On April 1st, I took over the role of chief director of the Japan Prosthodontic Society (JPS) from Dr. Akagawa. I feel an immense responsibility for overseeing JPS. I will do my best with the cooperation and support of all our members.

First of all, I would like to reconfirm the purpose of our society. It is described clearly in the articles of our incorporation that the purpose of the JPS is to attempt the advancement and spread of Prosthodontics in order to contribute to the improvement of the public health welfare. To accomplish this purpose, we have been organizing our scientific meetings and/or open citizens’ lectures under the main theme of “Long life and good health cultivated by occlusion and mastication” for several years. We have also been making efforts to familiarize prosthodontics and prosthodontic treatments, which contribute to a long life, good health and a better QOL for ordinary people.

It has become well known that health problems and the problems of the elderly are important matters in several advanced countries due to the increasing number of elderly people. To solve these problems, the home visit medical service has newly added to both the outpatient and inpatient care. Moreover, the rehabilitative medicine has been appreciated more than therapeutic and preventive medicine. These revolutions come from necessity. However, the improvement and the remediation of morphological defects and the functional disability of the stomatognathic system caused by teeth loss etc. have been the main field of prosthodontics and/or prosthodontic treatments for a long time. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the ultimate target of prosthodontics and/or prosthodontic treatments is maintenance and improvement of QOL. Now is the best time to appeal the importance of prosthodontics and prosthodontic treatments.

Prosthodontics and prosthodontic treatments are based on wide range of life sciences and a preventive science. I think that it is a significant goal for prosthodontics as a health science to achieve the maintenance and improvement of health investigating the influence of various elements surrounding life by a scientific investigation using a combined body, psychological, social approach. For this reason, various committees will act under the JPS leadership this term.

The medical committee, which generalized the past dental service problem committee, social insurance committee and guideline committee, was set up newly. The research activities committee was also set up. The rationale for setting up these committees is to collect and collate scientific evidence concerning the role that prosthodontic treatment plays in health, and to reflect on the opinions of the academic society of the dental care system and the policies in this country. The medical committee will try to collaborate with similar organizations in every prefecture and/or local dental associations, as well as every dental school's social insurance committee.

We will keep working to acquire the authorization of the advertisement of prosthodontic specialist from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and we are aiming at a quick achievement of this goal. I think that the practice of an appropriate prosthodontic treatment by a prosthodontic specialist will surely become a large benefit for people suffering from dentures problems and/or troubles of temporomandibular joint disorder, etc. I also think that the recovery of the stomatognathic function from applying enough prosthodontic knowledge and the technology is directly connected to maintenance and improvement of QOL.

Further improvement in scientific meetings is needed for the construction and promotion of prosthodontics based on health sciences. It is necessary to hold a joint meeting with a domestic society closely related to our academic society, and to contribute to the improvement of the quality of the entire dental services in our country. For these purposes, the scientific committee will plan a range of projects. The editorial committee, which issues the academic journal, tries especially to secure of the manuscripts for the English journal, Prosthodontic Research & Practice (PRP) and to improve contents. We aim at collection of PRP to Pub Med. The education committee will review the dental education model core curriculum, and survey the situation concerning clinical technologies of undergraduate students and clinical trainee doctors. The nomenclature committee is going to revise the Glossary of Prosthodontic Terms.

It is very important for the JPS to inform to the general public that prosthodontic treatments based on prosthodontics make a contribution to dietary education, QOL and healthy, long lives. For this purpose, the activities of present publicity committee and the committee for collaboration with community are necessary, and these two committees have to cooperate closely. In this term, both committees were integrated. And the department of homepage newsletter and the department for promoting cooperation with the public were newly established.

It is necessary to discuss further development of branch societies of the JPS with annual meetings for reinforcement by the headquarters society. It is essential that our branch scientific meetings are held in cooperation with each prefecture’s dental association and other academic organizations including dental schools. Case presentations for prosthodontic specialist in branch scientific meetings should be further promoted to increase the understanding of prosthodontics. Enhancing the branch activities is expected to lead to the development of a specialist system. For this, cooperation of the scientific committee and the committee for specialist system is necessary.

The international liaison committee will examine further academic exchanges with overseas academic societies, such as the Asian Academy of Prosthodontics (AAP), the Korean Academy of Prosthodontics (KAP), the Greater New York Academy of Prosthodontics (GNYAP) and the International College of Prosthodontists (ICP). As you know, the JPS signed the academic exchange agreements with the Chinese Prosthodontic Society (CPS) and the Indian Prosthodontic Society (IPS), in the previous year. It is advantageous to promote mutual academic exchanges, and to boldly and steadily send research results to the rest of the world. We have to make successes of the AAP Meeting in Kobe this May, the ICP Meeting in Fukuoka in September, the GNYAP Joint Meeting in Daiba-Tokyo this October, and the 117th JPS Scientific Meeting, which will be co-hosted by the KAP, in Nagoya in July next year. I would like to invite many CPS members and IPS members to the 117th JPS Scientific Meeting.

The by-law committee will coordinate the development of rules for newly established committees, as well as review existing rules of other committees. The finance committee will oversee the sound finance of our society. The special command matter director was appointed to deal with urgent problems.

The average age of the directors this term is about 53 years old, and this is about 4 years old younger than the first term. I will focus younger energy, and make every effort to enhance and develop our society. We should completely fulfill our responsibilities and obligations as a trusted public service corporation.