Greetings to all - At the end of my term -
Fumio HARASHIMA, Tokyo Section Chair

We have been working as the committee for the Tokyo Section since January 2005, and our term will end at the end of this December of this year and a new committee will take over starting in January, 2007. The new Section Chair is Dr. Toshiharu Aoki, NTT Data Corp.

At this time, I would like to look back on this two year term. At the end of 2004, the number of members was 7,471. This increased to 7,708 at the end of 2005 and increased to 8,167 at the end of 2006. We think this was acceptable, considering the recent decrease of membership in the other academic societies in the engineering areas.
We are very happy in that many Japanese members have received IEEE major awards during the last two years. In 2005, Fumitada Itakura was awarded   IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal, and Docomo Corp. received   IEEE Corporate Innovation Recognitions. In 2006,  IEEE Founders Medal Founders Medal was given to Toshiharu Aoki, and  IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal was given to Shoichiro Yoshida. Also   Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal was given to Hideo Kakunami, mitumasa Koyanagi and kiyoo Itoh. Many other Japanese members have been awarded IEEE-related awards. Also twenty-seven members were upgraded to IEEE Fellow grade in 2006, and eighteen members are selected as IEEE Fellows for the year 2007.

50th Anniversary Ceremony of the IEEE Tokyo Section was held in Palace Hotel Tokyo on March 1, 2006. More than 100participants, including Dr. Michael R. Lightner, 2006 President of the IEEE, other guests from the Headquarter of the IEEE, guests from national academic societies, current and successive board members and trustees of the Tokyo Section and Japan Council, came into the Ceremony.

Each standing committee of Tokyo Section worked actively. Among their activities, it is notable that the agreement of collaboration between Seoul Section and Tokyo section has been established. We expect a fruitful cooperation between these two sections in the future. Now, I would like to thank Ryousuke Hata, Section Vice President, Hideki Hayashi, Section Secretary, Hideki Hashimoto, Section Treasurer and all members of the section committee. Also, I would like to extend my special thank to Administrative agent of Sumitomo Electric Corp. and Ms. Hiroe Kobayashi of Sumitomo Electric Corp. for their dedicated efforts for Tokyo Section. I also would like to thank the secretariat for undertaking an unusually heavy work load. Finally, I would like to extend my very best wishes for the health of all of Tokyo Section members.