Although the ICCLC was founded mainly through the support of private corporations, is there any possibility that we could utilize the accumulated knowledge of trading firms that have conducted business in Asia?

Certainly, there are brilliant people in the in-house legal departments of private corporations. Those who have resided abroad for a few years are invaluable in terms of their experience. If they face problems when conducting business in Asia, the in-house legal department would either hire a local attorney or a U.S. law firm to deal with the situation. Since our interest lies in discovering the realities of dealing with legal issues in Asia, the people in in-house legal departments are invaluable since they have had actual experience. But it is difficult to ask corporations to conduct basic research as part of legal technical assistance to Asian countries when they are stationed in certain country to deal with a specific problem.

Albeit, while it is difficult for corporations to send individuals to participate in external relations, they are very receptive to the idea of having them participate as a lecturer for a symposium or as a panelist since it breaks down corporatism. This is especially true of our multiple training course since they spend over a month living together and discussing various topics with people from six different countries. Thus, it offers an opportunity to develop deeper personal relationships with people from other countries that they would not normally have.

Do you think it is possible to utilize the skills of retirees?

For example, I think one of our responsibilities is to consider whether we can create an organization of retirees who have worked as in-house legal professionals. Although there are existing organizations for people who work in in-house legal departments, I think we should consider whether these organization could specialize in certain fields, to take charge of certain areas of legal technical assistance.