The “Trade Consortium,” for Which TradeWaltz Inc., a Trade Digital Transformation Promoter, Serves as the Secretariat, Has Expanded to a Total of 65 Companies. A Wide Range of Companies, Including Trading Companies, Manufacturers, and Logistics Companies, are Joining One After Another.

TradeWaltz Inc., which operates the trading-related information-sharing platform known as “TradeWaltz,” is pleased to announce that since June 23, 2021, 14 new trading companies, manufacturers, logistics companies, and others have joined the ” Consortium for Efficiency and Widespread Trade Information Linkage ” (commonly known as the “Trade Consortium”), which TradeWaltz Inc. is operating as the secretariat. This brings the total number of companies to 65. We are grateful to the many companies that have expressed interest in improving the efficiency of their trading operations and have participated in this project.

■ 25 companies in total have applied since general applications for new members started being accepted
　The “Consortium for Efficiency and Widespread Trade Information Linkage” (commonly known as the “Trade Consortium”), which was launched in April 2021 with TradeWaltz Inc. serving as the secretariat, has received a cumulative total of 25 applications from companies since May 21, when it began accepting new members, bringing the total number of participating companies to 65 as of September 13.
　Since our press release on June 25, we have received applications from a wide range of companies from trading companies to manufacturers and logistics companies.

■ Trade Consortium Activities
　In the trading business, information collaboration across companies and business categories still involves analog procedures such as paper documents, faxes, and emails with scanned PDFs, which are not only complicated but also cause the need to come to the office during COVID-19 or even a disaster.
　The Trade Consortium has been working with 18 companies involved in trade operations since August 30, 2017, with NTT DATA serving as the secretariat, to improve these issues through blockchain technology. The trading-related information-sharing platform “TradeWaltz” has also been developed.
　In April 2021, TradeWaltz Inc., which operates “TradeWaltz,” became the new secretariat and launched the new Trade Consortium with 40 companies across various industries. With TradeWaltz at its core, the consortium will promote the spread of trade digitalization in society through the following activities.

■ Introduction of the results of activities for the legal reform of electronic bills of lading
The Trade Consortium has been discussing with the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Justice the legal revision of the digitalization of bills of lading. After the Cabinet Office’s Council for Regulatory Reform submitted its report to Prime Minister Suga on June 1, the “Regulatory Reform Implementation Plan” approved by the Cabinet on June 18 included the “digitalization of bills of lading” as a specific measure to be taken, which was one of the requests. (Below, 15 printed pages)
https://www8.cao.go.jp/kisei-kaikaku/kisei/publication/keikaku/210618/keikaku.pdf

■ Additional Membership Opportunities
In addition to the trading companies, banks, insurance companies, logistics companies, and shipping companies that have been participating since the beginning, manufacturers, IT vendors, and public institutions have been added to the membership, and we have been accepting applications from the general public since May 2021. We will screen all applicants for membership, but if you are interested in becoming a member, please contact us for more information.

■About TradeWaltz Inc.
Company Name                 TradeWaltz Inc.
Representative                   Hirohisa Kojima, President & CEO
Headquarters                     2F, Marunouchi Nijubashi Building,
                                             2-2 Marunouchi 3-Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005, Japan
Date Established                April 2020
Main Operations                Delivery of the TradeWaltz® (*1) SaaS(*2), a trading-related
                                             information-sharing platform built with blockchain technology
Employees                         44 (Fulltime: 27, part-time: 18)
URL:                                  https://www.tradewaltz.com

（*1）「TradeWaltz」is a registered trademark in Japan of TradeWaltz Inc. Any other names of products, companies, groups, etc., are names and registered trademarks of their own.
（*2）SaaS stands for Software as a Service. It is a model that makes software available for use over the Internet.

Please direct all inquiries regarding this announcement to TradeWaltz Inc.
Rep: Someya and Saito
Email：info@tradewaltz.com