The 87th Annual Meeting for the Physiological Society of Japan is scheduled in 19th to 21st on May 2010 at the MALIOS and Aiina (multi-use cultural and activities center for use by all citizens of Iwate Prefecture) in Morioka, Iwate in the northern part of Japan. On behalf of the executive committee, we would like to invite all of you to the Annual Meeting.

　The main theme of this meeting is entitled “Integrated dynamism of the production, differentiation, regeneration, and homeostasis in the human body”. We call for excellent reports presenting new evidence and concepts in a variety of studies on the understanding of the human body based on the developing and advanced methodology as well as on very traditional and historical ways. Although no one doubts that the present situation of the downturn in the world economy is affecting not only our daily life but also our research conditions, it should be a time to reinvigorate our capabilities and thoughts for research.

　Based on the background of the exhaustive and comprehensive analysis of the gene and proteins developed recently, medicine will continue to accelerate remarkable advances in diagnosis and therapeutics in the near future. However, in addition to unveiling unsolved problems in medicine, it is also the era for human beings to understand themselves more deeply. Referring to the crisis of the world economy, ongoing wars in the world, and to the severe and unexpected changes in the earth’s environment, all these unfortunate events are certainly the products of various activities by human beings themselves. In such a sense we may not yet fully be aware of our self in this century. Moreover we may not fully complete our mission in physiological science, because the human body is extremely complicated system of physiological processes and we will certainly have many new frontiers to explore in the future.

　IUPS 2009 in Kyoto successfully finished this summer and the congress has offered many productive results for the development of the physiological sciences. It may be an adequate time to review our history and to seek the way for new steps to the future mission in our field as described above. It is our pleasure if the 87th Meeting on Physiological Science in Morioka can offer “an opportunity and a place” for such a discussion.

　The participants of the meeting will be not only from Japan but also from overseas. Young and old scientists in the field of the physiological sciences as well as those from interdisciplinary areas will get together in Morioka at the meeting. We estimate the number of participants to be 1,500 scientists.

　The previous Annual Meeting of the Physiological Society in Morioka was held in 1972 under the organization of the late professors Toshisada Mita (1st Department of Physiology, School of Medicine), Suteyo Yagi (2nd Department of Physiology, School of Medicine) and Hiroo Takashita (Department of Oral Physiology, School of Dentistry) 38 years ago. Therefore, it is the second time that we will have the annual meeting here in Morioka, Iwate. It is rare to have this meeting in a local area in Japan such as Morioka since most of the meetings have been held in big cities these past ten years. Many world famous historical figures, such as Inazo Nitobe, Chouei Takano, etc., have come from Iwate since the early days. We also have much cultural heritage such as Chusonji (Golden Temple) in Hiraizumi and Tendaiji in Ninohe. All these persons and our rich cultural heritage are blended and produced by the wide landscape of Iwate, which includes scenic mountains, rivers and beaches.

　During the course of preparation for the meeting, the executive committee was organized and much effort has been made to realize the meeting successfully, with the kind support of Iwate Medical University, Iwate Prefecture, Morioka City, the Iwate Nippou newspaper, and IBC (Iwate Broadcasting Company). We have scheduled the meeting during the most beautiful time of spring when there are green leaves and flowers everywhere. We look forward to seeing you next year in Morioka when we will welcome all of you to an exciting and stimulating scientific meeting.