JpGUJapan
Ge o s c i e nc e
Un i o n
公益社団法人 日本地球惑星科学連合

JapanGeos cie n ce
Union 公益社団法人日 本地球惑星科学連合

Contents
目次◆

Japan Geoscience Union

03◆" Pr og r e s s in Earth an d Plan etary Sc ien c e"

05◆

Geoscience Roadmap

06◆

S c ie n c e S e c ti o ns◆

Educational and Outreach Activities

19◆

The History of the Japan Geoscience Union

21

The New JpGU Open Access e-Journal

Space and Planetary Sciences Section

07-08

Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences Section

09-10

Human Geosciences Section

11-12

Solid Earth Sciences Section

13-16

Biogeosciences Section

17-18

日本地球惑星科学連合

Japan Geoscience Union
The Japan Geoscience Union ( JpGU) is the academicorganization that represents the geoscience community inJapan. It consists of 50 member societies and over 10,000
individual members including researchers, technologists,
students, educators, science communicators and interested
members of the general public. Geoscience can be roughly
divided into pure and applied areas, the first concerned withincreasing our understanding of natural phenomena and thesecond with using this knowledge to help to deal withenvironmental problems, to mitigate natural disasters and soon. In this section we first provide a little more detail on these
two facets of geoscience and then explain the JpGU and its
activities.

Fundamental Geoscience

Geoscience is the area of natural science that deals with the
Earth, the other planets and, on a larger scale, with the whole ofthe solar system. On the Earth it aims to understand the
dynamics governing the evolution of both natural phenomena
and social systems. It also aims to clarify the essential featuresthat contribute to the existence and evolution of life.
The following is a list of some of the many diverse researchareas where the geoscience community is hoping to provide
new understanding:
Regarding the Earth as just one of the planets in our solar
system, which in its turn is one of many many such systems
in our galaxy, we seek to provide an objective understandingof the extent to which the factors that allow the Earth tohost life are universal and to what extent our planet is special
or unique.
We seek to understand the influence of variations in solar
activity on space in the vicinity of the Earth and on the
Earth’s atmosphere. At the same time we are interested in
the chemical composition and movement of material in andbetween the atmosphere, the oceans and landbound bodies
of water, and, at greater altitudes, interactions with theionosphere and the magnetosphere.
We aim for a unified understanding of the changes andevolution occurring inside the Earth and other solid planets.
We want to understand these processes on a range of03

spatiotemporal scales, from almost instantaneous events
such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to long-term
phenomena such as the formation of mountain ranges orconvection in the mantle.
We wish to analyze the mutual interactions between the
Earth and the various human activities that occur on its
surface, and collect and make available data on theseinteractions to provide a basis for future research.
We want to use numerical modeling on supercomputers togain understanding of the complex multilayered hierarchicaldynamics that governs the Earth and other planetary systems
and thereby make predictions about these systems.
Right now a new academic discipline is being created, adiscipline that unifies all this research and provides a big picture
view covering timescales from the lifetime of the Earth to thedaily lifestyles of human beings, spatial scales from the size ofthe solar system down to the molecular level, and includes theactivities of living things from microorganisms to humanbeings. Using this approach we expect to be able to describe thebehavior and evolution of planetary systems over the full rangeof time and length scales and thereby to make predictions forthe state of such systems in the future.
Geoscience is built on the foundations provided by fundamental
research, numerical modeling, and continuous observational
investigation and management of the resulting data. As is the casein any field where numerical modeling is used, supercomputer
related computer science is essential.
In addition to advancing this fundamental research, it isimportant that researchers actively engage with society in orderto promote education that ensures that we all understand theEarth and our relationship with it.

Applied Geoscience

At the same time as we pursue the goals outlined above, we also
have a duty to engage with society to help to deal with thefollowing two major problems.
The Earth is faced with a variety of environmental problems: wemust actively promote ideas and policies to help deal with these.

Since ancient times human beings have relied on the Earth andit’s movement as a planet to support their activities. For
example for millennia we have used time, the calendar and thelocations of the stars in the sky as the basis for navigation. We
are blessed that the Earth provides us with mineral ores andfossil fuels that support our civilization. The global
environment used to be maintained by energy flowing from thesun and from processes occurring within the Earth. However inrecent times the scale of human activity has expanded to suchan extent that it is now influencing the natural environment.
The Earth is a small finite planet. The global population has
now reached seven billion people, and is currently predicted to
exceed ten billion by 2065. The depletion of energy, food andwater resources is becoming a major problem and the impact of
their increasing consumption on the environment and on
ecosystems everywhere is causing dramatic changes worldwide.
Although we are all deeply concerned about the future ofhuman beings on the Earth it is not easy to make predictions
about this future. This is because the Earth is evolving on its
own in various ways as well as being affected by the sun, and wecurrently do not understand the behavior of this complicatedsystem in all its detail.
A whole range of events connected with human existence, including
environmental problems such as global warming, desertification,water shortages, and landslides and debris flow are all caused bothby the effect of human activity and by the planet Earth. As scientists
we are duty bound to provide responsible information about the
new system of the Earth and its human occupants.
We must work to make predictions about the scale of natural
disasters, help to prepare for them and provide information
about the best way to cope with disasters as they occur.
The Pacific plate subduction zone to the west of the Japanarchipelago is the cause of much earthquake, tsunami andvolcanic activity, and consequently Japan is one of the mostseismologically active areas in the world. Further, the country lies
in a unique position at the boundary of the Earths largest
continent and its largest ocean. As a result of all this, Japan isfated with recurrent natural disasters. Accordingly theadvancement of geoscience is both of major national interest andan area in which Japan can contribute to the wider international
community. As the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami
tragically demonstrated, our current level of knowledge andexperience is still insufficient to deal with major natural disasters.
Nonetheless, geoscience is able to offer data that can be used tomake approximate calculations about the timing of recurrencesof major earthquake and volcanic activity and to provide risk
assessment for the accompanying natural disasters. Althoughthese data are at present incomplete we accumulate additional
information all the time, and this promises to provide a much
more complete picture in the future.

About the Japan Geoscience
Union and its activities

The Japan Geoscience Union was officially recognized as apublic service corporation on the 1st December 2011. The
JpGU acts as a forum for the exchange of information and thecollection of opinions and ideas within the diverse geoscience
community. Our academic activities are focused on thefollowing five sections: space and planetary sciences;
atmospheric and hydrospheric sciences; human geosciences;solid Earth sciences; and biogeosciences. Each of these sections
is explained in more detail in the following pages. We also holdan academic meeting, the JpGU Annual Meeting, every year in
the spring, issue a newsletter and work to provide relevant
geoscience information to society at large. In 2014 we also
launched a new geoscience open access e-journal, Progress inEarth and Planetary Science.
Geoscientific knowledge is relevant to many of the problems
facing mankind and geoscientific research is indispensable if wewish to maintain the continued prosperity of our species. As apure discipline, geoscience offers us a bird’s eye view of thenatural wonders of the planetary system in which we live. As anapplied science it includes cultural and social elements whichallow us to construct a new paradigm that offers the hope ofresolving many of the problems facing mankind. In order toprovide solutions and see them adopted by society, thegeoscience community must continue with scientific research
but also work to educate society at large and to communicate
our message to the general public and our political leaders. As arepresentative of the geoscience community in Japan, the JpGU
therefore aims to promote earth and planetary science research
and also to increase the understanding of geoscience issues in
the general public. In order to achieve these two goals we focus
our efforts on the following areas: encouraging the exchange of
information with researchers in Japanese geoscience societies;
promoting collaboration with scientists in other countries; andpublic relations work to ensure that important information iscommunicated to society at large. By doing so we seek to ensure
the continued vitality and importance of geoscientific researchin Japan, the Asia Pacific region and worldwide.

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 04

日本地球惑星科学連合"Progress in Earth and Planetary Science"

The New JpGU Open Access e-Journal
April 2014 saw the launch of Progress in Earth andPlanetary Science (PEPS), the new JpGU Englishlanguage open access e-journal. The JpGU and its
fifty member societies hope that both the Japanese
geoscience community and the wider global
community will benefit by using this new journal to
improve communication. As PEPS is an open accesse-journal, all of its articles are available online andmay be accessed by anyone for free. Researchers arealso allowed to post the PDF files of their PEPS
papers on their personal web pages. We feel that thisis important: most academic research is paid for by
the taxpayer and so it is surely appropriate that
research results are freely available to all members ofsociety. We hope that PEPS will also make a small
contribution to reducing the ever-increasing
amounts of money that university libraries have to
pay for journal subscriptions. Finally, PEPS will also
provide a secure archive to preserve its material forthe future: all PEPS files will be backed up at anumber of different large-scale data centers at
different locations throughout the world.
Geoscience is a complicated area that deals with manydifferent phenomena. The JpGU has decided that
PEPS should cover all the fields of geoscience together
with relevant related subjects. Accordingly PEPS is
divided into the following sections: Space andPlanetary Sciences; Atmospheric and Hydrospheric
Sciences; Human Geosciences; and Solid Earth
Sciences. It will also publish papers that deal withmaterial from more than one of these sections, forexample papers that discuss the various environmental
problems now facing us. The JpGU would like to use
PEPS to promote an integrated approach togeoscientific problems and we are particularly keen toencourage the development new concepts and ideasthat unify different branches of the subject.
PEPS will publish material from authors based
anywhere in the world in the following three
categories: (1)review articles that cover recent

developments in geoscience; (2)papers based on thevery best presentations given at the JpGU Annual
Meeting; and (3)high quality general research
articles. Finally, one further advantage of PEPS is
that, as it is an electronic journal, we able to welcome
papers that include attachments such as animations,video material or large data files.

Progress in Earth and Planetary Science(PEPS)• PEPS is an open access e-journal, and all articles areavailable for download free of charge.
• PEPS aims to become one of the leading geosciencejournals.
• First published in 2014.
• Publishes general research papers, invited papers,
review articles and articles based on the bestmaterial from the JpGU Annual Meeting.
• Article Processing Charge is 200 Euros for JpGU
members and 1000 Euros for non-members. The
JpGU will pay all charges for invited papers andreview articles and for JpGU Meeting based articles.

「Progress in Earth and Planetary Science」web site

h t t p : / / p r o ge arthp lan etsc i . org/

05

Geoscience Roadmap
Geoscience is a field that includes both fundamental and applied research. Fundamental geoscience is a wide field thatstudies the solids, liquids, gases and plasmas that make up the solar system, the various life forms that inhabit it, and theinteractions of each of these with humans and human society. We are particularly interested in the planet that we inhabit, theEarth, and we wish to understand its origins, evolution, present state and future, but we also seek to understand the otherplanets in the solar system and exoplanets in other solar systems throughout the universe.
Since the natural phenomena that we study are intimately connected with human activity and our very survival, applied
geoscientific research concerns itself with how the relationship between human beings and the natural environment willdevelop in the future. We do this in order to make forecasts and to help to overcome the various natural disasters andenvironmental problems that will surely occur in the future. Here we present a roadmap for the balanced development of thetwo sides of our subject.

The Earth has not been the same since time immemorial. It did notexist, was formed and has passed through many different phases
before arriving at its present form. It will continue to change in the
future. Since we live on this planet, it is important for us toinvestigate this history and understand how it will evolve in the
future. In order to do this we propose the following three pointroadmap:• Firstly we must understand the Earth as a planet.
We must recognize that the Earth may not be unique, understand its
universal features and peculiarities, understand its history in the context
of the history of the galaxy, and understand the variety of different
planets in the solar system and in other solar systems in the galaxy.
• Secondly we must understand in detail the mechanisms thatgovern the Earth, and use this understanding for the good ofsociety.
We must seek to explain the origins, evolution and present state of the
Earth and thereby equip ourselves to understand its future development.
We must understand the mechanisms that cause the Earth’s environment,
both internal and external, to change in order to make accurate
predictions about the future. Finally we must understand the relationshipbetween human activities and the environment, and apply all of ourknowledge to natural disaster mitigation and to tackling the various

environmental problems that we face.
• Finally it is important that we understand the details ofplanetary environments that help support life.
By understanding the co-evolution of life and the planetaryenvironments it inhabits we will be better able to investigate the possibility
that the universe may contain other planets that also support life.
The following five geoscientific disciplines are involved in working
together to realize these goals:
Space and Planetary Sciences
Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences
Human Geosciences
Solid Earth Sciences
Biogeosciences
If we are able to thoroughly understand each of these disciplines
then we shall be able to make balanced progress in our study ofgeoscience as we have just described it. As the Japan Geoscience
Union is a comprehensive academic organization devoted tomaking such progress, it is organized into five sections, each section
corresponding to one of the fields above. The diagram on this page
outlines the future vision of each section and outlines the areas
where they should work together to achieve our goals.

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 06

宇宙惑星科学Space and Plane tary Scien ces Sectio n

What is Our Science Field?
The aim of the Space and Planetary Science
Section’ s activity is to understand the current
state of our solar system, and, in the future, tounderstand the fundamental rules governing
the structure and evolution of solar and planetary systems throughout the universe. The
study of the solar system involves the planets(their surfaces, interiors, hydrospheres, atmospheres, ionospheres and magnetospheres,) the
space plasma, the solar wind that blows againtthe planets and, of course, the Sun itself. Thisknowledge will tell us the current status of thesolar system in the universe chasing time, theEarth and the life upon it, and thereby we will
be able to understand its uniqueness anduniversality.

Recent Developments inSpace and Planetary Sciences
and Related Fields
As with other areas of geosciences, the spaceand planetary sciences have developed with ourincreasing ability to make direct observations
and measurements of phenomena of interest.

Our study of this field began with observations of the Earth’ s surface, and progressed as
we began to understand the interior of the
Earth and the atmosphere, ionosphere andmagnetosphere surrounding it. It further
developed as we became able to send spaceprobes, to explore other planetary systems andthe interplanetary space. A recent importantdevelopment has come with the successive
discoveries of various planets in outer solar
systems. We have discovered not only thatplanetary systems are relatively common, butalso that there are many such systems that arevery different from our own solar system, forexample in the case when a giant planet orbits
in close proximity to the mother star. Basedon these new observations we are currently
constructing a new theory of the formation ofplanetary systems. One of the predictions of
this is that there will be other planets that also
possess the oceans which is essential to theexistence of life on Earth.
In Japan a major development in space andplanetary science has come with our ability tosend exploratory missions to other planets andprimordial celestial bodies and to investigate
interplanetary space. As with other countries,

Temporal and spatial expansion of the Planetary Science07Giant gas planet orbiting in close proximity to
the mother star (image)©ESA, NASA, G. Tinetti (University College London, UK& ESA) and M. Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)

Japan began with space observations of the
Earth’ s ionosphere and magnetosphere andthen joined international collaborations toundertake space borne observations of the sun.
Concerning the Sun-Terrestrial environment,
following topics have been intensively studied,e.g., the transport of energy from the sun to
the Earth’ s magnetosphere; the time variationof the structure of the inner magnetosphere;
and the process of magnetic reconnection
which leads to particle acceleration giving rise
to solar flares and producing the auroras seen
on Earth. Japan feels justifiably proud of many
world-class contributions in these areas.
In the field of planetary exploration on theother hand Japan lagged more than 30 years
behind the leaders in the field, United States
and the former Soviet Union. However in the
1980s Japan joined with the European Space
Agency and the USSR in sending the Halley
Armada to observe Halley’ s comet. In more
recent years the Hayabusa and Kaguya missions have taken Japanese space exploration to
new levels. The Hayabusa mission exploredthe primordial celestial body Itokawa,provided proof of the reaccumulated rubble
pile comet model and returned the firstsample from an extraterrestrial body except
the moon. Kaguya was the largest moon mission since Apollo program. It was the first

Sample return capsule of HAYABUSA
and collected particle©JAXA

mission to map the entire lunar surface, andgenerated high-resolution images and detailed
topographic maps, gravity maps, maps of the
distributions of radioactive elements and mapsof the lunar magnetic field. These data will be
extremely useful for future lunar missions andprovided new information on both the originsof the differences between the moon’ s near andfar sides and on the composition of its mantle.
In 2015 the Japan’ s Venus orbiter Akatsuki
will go into orbit around Venus and begin toprovide detailed information of the motion of
the Venusian atmosphere, thereby helping toestablish the field of planetary meteorology.
Also in 2015 the ERG (Exploration of enegization and Radiation in Geospace) satellite isscheduled for launch. This mission is designed
to study the mechanisms whereby high-energy
particles are accelerated and slowed down inthe Van Allen radiation belt in the Earth’ sGeospace. Finally the Hayabusa 2 sample
return mission is due to be launched in the near
future, with the aim of providing a sample ofmaterial from a carbonaceous C-type asteroid.
Turning our eyes to the Earth, there has beenremarkable progress in research in the ionosphere and lower magnetosphere due to the
combination of data from a network of various ground based observatories and orbiting
satellites. We have been able to construct a
three dimensional picture of the Earth’ s magnetosphere from themicro to the macro
sc ale using r adarbased at the North
Pole, middle latitudes
and on the equator
together with a
network of geomagnetic, optical, GPSand short wave radarobser vatories. We
have analyzed thedata from thoseobservations assistedby the numericalexperiments andmodeling. Japanesesounding roc kets
have been sent into
the ionosphere to
study the mutualinteraction between
the neutral atmosphere and ionizedplasma. This research ties together space andplanetary science with the atmospheric andhydrospheric sciences, and, combined withnumerical modeling of the interactions
between the magnetosphere, ionosphere andatmosphere, has produced important results.
The research of the interactions between theatmosphere and the ionosphere is expanding
due to new data provided by the international
radar network consisting of the MU Radar in
Shigaraki, Japan, the Equatorial Atmosphere
Radar in Indonesia, the Antarctic PANSY
Radar and the Arctic EISCAT Radar. Thisknowledge has proved useful not only forproviding a universal understanding of themechanisms of planetary atmosphere variation,
but has also given rise to the new field ofnear-Earth space science.

Aurora shining in the sky above SHOWA Antarctic base (courtesy of Prof. Makoto Taguchi of
Rikkyo Univ.)

The Future of Our Study• Exploration of planetary atmospheres andmagnetospheres is developing and there areplans to send a number of probes to various
planets in the solar system. These will lead tothe study of both universal and specific phenomena in planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres.
• As more exoplanets are discovered, the new
field of astrobiology, which investigates
life-related or biological phenomena in thewider universe, is developing. The development of this new subject is likely to involve
cooperative work involving planetary science,
astronomy, plasma and atmospheric physics,
and the study of interactions between atmospheres and oceans, as well as evolutionary
history.
• Data provided by examination of extraterrestrial material brought back to Earth bysample return missions will, when combinedwith astronomical observations and input
from theories of planetary formation, lead to
substantial developments in the theory of theevolution of planetary systems. We should
remind the importance of the ground based
experiments that make these missions
possible.
We expect that space and planetary science
will continue to make great progress throughthe cooperation of many different researchers
working on exploratory missions, groundobservations, computer simulations, andlaboratory experiments.

Temporal and spatial expansion of the Space Plasma ScienceJ a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 08

大気水圏科学

Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences Section
09

About the Atmosphericand Hydrospheric
SciencesSection
The Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences
Section is concerned with the study of phenomena occurring at the Earth’ s surface
involving the atmosphere; oceans, rivers andlakes; and cryosphere. We aim to understandand explain past and current phenomena, tobe able to make predictions about the future.
The Earth’ s surface is the home of the
majority of life on this planet, including
human beings: therefore the study of theinteractions between the various spheres of
the Earth’ s surface and of the physical,
chemical and biological processes that occur
there is of great importance to society andnot merely an academic exercise.
As with other areas of geoscience, the atmospheric and hydrospheric sciences involve

both fundamental research in order to understand natural phenomena and also appliedresearch focused on alleviating environmental problems and mitigating natural disasters.
The pure and applied sides of the field each
influence the development of the other. For
example, there is a social need to researchphenomena such as typhoons and prolonged
heavy rain that can and do lead to large scale
natural disasters: our detailed understanding

Flood in Bangkok 2012

Various phenomena related to Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences

of these phenomena is based upon the studyof convective systems and the physics ofmoisture transport in the atmosphere. On
the other hand, the study of the water cycle
started as pure research, but given the current
deterioration in water environment, governments and societies now encourage appliedresearches from view point of ensuring soundhydrologic cycle.

Recent Developments in
Atmospheric andHydrospheric Sciences
and Related Fields
Currently the areas actively researched byatmospheric and hydrospheric scientists are
increasing at a great rate. Society faces manyenvironmental problems with much research
being focused on many important areas
including those connected with: moisturetransport such as clouds, precipitation, heavy
rain and typhoons; the interaction between
the oceans and the atmosphere; the internal
structure of the oceans; global warming and
its relation to human activity; the chemistryof aerosols and ozone in the atmosphere; thecarbon and nitrogen cycles; thermal circulation; the vegetation and ecology of theearth’ s surface (including the ice sheets). As
our understanding of these areas has deepened we have discovered that many of theseimportant phenomena strongly interact witheach other. Accordingly, in order to understand and make predictions about phenomena of interest, research must focus not juston the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, butrather treat the whole Earth as an integrated
system. Researchers must now involve themselves not just with science and engineering
but also consider social and economic issues
as well. Additionally there are important
points of contact with paleogeology, solar
physics and space and planetary sciences.

Program of the Antarctic Syowa MST/IS radar(PANSY) at Syowa Station and R/V Shirase

Currently Japan is one of the global leaders
in atmospheric and hydrospheric research.
Japan operates a wide net of land-based andocean-based obser vation facilities anddevelops both large scale surface-based andsatellite-based precision obser vational
instrumentation. Using these, researchers
have been able to study the historical development of a wide range of phenomena
ranging from micro- to macro-scale. This is
all suppor ted by the de velopment oflarge-scale computational facilities that areused to obtain quantitative spatiotemporal
understanding of phenomena by advanced
numerical modeling.

The Future
In view of the many issues that we face, inthe future a wide range of continuous highprecision measurements and model-based
analysis of the resulting data will be more
and more necessary. In order to do this wemust consolidate and extend our networks(both surface and satellite based) that monitor climate, weather, oceans, hydrosphere,
cr yosphere and ecosystem in order toconstruct more detailed and reliable data.
Further, it is important to extend ourunderstanding of phenomena which are
unique to each region of the globe: inparticular in Asia a wide range of environmental conditions exist, and many of theselead to phenomena which have a large

Aerosol Radiative Forcing in East Asia (A-FORCE)
aircraft campaign

Global Change Observation Mission 1st - Water
satellite “SHIZUKU”

impact on human activity.
Research direction and organizations
worldwide realize that atmospheric andhydrospheric sciences are of fundamental
importance to build a sustainable humansociety and to be able to make predictions
about that society. In Japan there has beenremarkable progress in global warming simulation and climate modeling using the Earth
Simulator System and the K Computer,
with, for example, world leading research on
cloud convection using an ultra fine resolution global non-hydrostatic model tocorrectly predict dynamics. We must continue to build on Japanese excellence in computing and technology in order to further
advance atmospheric and hydrosphericsciences, and thereby combine experimental
observation with advanced modeling in orderto provide the important information about
natural phenomena that society needs.

SuperDARN radar observations

Polar ozone observations

EISCAT radars
Auroral particle andspectroscopic
observation
network

Satellite communications
Observations of low-latitude aurora
Atmospheric aerosol observations
Equatorial
electromagnetic
observations
Upper
atmosphereobservationsin theWest Paciﬁc

EquatorObservations of aerosolaeandclimate change
Observations of cosmic raysand solar neutron

Electromagnetic observations
along the 210-deg.
magnetic meridian

Oceanographic Research Vessel Mirai and Tropical AtmosphereOcean/ Triangle Trans-Ocean buoy Network (TAO/TRITON)The 3,035m deepest ice core at Antarctic Dome Fuji

Various upper atmosphere observations

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 10

地球人間圏科学

Hum an Geos cienc es Secti on
11

About the Human
Geosciences Section
The Human Geosciences Section isconcerned with the science of investigating in the natural phenomena that
occur on the surface of the Earth andtheir relations with human activities.
The Section is involved both in theacademic development of this interdisciplinary field, and in practicalefforts to mitigate disasters such as
the Great East Japan Disaster triggered by the earth quake/tsunami of
11th March 2011, and to alleviate
environmental problems such as thoserelated with global warming.

Human geoscience research is characterized by its wide views and skills
rooted in many disciplines of naturalsciences, engineering and social sciences with particular attention on theobser vation and prediction of thespatial/regional aspects of the phenomena. For this reason the researchoften involves field survey observation,measurement, recording and mapping,followed by data compilation, storage,
management, analyses and modelingin order to make predictions and to
give advice to the society on policy.
While concerned with natural phenomena, we are particularly interested in theorigin and evolution of phenomena that
impact the human environment. Humangeoscience has connections with many
fields of geoscience, namely physicalgeography, geomorphology, geology,
applied geology, soil science, sedimentology, seismology, volcanology, quaternar y research, oceanography andhydrology. It also has strong connections with humanities and social
sciences including human geography,
economics, political sciences, archaeology and history, and with agriculturalsciences, engineering related withdisaster prevention or mitigation.
These are all important fields forunderstanding mechanisms of disasters
and environmental problems and forevaluating the associated risks comprehensively, and then proposing strategies for their mitigation,

Recent Development of
Human Geosciences andRelated Fields
Human Geosciences see the natureand the environment not only as
natural phenomena, but also as part ofman-environment system, with special
focus on causes and results of theirchanges, their future prospects andmeasures to be taken to counter unwanted changes.
Our understanding of the relationshipbetween human society and the environment has been progressing enormously in recent years. For example,
as progress has been made in reading
data obtained from sampling of theocean floor and the ice caps, we areLand feature of native Americans’reserve in Utah, USA

now able to compare climate
variation during the ice ages,
the Holocene, and the periodof recorded history. Comparing
these data with the history ofhuman civilizations is a hot
area of research now. Evidence of liquefaction and geological and geomorphologicalexamination of sediments leftby tsunamis have provided
Survey of 2008 Sichuan Earthquake site, China
much information about thescale and frequency of the pastearthquakes and tsunamis.
Thanks to the increasing cooperation of natural scientists,
engineers and social scientists,
new fields of disaster prevention and mitigation are now
emerging. The mechanisms oflandslides, land collapse or
debris flows caused by earthquakes or severe rainfall havebeen studied by using netLand use survey in China
works of GPS-based observations, and are now understoodto the point where a warning
system of these disasters arenearing operational levels. In
the field of social sciences, therelationships of disaster,
regional information bases
and social structure is underinvestigation. Other hot issues
include land use planning andrisk assessment. Significant
progress is being made in
Spatial analysis aided by GIS, Spaindeveloping techniques forinvestigating undergroundwater and managing its pollution; forand mitigate these problems, and to seek
exploring and developing underground‘science for Society’. Accordingly, theoil and gas; and for exploring and develHuman Geosciences Section aims notoping mineral resources on the ocean
only to consolidate this new academic
floor. And finally in the area of renewdiscipline, but also to organize symposia
able energy, research on solar power,
and other events for education and lifewind power, wave power and geotherlong learning. Finally, by participating inmal power continues to make great
the new international framework forprogress.
global environmental research of “Future
Earth” and by actively promoting a unified approach to natural disaster research
The Futureand disaster mitigation research we hope
Many of the pressing problems mankind
to make a contribution to the creation of
faces now, such as environmental proba sustainable human society.
lems, large scale disasters, problems
related with land use, coastal manageThe field of human geosciences isment, natural resources, and food, are all
attracting much attention both insubjects of human geoscience. The
Japan and wor ldwide. The JpGU
Human Geosciences Section aims to
Human Geosciences Section intends
work altogether with the many sciento help build this new field and realize
tists from various disciplines who are
its potential to become an essential
making effort to understand, confront
field of research for the modern world.

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 12

固体地球科学

Solid Earth Scien ces Sectio n

About the Solid Earth
Science Section
The Solid Earth Science Section is concerned with understanding phenomena
associated with planet Earth, from its solid
surface to its center, covering timescales

Structures and dynamics of Earth's interior(Image courtesy of Dr. Eiji OHTANI)

from its formation to the present day.
Solid Earth science originally developed
from foundations provided by geophysics,
geology, mineralogy and geochemistry. In
recent years increasing cooperation
between these disciplines has helped toadvance our understanding of the Earth.
In the following we give examples ofimportant topics of research in solid
Earth science: short timescale phenomena occurring in the Earth’ s crust or
upper mantle such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and active
deformation of the Earth’ s crust; longer
timescale phenomena occurring at the
Earth’ s surface such as topography formation, mountain building (orogeny)
and the movement and evolution ofcontinents and oceans due to tectonic
processes; phenomena involving the(Image courtesy of Dr. Takeshi Iinuma, Dr. Michihiko Nakamura, Dr. Hidenori Terasaki,
Dr. Masayuki Obayashi, Dr. Yoshio Fukao, PALEOMAP Project, Arlington, Texas)13Eruption of Mount Semeru in Indonesia

Mantle rocks exposed to the surface: the Horoman Ultramaﬁc Rocks(Image courtesy of Dr. Satoshi OKUMURA)

deep mantle and Earth’ s core, including
their interactions, and transport ofenergy and material; investigations of
the state and structure of the mantle
and core; the dynamics of the Earth’ sinterior, including mantle convection
and the geodynamo; the relationshipbetween processes in the Earth’ s interior and their effects on the surface fluidlayers; and unified studies of the evolution of the solid Earth that incorporate
all the above processes. This list emphasizes the extraordinary breadth of disciplines encompassed by the Solid Earth
Science section.

Recent Developments in
Solid Earth Science andRelated Fields
In the past ten years or so, much progresshas been made in the study of phenomena occurring in the relatively shallow
regions of the Earth’ s interior. Some
important examples are given below.

(Image courtesy of Department of Earth Science, Tohoku University)

1. In earthquake studies a combination of
the deployment of dense observation
networks of both seismic stations andGPS geodetic sites with improved
data management and processing
alongside developments in experimental studies and numerical modelling
have brought many new insights. In
particular there has been great progress in understanding the earthquakes, crustal deformation andlow-frequency tremors that ooccur atconvergent plate boundaries. As wewill discuss later, it is also clear that
accur ate ear thquake prediction
remains a very difficult problem.
2. In volcanology there has been significant progress in the three-dimensionalmodeling of eruption column dynamics and understanding of magma
degassing and eruption styles. By drilling into volcanic conduits shortly after
eruption the relationship between
magma ascent and degassing has

Folding of rocks (image courtesy of Department of Earth and Planetary
Sciences, Nagoya University)

became clearer. Our ability to forecast
volcanic eruptions based on observations of volcanic earthquakes andground deformation has greatly
improved.
3. In areas related to the transport ofmatter and energy in the Earths interior there has been progress in understanding of the large-scale transport ofwater and continental material to thedeep mantle and its rise from the
Earth’ s interior; in understanding of
the contribution of oceanic crustal
material to magma generation; inunderstanding of the role of hydrothermal activity in material transport;
in the quantitative understanding of
the growth of accretionary prisms
using data from deep sea drilling; andin research into seismically active belts
exposed on land.
4. In fields related to the interactions
between the solid Earth and its atmo-

The double seismic zone (Image courtesy of Research Center for Prediction ofEarthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University)

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 14

Solid Earth Sciences

mic velocity structure in the Earth.
4. The discovery thatthe formation of the
Earth’ s core took
the comparatively
short time of a few
tens of millions ofyears.

Synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy

sphere and oceans, there have been
advances in understanding the ways inwhich the uplift of the Himalayas has
influenced the Asian monsoon andthe development of drastic changes
between dry and humid climates; therelationships recorded in the Earth’ sgeological record between global
climate change—including Snowball
Earth and greenhouse climates—andtectonic processes (movement of thelithosphere) including development ofmountain ranges and distribution ofoceans and continents; and transportand circulation of material in the
Earth’ s interior.
There have also been numerous important research achievements that improve
our understanding of dynamical processes occurring in the deep Earth:
1. Ground breaking research in Japan
recreated the temperatures and pressures of the lowermost mantle anddiscovered the post-perovskite phase.

Although solid Earthscience has mademuch progress in theareas outlined above,it is clear that major problems remain in
the fields of earthquake forecasting anddisaster prevention: this was made horribly clear by the enormous damage andloss of life caused by the 2011 Tohoku
earthquake and tsunami. The current
state of earthquake research does not
permit us to use our knowledge oflong-term earthquake activity to makesufficiently accurate medium-term predictions. It is clearly important to further incorporate geological timescale
records of earthquakes and tsunamis in
our disaster prediction efforts. It is also
clear that developlement and construction of high-precision earthquake andtsunami observation networks on theseafloor and high-speed data transmission to carry warnings to the generalpublic remain as important as ever.

two of the greatest problems it faces are
the forecast of large earthquakes andany accompanying tsunamis, and thedevelopment of disaster mitigation
strategies to deal with them when they
happen. A major task facing the discipline is to continue the cooperative
research between seismologists andgeologists in this area. In recent years inJapan, drilling in the Nankai Troughand the hypocentral region of the
Tohoku earthquake has started to elucidate the state of faults in the ocean
trench megathrust earthquake zone, andwe anticipate that our understanding of
the slip mechanism of these seismic
faults will improve considerably. Finally
we would like to highlight the importance of the international scientific proposal to make use of a Japanese drillingship to drill into and retrieve samples
from the mantle.

As discussed above, the solid Earthscience community is fully aware thatIn the field of volcanology, we expect tofurther clarify the behaviour of bothmagma and associated fluids and to use
this to develop eruption models or scenarios that allow improved accuracy inthe understanding of how volcanic
eruptions evolve which, we hope, can beused to realize the development of accurate short-term predictions of volcanic
eruptions. Furthermore, we expect
research in volcanology to expand tocover longer timescales and greater spatial extents and thereby to provide new
insights into the e volution of the
Earth’ s crust and into the dynamics oflarge-scale energy and material circulation within the Earth.

Drilling the seismogenic zone at Nankai Trough©JAMSTECThe Future

2. High-pressure experiments indicatethat the mantle transition zone is thelargest possible water reservoir inside
the Earth and great progress has been
made in our understanding of watertransport associated with plate subduction; of large-scale water circulation in the Earth’ s interior; and ofwater distribution in the lower mantle.
3. Developments in seismic tomography
have revealed details of the three
dimensional heterogeneity of the seis-15

Deep sea scientiﬁc drilling vessel CHIKYU

Research overlapping the boundaries
between the solid Earth science andother disciplines, such as the interaction
between tectonics and climate change
and even links to biological evolution
should also be encouraged.

©JAMSTEC

Laterally high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometer(image courtesy of Dr. Yuji SANO)

deep in the Earth’ s mantle and core.
• We expect the application of new
observational techniques borrowed
from physics to enable new progress inmany areas. For example the observation of the Earth’ s interior using geoneutrinos and muons should allow us
to measure the inhomogeneity of the
distribution of heat sources within the
Earth; and muon imagery of volcanic
edifices should improve our ability tomonitor associated volcanic activity.

materials should all be useful in planetary exploration and analyses of materials brought back by sample return
space missions.
• Ultra high-pressure materials research
and first principles calculations developed for the study of the Earth’ s interior are likely to be useful for research
into the interior structure and dynamics
of Jupiter-type planets and exoplanets.
• Application of recently developed
high-precision heavy element stable
isotope analytical techniques to geological specimens will allow interpretation of the paleoclimate in muchgreater detail than is presently possible,
and this is likely to lead to improvements in the accuracy of our forecastsof the future climate.
• Nanoscale sample analysis techniques
will allow progress in elemental(including light element) and molecularisotopic analysis and biomarker analysis
that will provide constraints for modelsof the evolution of life on Earth.

We expect research into dynamical processes occurring in the deep Earth to
make progress on a number of fronts:• Recent improvements in seismic, electromagnetic and geodetic observations
made on the ocean floor should further
clarify the three dimensional characterWe also expect that the use of techniques
istics of the Earth’ s interior.
developed in solid Earth science will
• Ultra high-pressure material scienceenable progress in other related fields.
now allows us to experimentally repliFor example:
cate conditions in the Earth’ s core.
• Spectroscopic analysis and precision
Using the quantum theory of electronic
image analysis of the surfaces of otherstructure to determine electron distriplanets; techniques used for measuring
bution allows us to calculate many magravity, heat flow, electrical conductivity
terial properties from first principles.
and seismic wave velocity distribution
Combining these techniques shouldthat were developed in solid Earthgive a much better understanding of
science; innovative techniques ofthe properties of material in the Earth’ schemical analysis developed for earth
deep interior and allow us
to develop detailed explanations of the processes
occurring in the mantle
and the core.
• The study of flow related
phenomena in ultra
high-pressure solids andliquids together with theobservation thereof using
high luminosity X-ray
and neutron sources is
expected to increase ourunderstanding of the
The multi-anvil high pressure apparatus installed in a neutron
extreme environments
CPU of K computer (Courtesy of Fujitsu)
beamline of J-PARC (Image courtesy of Dr. Takehiko YAGI)

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 16

地球生命科学

Bioge oscien ces Sectio n

About theBiogeosciences Section
The Biogeosciences Section is concernedwith investigating and clarifying the processes whereby the Earth and the livingorganisms on it strongly interact as theyco-evolve. We research these processes forthe entire period from the beginning of
the Earth up to the present, and would
like to give answers to the following kindsof questions:• Why does life flourish on Earth?
• Why is life on Earth so abundant andso diverse?
• Is there life on other planets?
• How did life on Earth originate, complexify and diversify?
• What are the causes and processes governing extinctions and in particularmass extinctions?
We are also interested in the organic ma-

17terials that are found in rocks, strata, andother geological formations, and in thebiogeochemical processes whereby theymutually interact with rocks and minerals. The Biogeosciences also involve
research into the origins of fossil fuels
derived from living organisms such ascoal, natural gas, oil, and gas hydrates.
The field of biogeosciences has maderemarkable progress as the related fields
of Earth, Planetary and Life Sciencesdevelop. For instance, progress in thefields of Archaean Geology, Geochemistry, Geoelectromagnetism, Geomicrobiology, Drilling sciences, and several otherareas of earth and planetary sciences havebeen indispensable in the study of theorigins of life on Earth and its evolution
dur ing the Ear th’ s ear liest stages.
Experiments using the techniques ofsynthetic organic chemistry and of generecombination have made great progress

in understanding the composition andevolution of living material, and this has
also promoted progress in the field ofbiogeosciences. Fur ther, complete
genome sequences of organisms frommany different taxa and increased knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of
metabolism have allowed progress in our
understanding of the e volution of
eukaryotes. Finally our understanding of
the origin of life has advanced due to thediscovery of primitive organisms living in
extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents, cold seepages, anoxic or euxinic water masses, the ultra-hadal depth
beyond 10,000m and deep subsurface
biospheres.

Recent Developments in
Biogeosciences andRelated Fields

We list below some of the importantresearch results and advances that are
made over the last decade.
1. It has become clear that the contribution of organic material from extraterrestrial sources is important when
considering the question of how bioorganic compounds were produced
and organized by abiotic processes.
Further, the study of chemical evolution has advanced with the verificationthat acetates are produced by theaction of sulfur metal complexes interrestrial hydrothermal environments.
2. Analysis of organic material
from meteorites and comets
has led to a detailed debate
about the connections
b e t we e n e x t r a t e r re s t r i a lorganic material and life.
3. Research into extremophiles
o n E a r t h a n d d a t a f ro m
planetary exploration missions has caused increased
interest in the possibility thatlife may exist on other planets and moons in the solar
system such as Mars, Europa,
Titan, and Enceladus.
4. The idea that life on Earthoriginated due to chemical
reactions taking place deep inthe oceans (rather than photochemical processes taking
place on or near the Earth’ ssurface) has been gaining
increased support.
5. DNA analyses have allowed
the construction of a mo-lecular genealogical tree, and this hasrevealed that very early in its history
life was already divided into threegroups: Bacteria, archaea and eukarya.
6. A new field, research into subsurface
biospheres, is developing. Resultsfrom this field tell us much about theearly evolution of life.
7. It is becoming clear that the increasing
diversity of life on Earth is connectedwith events (including geologicalevents) that have occurred in the
Earth’ s history.
8. Both evolution and extinction of
eukaryotes are driven by changes inthe environment on the Earth’ s surface and it has become clear that thisin turn is influenced by internal plate
and plume activities of the Earth andby t h e re p e a t e d u n i fi c a t i on a n dbreakup of continents and oceans overgeologic history.

The Future

We expect that the following three areas
will be central to biogeoscience researchin the near future:
1. Clarifying the early evolution of life,
understanding how the Earth becamea suitable planet to host life, andincreasing our understanding of theorigin of life. Research into organicand biochemical processes occurring inspace and on other bodies in the solar
system will surely help our attempts toanswer these questions. For example,
in addition to looking for new life in
extreme environments on Earth weshould also search for direct evidenceof the birth of some form of life inprimitive extraterrestrial environments(such as asteroids, comets, Europa,
Titan, Enceladus etc.).
2. By describing and recording the entire
history of life on Earth we shouldattempt to further clarify why the
Earth came to be filled with such adiverse range of life. We should also
work to decode the entire genome
sequences of model organisms that are
key to understand the process of biotic
evolution.
3. By c larifying the distribution ofelements and material in the Earthand in living organisms we should be
able to clarify the relationship between
the evolution of the systems of material cycles in and on the Earth and theenergy sources for the chemical reactions involved in abiogenesis.
The new field of Biogeosciences involves
cooperating with the life sciences to push
the frontiers in a number of areas (suchas deep-sea exploration, space exploration and drilling deep into the Earth)and develop new experimental apparatus
and analysis techniques. Great progresshas already been made in this field. We
are sure that the field of Biogeosciences
will become one of core geoscientificfields in the near future.

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 18

Educational andOutreach Activities
The JpGU is very interested in improving the general public understanding ofgeoscience. We conduct educational
outreach activities aimed at high school
students and the general public, and arealso involved in public relations onbehalf of the geoscience community.
We hope that by communicating geoscientific knowledge we can improvegeneral scientific literacy. We also wish
to inform the public of the role thatgeoscientific research plays in the life ofsociety and in forming humanities
worldview.
For example, the JpGU is involved in
the development of primar y, juniorhigh and high school curricula, thetraining and ongoing education ofteachers, and university and graduate
school education. It actively engages
with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology bysubmitting wishes and proposals for
new education guidelines for schools.
The most important task is to work withschools in order to improve both thelevel and the spread of basic geoscientificknowledge in the general public. Japan is
faced with many natural disasters, but it
is important not only to focus on these
but also to raise awareness of the various
environmental problems that we all face.
In order to achieve these goals we must
be involved not only with the educationof pupils in schools, but also with thetraining and the ongoing education ofteachers. Further we must help with theprovision of engaging teaching materials

19

and popular scientific literature explaining new geoscientific opinions andpoints of view. In 2005 guidelines were
published outlining educational goals foruniversities, and in the light of these it isimportant to show a model of geoscience education that covers the wholeprocess from primary school to university.
Further with the increasing number ofstudy units required by universities andthe lengthening of the teacher training
period it has become difficult or impossible for science students to get a teachers license. This threatens to lower thelevel of science teaching in the future,and the JpGU is working with otherscientific and mathematical societies by
setting up a committee to address problems in science education: by working
together we hope to improve math andscience education across the board rather
than focusing on math, physics, chemistry, biology and earth science individually. The JpGU also holds an annual
symposium for everyone involved inearth science education in order to help
improve mutual understanding.
Since 2006 the JpGU has been holding
a poster session for high school studentsAwarding ceremony of
Poster presentations by senior high school students

Poster presentations by senior high school students

as part of its Annual Meeting. In thissession students prepare posters describing their geoscientific research. Recently
there have been about 70 posters by students from about 40 schools from allover Japan, but the numbers increase
every year and there have been somevery high quality presentations. The
JpGU also works with the Japanesecommittee of the International Geography Olympiad to help to organize theInternational Geography Olympiad andInternational Earth Science Olympiad

the International Earth Science Olympiad as well as the domestic selection
meeting to choose Japanese teams.
The JpGU also conducts various outreach programs aimed at the generalpublic. For example we hold a number ofpublic sessions at the JpGU Annual
Meeting that anyone can attend for free:
the poster session for high school students mentioned earlier is one such
example. The program for these sessions
varies from year to year, but we like toplan symposia concerned with popular
topics or social issues such as Geoparksor geoscience education. At every meeting we also hold two or three “Geoscience Top Seminars” present some of thevery latest geoscience research results inan easy-to-understand format. Since2013 these seminars have been videoed
and made available for viewing on theinternet. We also offer sessions aimed athigh school and undergraduate students
where they can ask undergraduate andgraduate students questions about geo-

Public Lectures in 2012

International Geography Olympiad

science, and where graduate students
offer advice about geoscience careers.
Recently we have also been holding apublic lecture meeting in the autumn
and videos of these lectures are madeavailable on the internet. We also participate in Science Agora (a government
sponsored program in Japan where
members of the general public can meetand discuss science related issues withexperts), and arrange for geoscience specialists to give lectures at public and private functions. In the wake of the 2011
Tohoku earthquake and tsunami the
JpGU together with the National
Museum of Emerging Science andInnovation set up a web based Q&A
session where members of the public
could ask questions and hear expert
opinion on earthquakes, tsunamis andissues concerning radioactive fallout
from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
accident. Finally we are involved inmany smaller projects, such as working
with the Hitachi Environment Foundation on the Environmental Science Café
(where scientists discuss environmental
issues with the public
in a Café setting) orwith Yokohama city on
their plans for educating young people.
Finally, as part of ourpublicity activities wepublish the journal

Japan Geoscience Letters, which is
aimed at geoscience professionals andinterested members of the public. Each
edition discusses the latest geoscience

Japan Geoscience Letters (JGL)

trends and then focuses on two or three
new topics that are discussed by experts
in an easy-to-understand fashion. The
journal is available for free to membersof the public and is also available at the
National Museum of Emerging Scienceand Innovation and other selected museums.
In this way we at the JpGU aim to
improve geoscience education andunderstanding. We hope to expand these
activities in the future by providing moreinternet based popular science articles
and instructional materials.

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 20

The History of
the Japan Geoscience
Union
The history of the JpGU starts in1990. After a number of trials in the
1980s, five of the current JpGU’ smember societies held a joint meeting of geoscience related societies in
April 1990. O ver 1,000 people
attended this meeting and it
became clear that there was a needto hold this kind of event on a regular basis. As a result several of thesocieties agreed to hold an annual
joint meeting and a liaison committee was set up to coordinate communication between the societies
and to prepare for the meeting.
Each of the universities took turns
to set up an organizing committee
for that year’ s meeting, and theannual joint meeting started to be
held. By 1996 ten member societies
participated and there were over
2,000 attendees. But as the meetinggrew it became difficult to find suitably large conference facilities, andthe burden on the university organizing committees became greaterand greater. The 1998 joint meeting
was the first to take place not on auniversity campus but was instead
held at the Yoyogi National Olympics Memorial Youth Center. Also

21

that year the participating societies
stopped holding their own meeting
sessions and the meeting became
organized around common sessions:
it moved from being a jointly organized meeting to become a single
meeting for everyone involved in allof the fields of geoscience. In 2001 amajor development occurred when
the Geoscience Joint Annual Meeting Administration Organization
was set up as the permanent organization to manage the meeting. Now
a single body was responsible bothfor running the annual meeting andfor handling communication between the member societies. From2003 the meeting was held every
May at the Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex somethirty kilometers east of central
Tokyo. The number of participants
and the number of presentations
continued to grow every year.
The event that finally led to the formation of the JpGU was the 2005
reorganiz ation of the S cience
Council of Japan. Due to this reorganization, the existing system of
having a separate scientific council
for each subject was abandoned anda need arose for a new scientificcouncil to cover all of geoscience
including geology, mineralogy, geophysics and geography. A working
group was set up to ensure cooperation between the various geoscience
related societies and, after muchdebate, the Japan Geoscience Union
was launched at the May 2005
Geoscience Joint Annual Meeting.
At its launch the JpGU had 24
member societies, but this number
has steadily increased and presently
there are 50 JpGU member societies. The Joint Annual Meeting was
renamed the Japan Geoscience
Union Annual Meeting, and under
this new name it continued to grow.
At the 2013 meeting about 7,000
people attended 180 sessions where
about 4,000 papers were presented.
In 2008 the legal rules governing
c o r p o r a t e o r g a n i z a t i o n s w e rechanged, and the JpGU took thisopportunity to become a generalincorporated association. In 2011 it
was recognized as a public benefit
incorporated association.
The Japan Geoscience Union is anumbrella organization that contains
member societies devoted to fields
including geophysics, geology, mineralogy and geography. There is noequivalent body in any other country. We aim to serve the Japanese
geoscience community by helping
to build mutual understanding, bycollecting opinions and by creatingconsensus. At the same time wefunction as a contact point for communicating information and proposals to both governmental organizations and wider society.

Date

Meeting
Title

Location

Number of
Meeting Committee Number of Member Sessions/ Number
ChairmanSocieties Present of International
Sessions

SpecialSessions

Tokyo Instituteof Technology

Masaru Kono

5

44 / 0S11991 April 2-5

Kyoritsu Women's
University

Katsuhiko Ishibashi

550 / 0S31992 April 7-10

Kyoto University

Norihiko Sumitomo

5(Symposium
co-hosts 3)

46 / 0S41993 March 19-22

Tokyo
Metropolitan
University

Kashio Ishikawa

47 / 0S7

Tohoku University

Kenichiro Aoki

55 / 0S8Nihon University

Isamu Nagao

51 / 0S862 / 0S860 / 0S81994 March 20-23
1995 March 27-30
1996 March 26-29
1997 March 25-28
1998 May 26-29

Japan Earth and Planetary Science Joint Meeting1990 April 5-8

Osaka University Takamitsu Yamanaka
Nagoya University

Katsuro Ogawa

6(Symposium
co-hosts 6)
7(Symposium
co-hosts 6)
8(Symposium
co-hosts 6)
10(Symposium
co-hosts 4)
11(Symposium
co-hosts 5)
15

57 / 0Hideki Shimamura

16

63 / 0

Takeru Yanagi

1753 / 0Mitsuhiro Matsuura

18

88 / 02002 May 27-31

Gaku Kimura

19

86 / 02003 May 26-29

Hiroshi Shimizu

19

83 / 0U 1, SS 1

2004 May 9-13

Kazuro Hirahara

20(Supporters 5)

87 / 0U 2, SS 1

2005 May 22-26

Yozo Hamano

25(Supporters 8)

110 / 0U 2, SS 6

2006 May 14-18

Toshitaka Tsuda

40(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 8)

109 / 0

U 4, SS 42007 May 19-24

Toshitaka Tsuda

46(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 8)

134 / 4

U 3, P 6

Naomoto Iwagami

47(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 8)

135 / 7

U 4, P 6

Naomoto Iwagami

48(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 8)

134 / 9

U 4, P 4

Kazuro Hirahara

48(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 7)

167 / 32

U 4, P 3

Noritaka Yagasaki

48(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 7)

174 / 41

U 9, P 4

Noritaka Yagasaki

48(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 7)

177 / 42

U 7, P 4

Akira Ishiwatari

49(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 7)

180 / 42

U 7, P 5

Tatsuo Oji

50(Co-sponsors 4)(Supporters 7)

194 / 44

U 10, P 7

1999 June 8-11
2000 June 25-28
2001 June 4-8

2008 May 25-30

2009 May 16-21

2010 May 23-28

2011 May 22-27

2012 May 20-25

Japan Geoscience Union Meeting

Masaru Kono
National
Olympics
Memorial
Youth Center

Makuhari
Messe

2013 May 19-24

2014 April 28-May 2

PaciﬁcoYokohama

Notes
Working committee for Japan Earth andPlanetary Science Joint Meeting established.
1990 Western Paciﬁc Geophysics Meeting
held in Kanazawa.

Introduction of formal system fororganizing joint meeting
23rd General Assembly of theInternational Union of Geodesy
and Geophysics held in Sapporo

JpGU Founded on May 25th.

JpGU becomes a generalincorporated association on
December 1st.

JpGU becomes a public interest
incorporated association on
December 1st.

Special Session codes:S Symposium, U Union session, SS Special session, P Public session

J a p a n G e o s c i e n c e U n i o n 22

Japan Geoscience Union
Gakkai Center Bldg. 4F
4-16 Yayoi 2-chome, Bunkyo-ku, 113-0032, Tokyo
Phone: +81-3-69142080
FAX: +81-3-69142088
http://www.jpgu.org/
Email:oﬃce@jpgu.org