Japan extended its title as most popular country in Asia for hosting international meetings to a fourth consecutive year in 2015 but still lagged far behind its U.S. and European rivals overall, according to the International Congress and Convention Association.

The association¡¯s tally of countries that hosted international meetings, released last month, says that Japan ranked seventh globally in 2015.

The ICCA said a record 12,076 international meetings were held last year, indicating ¡°consistent growth.¡±

International meetings are those that are regularly held, rotate between at least three countries and comprise 50 or more participants.

Japan has held the top position in Asia since 2012, followed by China, which was ranked eighth.

The United States, meanwhile, topped the global rankings, with all other countries ranked higher than Japan hailing from Europe.

Italy was ranked sixth, just above Japan, in 2015 but way ahead in its total number of meetings at 504 compared to Japan¡¯s 355.

China, which was ranked eighth, was closer to Japan with 333.

The rankings show that Japan still has a long way to catch up.

Still, the government, which has been aiming to host more international meetings in recent years, said 355 was a record for Japan.

The country held 337 and 342 meetings in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Japan Tourism Agency official Shohei Yamauchi said the process of inviting and actually hosting meetings is a time-consuming one that takes about five years on average.

¡°We have been making efforts to increase the number of meetings and will continue doing so. We are hoping to see some results¡± in the coming years, he said.

In addition, many academic societies are based in Europe and are thus used to organizing their international meetings there, he said.

Japan has set a goal of becoming the most popular hosting country in Asia by 2030. Retaining its top position in Asia for the past four years is a positive development in its efforts, Yamauchi said.

He said efforts to solicit international meetings are basically conducted by the cities that wish to host them, although the JTA has selected 12 cities including Sapporo, Sendai Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka and Fukuoka, for support by sending them foreign consultants and hosting seminars with them.