History of the Biophysical Society of Japan

The Biophysical Society of Japan was founded in 10th, December 1960 under president Dr. Masao Kotani. The first annual meeting was held during three days in May 1962 using two halls at Nissay Training Institute at Osaka with 50 oral presentations and 4 invited lectures. The scale of the meeting has grown ever since and in October 1997 at Kyoto, the 35th annual meeting was held using 13 halls with 802 oral presentations and 12 symposia.

The Biophysical Society of Japan has joined the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) and the society sends delegates to the international biophysical meeting held every three years. The members of the Society participate shares a large portion of the participants in the meeting. In 1978, the 6th international meeting was held in Kyoto and more than 2,000 researchers from more than 30 countries all over the world gathered there. This activity later contributed to the advancement of biophysics in Japan. The Society puts stress on the advancement of researches of biophysics in Asia. In 1988, the 2nd Japan-China Bilateral Symposium on Biophysics was held in Kyoto, in 1994 the first East Asian Biophysics Symposium was held in Hyogo, and the Society will hold the 5th East Asian Biophysics Symposium in 2006 at Okinawa.

In June of 2006, 3665 members (2452 standard members, 1064 student members, 88 institutional members, 14 associate members, 32 foreign members and 15 member emeritus) belong to the Society.

The major activity of the Society is publication of two journals "BIOPHYSICS" and "SEIBUTSU BUTSURI" and an annual meeting. "BIOPHYSICS" is an international on-line journal founded in 2004 and is now growing to be one of the major biophysics journals in Asia. "SEIBUTSU BUTSURI" is issued seven times a year including the one for the abstract book of the annual meeting. The major topics in the annual meeting are protein/nucleotide/lipid structure and function, electron state, hydration water, motor molecule, photon biology, membrane, development and differentiation, brain function, biorhythm, radiation biology, evolution and origin of life, bio-imaging, and theoretical biology. The wide range of the topics covered by the annual meeting advances collaboration with researches in the field of cellular biology, molecular biology, biochemistry as well as physics, chemistry, engineering. With the collaborations of those fields, the Society can cradle a birth of new disciplines such as structural biology and bioinformatics.

The Society is managed by a committee elected from the whole members. Each member of the committee devotes their time for two years to advance researches in the field. Follow is the members of the committee in this year.

Committee Members of 2008
TitleName AffiliationRole
2008-2009 presidentMasahiro SOKABE (Nagoya Univ.)
2007-2008 vice presidentYoko Toyoshima (Univ. Tokyo)affermative action
2008-2009 vice presidentHideki KANDORI (NITECH)publication
Tomoyasu AIZAWA (Hokkaido Univ.)homepage/affirmative action/clerical officer
Etsuro ITO (Tokushima Bunri Univ.)advertisement/general affairs
Akinori KIDERA (NYokohama City Univ.)publication
Kazue KURIHARA (Tohoku Univ.)research core tech./affirmative action
Yasushi SAKO(RIKEN)enlightenment planning/affermative action
Kouichiro SADAKANE(Kyoto Univ.)affermative action/clerical officer/physics society
Yasutaka SEKI (Nagaoka Univ. Tech.)homepage/clerical officier
Satoshi TAKAHASHI (Osaka Univ.)general affairs/affirmative action
Hitoshi TATSUMI (Nagoya Univ.)publication/electoral commision chairman
Makio TOKUNAGA (NIG)enlightenment planning/physics society
Hideo HIGUCHI (Tohoku Univ.)advertisement/accounting
Takashi FUNATU (Univ. Tokyo)accounting/affirmative action
Yuriko YAMAGATA (Kumamoto Univ.)annual meeting/affirmative action
Kei YURA (JAEA)publication/homepage
Kuniaki NAGAYAMA (NINS)research core tech./foreign affairs
SEIBUTSU BUTSURI chief editorYoshinori SHICHIDA (Kyoto Univ.)
BIOPHYSICS chief editorShinichi ISHIWATA (Waseda Univ.)
Head of 2008 annual meetingDaisuke KOHDA (Kyushu Univ.)
Head of 2009 annual meetingYutaka KIRINO (Tokushima Bunri Univ.)
Head of Hokkaido branchKazutoshi GOHARA (Hokkaido Univ.)
Head of Tohoku branchHideo HIGUCHI (Tohoku Univ.)
Head of Chubu branchShigeru ITOH (Nagoya Univ.)
Head of Shikoku branchYutaka KIRINO (Tokushima Bunri Univ.)
Head of Kyushu branchDaisuke KOHDA (Kyushu Univ.)