Related Organizations
THE PEOPLE AND BODIES AROUND THE ACADEMY
A place that raises butlers has a body that supports the learning, a field where the butlers it raises go to work, and a house where their hospitality can be experienced.
Here are the six organizations around the academy, described from the learner side.
OUR NETWORK
Six organizations beyond the classroom
What surrounds the academy
What is taught in the academy classroom does not end at the classroom door.
There is an association that sets the standard, a service where butlers recognized under that standard go to work, a person who puts butler culture into words, and a house where hospitality can be received as a guest.
Learning and certification, practice, communication, experience: because these form a ring under one association, deportment learned in class carries straight into the field.
Six introductions, one per organisation
This list gives each of the six organizations close to the academy its own introduction: the All Japan Butler Association, THE BUTLER, Butler Bell, Queen's Butler, Family Romance Inc. and the Yuichi Ishii official site.
None of these pages is a copy of the official site it describes. Each is a reading from the side that trains butlers.
One line organisational, one personal
Four of the six — the association, the academy, THE BUTLER and Queen's Butler — sit under the Japan Butler Association, while the remaining two connect through one person, the association's president Yuichi Ishii.
One line is organisational, the other personal. Follow both and the shape of Japanese butler culture comes into view.
SIX ORGANIZATIONS
Six related organizations
Read each introduction
The parent body that trains and certifies butlersAll Japan Butler Association
The oldest butler organization in Japan, dating from 1890. It keeps the yardstick of the profession through training and certification, and the academy curriculum is built to that yardstick.
The butler service run by the associationTHE BUTLER
The association own butler service. From running a household to acting as an executive right hand and hosting anniversaries and ceremonies, certified butlers serve both homes and companies. It is one of the places academy graduates work.
The head of the association, in his own wordsButler Bell
Butler Bell is the name Yuichi Ishii, head of the association, uses as a butler. Through research and writing on butler culture, lectures and training, and media work, he shows the public what a real butler is. The words at the root of the academy teaching are his.
A butler salon for women, run by the associationQueen's Butler
A new brand the association launched in a mansion in Odaiba. A salon for women, a studio for shoots and meetings, an apprentice experience in a morning coat, and a shop for the house designs: four doors leading into one house.
The family stand-in company founded by the head of the associationFamily Romance Inc.
Founded in 2004 by Yuichi Ishii, who heads the association and still serves as representative director. For more than twenty years it has offered stand-in services, playing the part of family, partner or friend, with registered staff across Japan.
The head of the association as actor and entrepreneurYuichi Ishii official site
The official site gathering the other face of Yuichi Ishii, the association head: the lead in Family Romance, LLC, the film by Werner Herzog, a lecture at Harvard and the Glass Award, and his book. His path as an actor and an entrepreneur.
HOW THEY FIT TOGETHER
How the six organizations interlock
The shape of the group
At the centre is the All Japan Butler Association. The association sets the standard for butlers, the academy teaches to it, and graduates are recognized through the association three-tier qualification. That is the ring of raising and recognizing.
Where a certified butler actually works
The recognized butlers go to work at THE BUTLER, the service the association runs itself, bringing butlers to homes and companies.
Instructors carry decisions made in that field back into the classroom, so that judgment found in no textbook reaches the lessons.
Butler Bell, head of the association, puts the why behind the academy teaching into words through his his work on the butler in research and writing.
The house, and two ventures of one person
Queen's Butler, also run by the association, is a house in Odaiba where the hospitality of a butler can be received as a guest, and its apprentice experience doubles as an entrance to the academy. Then come Family Romance Inc.
, founded by the head Yuichi Ishii, and the official site of his work as actor and entrepreneur. The six differ in role, but they form one ring under the same person and the same association.
Two butlers bowing side by side (photograph of the house)
WHERE TO START
The first page to read, by purpose
Pick your entrance
To learn about the profession, to have a butler come to you, to be on the receiving end of hospitality, or to become a butler: the page to open first depends on what you want.
I want to understand the profession
Start with the association history and qualification system, and with Butler Wisdom from Butler Bell. Together they give the origins and butler culture as it is now.
Following the four chapters from the founding to incorporation shows where the manners taught in class came from.
I want a butler to come to me
Go to THE BUTLER, the service the association runs. Enquiries fall into three fields: running a home, supporting an executive, and anniversaries and ceremonies.
The introduction page also covers choosing a butler from the roster and how a request moves from first talk to the day itself.
I want to experience the hospitality
Go to the Queen's Butler salon (women only) or the apprentice experience, and touch the deportment of a butler at first hand in the house in Odaiba. Sitting on the receiving side is what makes the withdrawal we teach in class land in the body.
I want to become a butler
Go to the academy course guide, which introduces the three courses, Essential, Advanced and Master, corresponding to the association three tiers of qualification.
For where graduates go afterwards, the THE BUTLER introduction page is the place to look.
FAQ
Questions and answers
What people ask us
The association, THE BUTLER, Queen's Butler and the academy sit under the All Japan Butler Association.
Butler Bell is the working name and site of the association head, Yuichi Ishii; Family Romance and the Yuichi Ishii official site are the company he leads and the site about him.
At THE BUTLER, the service run by the association, and in homes and companies, as butlers recognized by the association. See the THE BUTLER page for more.
At the Queen's Butler house in Odaiba: a salon for women, a studio, and an apprentice experience open to everyone.
No. The pages on this site are introductions to read. Requests, bookings and enquiries are handled on the official site of each organization, which opens in a new window.
The former covers his activity as a butler and head of the association; the latter his life as an actor and a businessman. Two sides of one person.
For courses, qualifications and corporate training, use the contact page on this site. Brochures are free.
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Last updated: 18 September 2026