Japan Drupal Association Holds Founding Assembly, Files for NPO Certification

Japan's Drupal community has established a new voluntary association and begun the process of turning it into a legal non-profit organisation. Local Drupal Association Japan (日本Drupal協会, LDAJ) held its founding general assembly on 26 September 2026 and says it applied to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for NPO establishment certification on 28 September. The group plans to begin activities in October while the certification process continues.

LDAJ says its aim is to help make Drupal an open digital foundation that organisations in Japan can adopt and operate with confidence, while reducing dependence on any particular country or company. The association describes that goal in terms of digital public infrastructure and positions its work around Drupal adoption, community activity and the wider open-source ecosystem in Japan.

Four working groups are planned for 2026. The Drupal Project Working Group will develop projects around Japanese-language user guidance, translation and contributions from Japan. The Communications Working Group plans to rebuild the association's current website toward a broader Drupal and LDAJ information portal during 2027, while the Events Working Group will continue work around DrupalCamp. The External Relations Working Group is intended to strengthen ties with the Drupal Association and improve the visibility of the Japanese community's views across the wider project.

A separate Community Working Group has been set up around Drupal's code of conduct. LDAJ says the group is intended to support an environment in which community members can participate safely and the code of conduct is upheld.

The association does not yet have legal NPO status. Tokyo's NPO establishment process places specified application documents under public inspection for two weeks after acceptance and provides, in principle, for a certification decision within two months after that period, or within about two and a half months of the application being accepted. After certification, the organisation must complete a separate registration with the relevant Legal Affairs Bureau before the corporation is formally established.

LDAJ says it has deliberately kept its organisational structure and budget small in order to remain transparent and avoid dependence on a single person or company. Regular membership fees are intended to cover basic organisational costs, while supporting memberships and donations are expected to fund broader activities. Volunteer recruitment and project recruitment are also planned.

The association emerges from organising work that was already under way after DrupalCon Nara 2025. The DropTimes reported in January 2026 that a preparatory committee had been formed with the goal of establishing a Japanese Drupal association as a non-profit organisation. Japan does not currently appear in Drupal.org's directory of Local Drupal Associations, which lists associations operating across a range of countries and regions.