Since its foundation in 1994, Japan Art Dealers Association (JADAN), Japan’s only national federation for art dealers, has played an active role in gaining social trust of art dealers, attempting to maintain and expand the industry and contributing to promotion of culture and the arts, as an organization that engages in dealings of the valuable artifacts of Japanese cultures and art. Even though JADAN was newly founded as a general incorporated association in June 2015, in its history of over 20 years our organization has always been widely in touch with the worlds of politics, governments and private businesses to appeal for the present status of our industry and made a variety of proposals on matters such as taxation system and cultural policies, while being the first to collect information to inform our members. Currently, JADAN consists mainly of those who are the members of cooperative associations in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kanazawa and Toyama, as well as of the cooperative members of associations of Western paintings, block prints, ukiyoe (Japanese woodblock prints), Japanese swords and modern art.

Comparing to many other counties in which their own cultures and arts are valued and various measures for conservation and promotion are hammered out, our country has an extremely poor cultural policy. We aspire to Japan’s stronger presence as a cultured nation among the global society, believing that it would eventually lead the sound development of our country as a whole, through our activities such as widely introducing Japanese traditional culture and excellent works of art that we can proud of, and utilizing our high-level conservation and restoration technique of cultural heritages on a worldwide level. We believe that one of our biggest missions is to contribute to the realization of a true nation grounded in culture and the arts.

It is essential for us to strengthen our system as an organization in order to maintain our activities and fulfill our purposes. Striving for such activities including the proposal for establishment of the Ministry of Culture will encourage each art dealer to combine their power to become a big force through JADAN, which allows us to appropriately and actively conduct the conservation and nurturing of our valuable traditional culture as well as the new promotion and growth of culture and the arts. By doing so, we believe that we can create the best environment for young people who are responsible for the next generation and the development of the industry.

New members are always welcome, as we appreciate support from more art dealers for our activities. Not only business managers, but also any persons who are employees are eligible to join JADAN, and your consideration will be greatly appreciated.

October 2024