Royston Deitch
Executive Representative, Head of IG Matters/General Manager of Underwriting Administration Dept. (Solicitor)

The Japan P&I Club (“JPI”) was established in accordance with The Ship Owners' Mutual Insurance Association Law passed by the Diet in 1950, and is the only P&I Club based in Japan. JPI’s story started with 132 members, 630 vessels and 0.19 million GT on our books. As time has passed, JPI has grown larger and more international. As of March 2016, 3,211 members with 4,417 vessels with 9.2 million GT are entered in JPI. JPI has now become more international, with entries from Japan and other Asian countries.

The history of the International Group of P&I Clubs goes back as far as 1899. This is when the six Clubs of the so-called London Group of P&I Clubs entered into a claims sharing agreement called the “Pool”. The International Group is now made up of 13 notfor-profit mutual insurance associations including JPI, and the Group Clubs between them insure over 90% of world ocean-going tonnage. Each of the 13 clubs is independent of the others, and provides indemnity cover for its members against liabilities arising in their respective businesses. The Clubs also co-operate on various issues in the area of shipowners’ liabilities.

One of the rôles of the Group is to provide a forum for sharing information on matters of concern to Clubs and their members. This forum mainly takes the form of IG Sub-Committees, and JPI is represented on over 20 of these. Even where we do not sit on the Sub-Committee, we are still able to make the voice of our members heard.

Representing JPI and our members on IG Sub-Committees is one of the main functions of our London Liaison Office, which was set up in 1985. Since then, an unbroken line of Japanese staff has spent time in LLO, the current representative joining our own international group of Greek, Scots and English colleagues!

The whole ethos of the International Group in which JPI plays a full part is about service to Members, which includes trying to find solutions to the problems all shipowners face on a daily basis. Even where shipowners are faced with a challenge which does not naturally fall under the P&I “umbrella”, such as the credit insurance aspects of the Maritime Labour Convention, the Group will try to find a solution which enables shipowners to continue trading.

Chairman of the International Group Hugo WynnWilliams describes the liability cover provided by the Group Clubs as “a key factor in enabling world seaborne trade, the protection of the marine environment and of the interests of both public and private victims of maritime accidents”. This positive and proactive outlook emphasises how the IG and JPI continue to act for the interests of members and beyond.