Activities of JTREC with the Other Organizations
JTREC has been working with such the organizations as JASTPRO (Japan Association for Simplification of International Trade Procedures), UN/CEFACT Japan Committee, Supply Chain Information Platform Study Group, IoT Acceleration Consortium, Forum on Thermalism in Japan, etc.
JTREC had worked
with Travelport for some years, and also been working with III (Institute for Information Industry) of Taiwan since 2014 for about 5 years until recently under the mutual cooperation
agreement.
■ JTREC Management
The management of JTREC has been undertaken by the members listed in the following. There are 10 directors
and 2 auditors.
Directors :
Chairman: Mr. Norio Shikata (Principal Analyst at Japan Aviation Management Research)
Vice Chairman: Mr. Kazuo Hotta (President of PSA Co., Ltd.)
Managing Director: Mr. Shoji Nakagome (former Researcher at Research and Development Institute, and
Science and Engineering Department of Chuo University)
Director at Secretariat: Mr. Shuichi Ohnishi (former Senior Consultant at a large IT company)
Director: Mr. Eiichi Sakai (President of Sakai Fermented Sake Production Co., Ltd.)
Director: Mr. Yutaka Yagi (President of Suave Hotels Group Co., Ltd.)
Director: Mr. Akio Suzuki (UN/CEFACT Travel/Tourism Domain and AFACT TT&L WG Expert)
Director: Mr. Hideo Nakamura（former Advisor at an IT company）
Director: Mr. Seiichi Nishizawa (General Manager at Tsukaeru.net Co., Ltd., former President of
Intage Associate Co., Ltd.)
Director: Mr. Yasuhito Shimada (CEO of IBLITZ Co., Ltd.)
Auditors:
Auditor: Mr. Michinobu Matsuoka (Representative of M&M Consultants)
Auditor: Mr. Tadashi Ishihara (former Visiting Professor at Tsukuba Gakuin University, former
Vice President of FUJITA KANKO INC.)
■JTREC Advisors
JTREC has 7 capable Advisors listed in the following who take their advisory role by the request of the Chairman.
Advisor: Dr. Koichi Tsukigi (Professor Emeritus at Niigata University of International and
Information Studies)
Advisor: Mr. Hyoji Saito (former Owner of a Ryokan)
Advisor: Mr. Haruo Ushiba (Phocuswright Japan Representative, Deputy Representative of Japan
Aviation Management Research)
Advisor: Dr. Mikio Tanaka (former Deputy Director General at JR Souken Information System Co.,
Ltd.)
Advisor: Mr. Yoshiki Tokura (President of PLAN, Ltd., Rotarian at Tokyo Seijo Shin Rotary Club)
Advisor: Mr. Toshiaki Nagamasa (Secretary General at Japan Foundation for International
Tourism, former executive of a travel company))
Advisor: Mr. Katsumi Ishikawa (Director at The Japan Education Centre for the Hotel Industry,
former executive of a travel company)
■ Office Address and Contact Information
Office Address :
Higashiyama 3-1-15, HOLON Ikejiri Bldg. 4th Floor, C/O Suave Hotels Group Co., Ltd. Meguro, Tokyo 153-0043 Japan
Contact Persons :
Shoji Nakagome : Tel : +81 90 8584 6480 e-Mail : [email protected]
Shuichi Ohnishi : Tel : +81 90 5338 1920 e-Mail : [email protected]
Hideo Nakamura : Tel : +81 90 1765 7735 e-Mail : [email protected]