Minutes of the general assembly of the EAJRS concluding the 18th conference of the EAJRS in Rome.

1. Approval of the minutes of the 17th conference held in Venice, September 2006. No remarks or alterations are noted. Accepted as published in the Newsletter 15.

2. Announcement from Paul Wijsman: Dr. Kuwabara has informed us that she will not be able to host the next EAJRS conference in 2008; due to a number of circumstances. She is however organising a workshop for librarians from to February 2008, to which she invites the members of the EAJRS.

3. Venue of the 2008 conference: no candidacies have been received. The board has discussed a number of possibilities: Lisbon, where we could visit the Ajuda Palace Archives and the Oriental Art Museum. In Lisbon both the university or the Centro Cientìfico e Cultural de Macau could act as host. London would be another attractive possibility, but rental of rooms and facilities appears to be very expensive. Norwich would be another possibility, it has room to board about fifty persons, and there are good facilities, but perhaps it is located a little too off-centre. Ljubljana is another possibility. The chairman will explore the various possibilities.

4. Next year’s timing: to avoid the EAJS conference which will be held at Lecce, we propose starting on Tuesday 16 September and concluding on Friday 19 September. Those who want can then attend the conference at Lecce.

5. Funding: between 8000 and 10000 euro from the Japan Foundation.

6. Publication of the abstracts and/or proceedings on the EAJRS portal site very soon.

7. Union Catalogue of Japanese Books in European Holdings: no new developments to be reported upon. Refer to the presentation of Ms. Naito from NII.

8. Tenri library workshop. Report from Izumi Tytler. The workshop was very successful.

9. Japan Foundation Survey: information had to be filled in on the website. No further news to be reported on this scheme.

10. Report from the secretary:

11. Possible joint initiative with American organisations of Japanese resource specialists: although there is interest in principle, both sides seem to be very busy, and the Americans will be interested if there is anything to gain from a meeting with their European counterparts. It seems to be hard to realize due to time constraints and high financial costs to be incurred. We could possibly hold a joint meeting in the margin of the AAS conference at Singapore next year. Conclusion: it is not a priority for EAJRS.

12. Thanks to the staff of the Istitute Giapponese di Cultura (Het lijstje met de namen is zoek); to Marina Battglini of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Roma, to Father Robert Danieluk of the Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu, to Father Picca of the library of the Universita Pontificia Salesiana, and Dr. Laura Moretti. Also special thanks to Alphanet, the bus company that contributed a coach to visit the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Roma and the Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu. Thanks to Hans Coppens for his assistance with ICT matters and last but not least Paul Wijsman, secretary of the association.

13. Visit to the Marega Collection: Practical directions to get there. Closing of the general assembly and the conference. Not mentioned on the general meeting: The board or the group of national representatives consists of: Laura Moretti, Kuwabara, Izumi Tytler, Noboru Koyama, Paul Wijsman, W. Vande Walle, Hamish Todd.