THE JAPAN JAPAN-NORWAY SOCIETY Org. No. 989 513 850 Contact address: post@j post@j-ns.no
Annual Report The Japan Japan-Norway Society for 2020 The Japan-Norway Norway Society is a membership based volunteer organization established in November 1977. The purpose is to promote friendly relations, mutual understanding and cultural interchange between the peoples of Japan and Norway. 2020 has been a difficult cult year for the Japan Japan-Norway Norway Society, as for most voluntary organizations last year. Due to the COVID COVID-19 19 pandemic, our activities have been very limited. We organized a ramen event in January, and a Tea Ceremony in February, which ended up being our only indoor events last year. However, we have tried to keep the activity level up with outdoor and online events. We have firmly established the tradition of Mushroom hunt, which attracted more participants than the years before, more than 60 people. We also had some popular forest walks both in the spring and in October. On the digital side we have cooperated with the Norway Norway-Japan Japan Society on some events, which gathered a young new crowd. We finished off the year with an online Bonenkai with optional take ake out from Alex sushi in December. Communication tools In 2020 we used the following communication tools: Facebook: In 2020, we continued using our Facebook group as the main channel for communication about events and we now have more than 2000 members. member The number of members is increasing almost daily. Facebook is also a good tool for sharing JapanJapan Norway related information between members and for members to make direct contact with each other. J-NS Web: Our web-page page is the source of more lasting in information formation about our society. Information is available about who we are, our articles of association, our grants and also relevant web-links. links. We also have a web calendar for our own events. The web page had 4,700 pageviews by 2,000 unique visitors. E-mail: We sent e-mail mail newsletter about our events as well as other important information about our society. Our recipient list includes about 200 ee-mail mail addresses.
including paying J-NS NS members as well as other friends of our society. We have noted that some members embers reported they did not receive the newsletters. We have made a thorough review of our members list to make sure all paying members are included. We also recommend checking junk mail. Google forms: Organizing events is the most time time-consuming part of our work and in 2020 we have continued the use of google forms to manage our events. By having participants fill out the registration form, we can control the number of participants more easily. Events Regrettably, we ended up with a limited number of events this year: - 29 January: Suiyokai at Ezo ramen - 15 February: Tea ceremony at Norwegian Rain - 2-9 9 April: Digital Annual General Meeting - 16 May: Forrest Walk to Brunkollen - 5. July: Suikawari with Sub Japan at Frognerparken (cancelled due to bad weather) - 06 September: Mushroom harvesting with a Mushroom expert at Rustadsaga, lectured by Morton Jødal - 04 October: Digital event with NJS, Exchange Studies in Japan - 18 October: ober: Sunday Walking tour to Kobberhaughytta in the Oslo Forest - 16 December: Digital Bonenkai with sushi from Alex Sushi We continued the same practice as before and made most of our events open for participation by non-members. members. The exceptions have been free events organized for paying J-NS NS members only. The principle is to have each event break break-even even and a participation fee was charged to cover the respective costs. The Mushroom tour was free for members last year. Cooperation with N-JS Modalities to cooperate ooperate with the Tokyo based N N-JS JS has been discussed, and events etc are shared. We have co-organized organized digital events. Members are free to join respective events at member price. J-NS Grants We accepted three applications, and awarded one grant in 2020. The one chosen to be awarded a grant of 10,000 NOK from JJ-NS NS in 2020 was: The University of Oslo Library, Literary lectures. Members
We have seen less paying members last year, which was quite natural considering the low activity level due to COVID COVID-19. By year-end end we had 61 memberships (84 in 2019). 27 (43) single members, 27 (33) family members, 2 (3) youth members and 5 (5) corporate members. Financials Our income in 2020 has been 28 300 NOK from memberships and 10 115 NOK from the various events. The funds have mainly been used to cover costs of the various events, grants, gifts and administration. The financial result in 2020 is -16 16 361 NOK. Please see the financial report for 2020 for details. Key figures and notable numbers ● Decrease in both income and expenses from last year, resulting in a deficit of 16 360 NOK. Main expenditure is the Sakura tree sign expenditures (25 789 NOK) which is related to the 40th anniversary pledge made in 2017. ● Payment for last year’s tea ceremony in Ekebergparken also received this year, making a slight increase in the income for last year. ● Still good solidity with only a small amount (15%) decrease in total equity. ● Apart from anniversary pledges, we see some deficits in events mostly due to subsidising dising events from the Society etc. These can be covered with the current income from membership fees. Board of Directors In 2020, the following 10 members have served as board directors: Per Bardalen Wiggen (President) Kaori Ishii Yasuko Oki Hiroshi Arikawa rikawa (replaced by Futoshi Tsuneyama as observer from September) Eirik Johannessen Christoffer Kvernvold Anders Håan Ingrid Fjeldsenden Kazumi Yamada Tadahisa Matsuda The board met (mostly digitally) 9 times during 2020. Oslo, 10 February, 2021 Per Bardalen Wiggen President