22 October 2024

MLA Presidents
Titulary Members
Consultative Members

Dear Friends,

Following our preliminary announcements regarding the date of the Tokyo Conference we are now delighted to provide you with further details on the content of the conference itself.

Shortly after Gothenburg the Tokyo Conference Organising Committee started to work in earnest on the programme, costings and general organisation of the much awaited conference in Tokyo which had originally been planned for 2020, and it is with great pleasure that we are able to share with you a Preliminary Programme which we attach hereto. We are doing this to wet your appetite!
We hope you will agree that it is a stimulating, thought provoking and varied programme containing important current topics regarding which the CMI feels it has a contribution to make towards their development. The legal conundrums related to decarbonisation, the fall out from the physical attacks on shipping which we are seeing, legal issues related to the cruise line industry, regulating mobile off shore renewable units, liability issues in MASS, are subjects and matters which maritime lawyers all over the world are facing and our exposure to such matters is clearly increasing going forward. We will also be working towards finalising our Lex Marittima, providing time for discussions related to Polar Shipping, and the IOPC fund as well as giving our Asian hosts a platform to discuss legal issues particularly relevant in Asia. We will also have a panel on CMI’s further mission, ensuring Conventions get ratified!
The programme is "preliminary" in the sense that it is being shared very early on, 7 months in advance and the specific titles of the presentations of individual panellists, and the identity of the panellists themselves is still work in progress.
The Conference Venue will be the grand, Hotel New Otani Tokyo and our Japanese colleagues have left no stone unturned in providing us with a marvellous and extensive social programme to enable us to have quality time to mingle with colleagues, develop existing relationships and make new ones. Fitted into the conference programme is the traditional welcome reception followed by the Young CMI Event on Tuesday 13^th May, a half day excursion on Friday 16^th which will take us on a vessel for a tour of Tokyo Bay, followed by a visit to the Hama Riku Gardens and the famous Tokyo Tower, ending our day with a reception at the XEX Atago Greenhills, as well as the Gala Dinner on Saturday 17^th. There can be little doubt that the tour of Tokyo Bay will indeed be one of the Conference highlights. We would like to encourage you to bring your spouses and partners who we are sure would be very interested in the accompanying persons programme.

The Preliminary Programme is available on our website at Program page.
You will also see from the Programme that Tuesday 13^th is dedicated to meetings of IWGs. As has become the practice over the past 3 years, some of the IWGs will opt for a closed IWG meeting whilst others which are in a position to share their work and obtain feedback from the representatives of NMLAs present will opt for an open meeting. A list of these meetings will be provided once completed.
We would therefore encourage you to arrive in Tokyo on Monday 12^th and not to leave before Sunday 18^th!

The registration for the conference and the hotel accommodation will be open soon.
We very much looking forward to seeing you in Tokyo in May.
Best regards,
Yours sincerely