Kyoto University and the Kyoto Business Research Center collaborated with International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in organizing the Asia Business Leader (ABL) Project 2022. ABL is a project to develop global leaders who understand their positioning in the international community and assured of its strategic significance. ABL was first established in 2013 in collaboration between Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University and Kyoto Business Research Center with the aim to cultivate human resources, capable of business expansion and new business development in Asian countries, by use of the research achievements in the field of local situations, history, societies, cultures, economics, industries and administrative structures in Asian countries.

The ABL Project 2022 was conducted virtually from 23rd to 27th May, 2022 and focused on “Doing Halal Business” across the globe. As it specifically look into the pathways to enter the halal industry, prominent lecturers, researchers and experts from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and the Halal Industry Corporation (HDC) were invited to team up in this project. Professor Kobayashi from Kyoto University, Professor Hamzah Mohd. Salleh from IIUM, and Mr. Hirao from Kyoto Business Research Center played host to this program.

The participants of ABL Project 2022 came from various Japanese corporations, including Nomura Real Estate Development, Nomura Real Estate Solutions, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, West Japan Railway Company, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company and Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. For this year, the momentum was geared towards how Japanese corporations can move towards halal business within the Asian region. At the end of the program, participants presented their findings and moderated by Prof Kobayashi of Kyoto University, Prof Hamzah of IIUM and Prof Faridah Hassan of UiTM. Besides that, participants were also given the opportunity to obtain inputs on various topics on halal and its development from several guest speakers. The speakers were from IIUM (Prof. Hamzah Mohd Salleh, Asst.Prof.Dr Amal Eigharbawy, Asst.Prof.Dr Nurhidayu Al-Saari), UiTM (Prof.Faridah Hassan, Assoc. Prof. Dr Erne Suzila Kassim, Dr ‘Ismah Osman) and HDC (Mr Hanisofian Alias).

For UiTM, being invited and given the opportunity to join the ABL Project 2022 also open up other possibilities. A research endeavour is hoped to be materialized between Research Interest Group (RIG) Halal Management and Science of UiTM, Kyoto University and International Islamic University (IIUM) on the future development of halal across all nations.