Aiming at a BreakthroughPresent and Future Viewsof the Optical Society of Japan
Kimiaki YAMAMOTO
President, Optical Society of Japan(Japan Society of Applied Physics)

The Optical Society of Japan (OSJ) was established in 1952. Atthat time, it collaborated with Japan’s industries in research targetingsuch themes as thin films and Optical Transfer Functions (OTF), andhas since earned recognition for its significant contributions to the advancement of the optics industry. The OSJ has an exceptional history
that one could safely say has formed the theoretical backbone which
has enabled the Japanese optics industry to produce many of theworld’s best optic devices, including cameras, microscopes, and steppers. The OSJ has developed along with the Japanese economy, andnow, after 51 years, it boasts some 2,000 members, and is involvedin a wide range of operations. In addition to publishing the monthly
journal “Kogaku (Japanese Journal of Optics)” and the bi-monthly
English journal “Optical Review,” the OSJ holds various meetings, including “Optics Japan” – an annual meeting held in Japan – and International conferences such as the ODF (International Conference on
Optics-photonics Design and Fabrication) and ICOSN (InternationalConference on Optical Engineering for Sensing and Nanotechnology), along with various other symposiums and seminars. ICO’04 will
be held at the Nippon Convention Center (Makuhari Messe) in Chiba
from July 12 to 15, 2004, in conjunction with ODF’04 and ICOSN’04.
The theme for ICO’04 is “Optics & Photonics in Technology Frontier,”
and the conference is expected to draw many visitors from Japan andaround the world.
The OSJ has eleven working groups, each of which is involved ina wide range of information exchanges and human interactions related
to the latest research in optics and optic technologies. The working
groups are: Image Science, Near-Field Optics, Contemporary Optics,
Vision, Biomedical optics, Information Photonics, Optical Design, Micro-optics, Holographic Displays, Light-wave Synthesis and PhotonicNetworks.
The OSJ has also established two award systems – the Optics
prize for excellent papers, and the Optics prize for young scientists –in order to provide incentives for outstanding research and foster theexceptional researchers of the future. The former prize is awarded
to the primary authors (39 years or younger) of exceptional original
research papers related to the field of optics, while the latter prize isawarded to budding young researchers (29 years or younger) whoshow great promise for the future.
The Optical Society of Japan is an academic organization withan outstanding tradition and record of achievements. The world isundergoing significant changes, however, and the outside environment surrounding the academic societies is changing dramatically as
well, making it necessary for the OSJ to implement a wide range ofreforms. One of these reforms involves activities targeting the revitalization of research support in important fields that meet the demands of today’s society; in addition to the scientific research fields
that many members are currently involved in, this includes fields suchas telecommunications, life sciences, energy, the environment, andspace sciences. Recently, in the context of science and technologies,
it has become necessary to combine various types of technologies
across a wide range of fields, so we must collaborate with other academic societies and expand our activities in order to accommodate
this growing number of interdisciplinary technologies. Furthermore inthis era of true globalization, we must also ensure that the contributions made by our organization benefit not only Japan, but the world
at large.
With a view toward these issues, we will undertake a numberof measures, such as expanding the scope of our services and operations, strengthening our organization, and creating an electronic
version of the Optical Review Journal. The Optical Society of Japan
will continue to contribute to the pursuits of its members, and at thesame will aim to provide even more value to society through its services and activities.

JSAP International No.9 (January 2004)

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