After several years' membership in The Asiatic Society of Japan, Erich A. Berendt was elected to the society's council. Since 2000 he has been serving conscientiously and actively as the society's president.
He said: "The society provides a very international meeting ground not just for scholars but also for anyone with broad interests in cultural issues. The membership comprises a tremendous cross-section of nationalities, and is a meeting place of extraordinary people from a diversity of backgrounds. The monthly lectures are also very diverse. I find the society attractive and stimulating."
Berendt is himself a scholar and a persuasive speaker, accomplished as a lecturer and writer, committee member and chairman of meetings. Born before the war in Canada to a family arrived from Germany, he was, he says, always interested in history. With his first degree from the University of Alberta, and with the intention of going into the church, he went to Chicago to study at the Lutheran School of Theology.