Rules for the selection of officers and representatives of the Ecological Society of Japan
(Bylaws of the Articles of Incorporation No. 1)

Chapter 1. Election Administration Committee

Section 1. General rules
(Application)
Article 1. In addition to the stipulated in the Articles of Incorporation, the Election Administration Committee of The Ecological Society of Japan (hereinafter abbreviated as “the Association”) shall be appointed by these rules.

Section 2. Election Administration Committee
(Chairperson and committee members)
Article 2. The affairs related to the enforcement of elections shall be reviewed by the Election Administration Committee (hereinafter abbreviated as “the Election Committee”).

2. The members of the Election Committee constituted of regular members from the region where secretariats are located, shall be appointed by the President through resolution of the Board of Directors.
3. The Chair of the Election Committee shall be commissioned by the President through resolution of the Board of Directors constituted of committee members.
4. The term of office of the Election Committee shall be of two years.

(Ballot-counting witness)
Article 3. In the election of the officers and Representatives, the Chair of the Election Committee shall select one ballot-counting witness from the Executive Directors, and shall entrust the administration of the election.

(Invalid voting)
Article 4. The following votes shall be invalidated.

1. Those that did not used the prescribed ballot form.
2. A vote that states other matters and/or the name of a person who is not eligible for voting. However, if a voting is performed by consecutive writing, only the name of non-eligible persons shall be invalidated.
3. A vote in which the name entered cannot be confirmed
4. A vote in which the name of the same candidate eligible for election is duplicated or contains plural entries. However, in these cases, only one vote will be counted as valid.
5. A vote with more than one name in the voting with single entry, and a vote with more than the specified number in the voting, in case of plural entry. In the latest case, all the votes shall be invalidated.
6. A vote not submitted before the end of the voting time limit announced by the Chair of the Election Committee.

(Equal number of votes)
Article 5. In the election of officers, if only one of the candidates with the same number of votes has to be elected, the ballot-counting witness shall appoint the youngest candidate as elected.

Chapter 2. Officers

Section 1. General provisions
(Application)
Article 6. The officers shall be appointed by this rule, in addition to those stipulated in the Articles of Incorporation.

Section 2. Officers (President, Executive Directors, Directors, Auditors)
(Appointment of President candidates)
Article 7. By resolution of the General Meeting, candidates for the Representative Director and President may be nominated to the Board of Directors. Prior to the nomination of the candidates for the Representative Director and President, an election for electing a candidate for the Director, Representative Director and President by voting of regular members shall be made, and the results of the election can be used as a reference. The candidates for the Director, Representative Director, and President shall be elected by regular members one year before taking office. At this election, the Representatives can vote in advance for five consecutive members, and the top five members from the regular members can be recommended as candidates for the Director, Representative Director, and President positions. However, it does not preclude the possibility to vote for other persons rather than these candidates.

(Appointment of Directors)
Article 8. The Directors are appointed by resolution of the General Meeting. Prior to the resolution for appointment of the General Meeting, the Board of Directors may recommend the followings as candidates for Director. In the appointment of the Directors, the candidates for Director recommended by the Board of Directors can be referred to.

1. Up to 10 candidates for the Director elected by mutual election of Representatives.
2. Up to seven candidates for Director or Executive Director.
3. Up to two regular members becoming candidates that the Board of Directors deems suitable for executing the Association businesses.

(Appointment of Auditors)
Article 9. The Auditors are appointed by resolution of the General Meeting. Prior to the resolution to elect the General Meeting, the Board of Directors may recommend the followings persons as candidates for Auditors. When appointing Auditors, the candidates for Auditors recommended by the Board of Directors can be referred to.

1. Up to two regular members becoming candidates for Auditors that the Board of Directors deems appropriate for executing the Association businesses.

(Appointment of President)
Article 10. The President is elected by the Directors by mutual election in the Board of Directors. In the appointment of the President, candidates for the Representative Director and President recommended by the general meeting can be referred to.

2. If there is only one candidate, the candidate shall be appointed without voting.
3. If there is more than one candidate, the President shall be selected by voting.
   (1) A person who has obtained a majority of valid votes in the first voting shall be selected.
   (2) If the number of valid votes of a candidate is less than the majority, the two candidates with the highest number of votes will be re-voted, and the one with the most votes shall be selected. If the number of valid votes is the same, the youngest person shall be selected.
   (3) If there are three or more persons including the same number of valid votes in the first voting, the voting shall be repeated for those persons, and the above procedures (1) and (2) shall apply mutatis mutandis.
4. If there are no candidates, the President shall be appointed by discussion or voting. In case of voting, the provisions of items (1) to (3) in the preceding paragraph shall apply mutatis mutandis.

(Appointment of Executive Directors)
Article 11. The Executive Directors (one Senior Managing Director, one Director of General Affairs, one Accounting Director, three Operation Directors, one Candidate for Next President) are elected by the Directors by mutual election in the Board of Directors. In the appointment of the Executive Directors, candidates for the Executive Directors recommended by the President can be referred to.

2. If there is more than one candidate, the Executive Directors shall be elected by voting.
   (1) A person who has obtained a majority of valid votes in the first voting shall be elected.
   (2) If the number of valid votes of a candidate is less than the majority, the two candidates with the highest number of votes will be re-voted, and the one with the most votes shall be selected. If the number of valid votes is the same, the youngest person shall be selected.
   If there are three or more persons including the same number of valid votes in the first voting, the voting shall be repeated for those persons, and the above procedures (1) and (2) shall apply mutatis mutandis.
3. If there are no candidates, the Executive Director shall be appointed by discussion or voting. In case of voting, the provisions of (1) to (3) in the preceding paragraph shall apply mutatis mutandis.

(Term of Officers)
Article 12. The term of the Directors is one term of two years. It shall be until the conclusion of the ordinary General Meeting of the last of fiscal year ending within two years after the appointment. While re-appointment shall not be precluded, the term of the President cannot exceed one term of two years in total.

2. The term of the Auditors is one term of two years. It shall be until the conclusion of the ordinary General Meeting of the last of fiscal year ending within two years after the appointment. Re-appointment shall not be precluded.

Chapter 3. Representatives

Section 1. General provisions (Application)
Article 13. The Representatives shall be appointed by these rules, as stipulated in the Articles of Incorporation.

Section 2. Appointment of Representatives (Division of representatives)
Article 14. According to the method of appointment, Representatives shall be classified into Representatives elected from all over the country (hereinafter referred as to national representatives) and Representatives elected from the region (hereinafter referred as to regional representatives).

(Number of Representatives)
Article 15. The fixed number of elected Representatives shall be 15 for national representatives and 7 for regional representatives.

(Voter)
Article 16. Voters shall be regular members of the Association, who have paid their fees for at least one year.

2. The list of voters shall be finalized two months before the vote.

(Selection of Representatives)
Article 17. Elections of national representatives shall be performed by voting with 10-names entries, and from these persons, the 15 persons with the highest number of votes shall be elected. Elections for regional representatives shall be performed by voting with 3-names entries by voters in their corresponding region. One person from each region, seven persons in total, shall be elected.

2. The region to which each regular member belongs two months before election shall be his/her corresponding region.
3. The regions consist of the following prefectures.
   Hokkaido region: Hokkaido
   Tohoku region: Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Fukushima
   Kanto region: Ibaraki, Chiba, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Kanagawa, Tokyo, Yamanashi
   Chubu region: Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Nagano, Shizuoka, Gifu, Aichi, Mie
   Kinki region: Shiga, Kyoto, Nara, Wakayama, Osaka, Hyogo
   Chugoku/ Shikoku region: Okayama, Hiroshima, Tottori, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi, Ehime
   Kyushu region: Fukuoka, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Saga, Nagasaki, Okinawa

(Voting method)
Article 18. Voters should write down the candidate's name on the ballot sent by the Election Committee, put it in a designated return envelope that the voter signed. The votes submitted by mail or electromagnetic record to the Election Committee must arrive by 5:00 pm on the due date.

2. The voting shall be done by secret ballot.

(Invalid voting)
Article 19. The following votes shall be invalid.

1. If more than the quorum is voted, the extra votes shall be invalid.
2. If the name of a candidates is duplicated in the voting form with plural entry. If this is the case, only one vote shall be valid and the others shall be invalid.
3. A vote made without the prescribed ballot.
4. A vote stating the name of a non-candidate person.
5. A vote in which the name entered cannot be confirmed.
6. A vote that did not arrive by 5:00 pm on the due date of the election.
7. A vote without a signature on the ballot return envelope. Or, if the signature of the Representative is determined to be of somebody other than a voter.

(Determination of elected persons)
Article 20. Among the candidates, the ones with the highest numbers of votes shall be elected sequentially.

2. If the number of valid votes is the same for two or more candidates, the youngest person shall be elected.
3. The Election Committee shall promptly report the results of the election to the Board of Directors.
4. If a person is elected as both a national representative and a regional representative, the person shall become a national representative, and the running-up of the region shall be elected as a regional representative.

(Term of Representatives)
Article 21. The term of representatives shall begin on the day following the Board of Directors date on which the election decision was reported, and shall end the day before when the term of the next Representatives begin.

2. The term of Representatives shall be of two years, and does not prevent re-election, but shall not allow three consecutive elections.

(Filling a vacancy)
Article 22. In the event of a vacancy in the Representatives, the President may, after a meeting with the Board of Directors, elect a runner-up in the election as representative.

2. Representative vacancies shall include terminations, deaths, changes in the region where the representatives belong (regional representatives only), and requests for resignation from the principal to the President that are approved by the General Meeting.
3. If Representatives have been replenished in accordance with the preceding paragraph, the President shall promptly announce this.

(Doubts in election)
Article 23. In case of a doubt about the election for Representatives, it shall be handled, in principle, by the Election Committee.

Chapter 4. Auxiliary Provisions

(Amendment)
Article 24. This rule may be changed by a resolution of the Board of Directors and the General Meeting of Representatives.

Supplemental Provisions
1) This rule takes effect on January 25, 2014.
2) The amendment of this rule takes effect on August 3, 2015.
3) The amendment of this rule takes effect on March 17, 2018.