Greetings to all - at the end of my term -
Toshiharu Aoki, Tokyo Section Chair

  We have been working as the committee for the Tokyo Section since January 2007, and our term has ended at December 2008 and a new committee takes over starting in January, 2009. During this two year term, we received a lot of supports and cooperation from many members of Tokyo Section. We would like to express many thanks for their kindness.
  The number of members was 7,580 at the end of 2006, 7,560 at the end of 2007, and 7,476 at the end of November 2008. In recent years, the numbers of members are decreasing in other academic societies in the engineering areas. However, the number of member of IEEE Tokyo section can be maintained and kept around 7,500 by many efforts of committee and section members. We are very happy that eighteen and eleven members were upgraded to IEEE Fellow grade in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Also, Toyota Motor Corporation received “IEEE Corporate Innovation Recognition” in 2007. Furthermore, “Japanese Word Processor” was approved as “IEEE Milestone” in 2008, and the plaque was presented to Toshiba Corporation. We would like to express congratulation to all winners and presentees. And also, we are proud of their winning and awards.
  Looking back on our term, we had planned and executed many activities, such as, establishment of TOKYO GOLD, seven lecture meetings including “The Robotics Seminar Series”, “International Student Paper Contest” held at Soul by co-sponsorship with Soul Section and Beijing Section. Moreover, we had many opportunities to meet and discuss with many IEEE VIPs, and actively exchanged with IEEE headquarters.
  From the viewpoint of quality and quantity of members, Tokyo Section is standing on very important position in IEEE. We believe that activities of members contributed in past days and also will contribute in future so much to Tokyo Section and IEEE.
  Now, I would like to thank to Ichiro Tai, Section Vice President, Tsutomu Sugawara, 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 Toshiba Corporation and Mr. Hiroki Shoki and Ms. Chiemi Nakamura of Toshiba Corporation for their dedicated efforts for Tokyo Section. I also would like to thank to Ms. Eriko Shimabukuro and Ms. Makiko Kato, the secretariats for undertaking an unusually heavy work load.
  The new Section Chair is Dr. Hideki Imai, Chuo University. I sincerely hope that Tokyo Section will progress and evolve more and more.
  Finally, I would like to extend my very best wishes for the health of all of Tokyo Section members.