Simulate I x J contingency tables using correlation coefficient using bivariate normal distribution
Step 1. generate random values from a multivariate normal distribution Step 2. convert the random values into probabilities Step 3. convert the probabilities into values from the target distribution
This requires a cautionary note. The method above is simple in the univariate case (where people would usually start with a uniform distribution), however, generalizing it to the multivariate case, is not as simple as Thierry as suggested. That doesn't necessarily mean that his solution is wrong. (Because there's more than one way of defining a bivariate Poisson distribution).