History of the Biophysical Society of Japan

The Biophysical Society of Japan (BSJ) was founded on 10th, December 1960 under the president Dr. Masao Kotani. The first annual meeting was held for 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 2009 at Tokushima, the 47th annual meeting was held using 10 halls with 222 oral presentations, 830 posters, 22 symposia, 10 special lectures by young biophysicists and 2 special lectures for citizens.

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 current president of IUPAB is Professor Kuniaki Nagayama, a member of BSJ. 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. The society hosted the 2nd Japan-China Bilateral Symposium on Biophysics in 1988, at Kyoto, the first East Asian Biophysics Symposium in 1994 at Hyogo, and the 5th East Asian Biophysics Symposium in 2006 at Okinawa. At Okinawa meeting, BSJ proposed the executive committee of EABS to extend the activity to all Asian Biophysical Societies. After intense discussion, EABS was extended as the Asian Biophysics Association. Prof. Nagayama was elected as the first president of ABA. BSJ is contributing the ABA significantly since then. ABA organizes the Asian Biophysics Symposium every two years.

In February 2010, 3705 members (2473 regular members, 1105 student members, 72 institutional members, 11 associate members, 33 foreign members and 16 members emeritus) belong to the Society.

The major activities of the BSJ are the publication of two journals "BIOPHYSICS" and "SEIBUTSU BUTSURI" and the organization of 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 published bimonthly with an extra special issue for the abstract book of the annual meeting. The annual meeting covers all fields of biophysics such as protein/nucleotide/lipid structure and function, electron state, hydration water, motor molecule, photobiology, membrane, development and differentiation, brain function, biorhythm, radiation biology, evolution and origin of life, bio-imaging, and theoretical biology. The diversity and variety of the topics 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 2010
TitleName AffiliationRole
2010-2011 presidentMikio KATAOKA (NAIST)
2009-2010 vice presidentYoshie HARADA (Kyoto Univ.)affirmative action
2010-2011 vice presidentEtsuro ITO (Tokushima Bunri Univ.)publication
Takayuki ARIGA (Univ. Tokyo)publication
Katsumi IMADA (Osaka Univ.)accounting
Masataka KINJO (Hokkaido Univ.)enlightenment planning
Kazue KURIHARA (Tohoku Univ.)research core tech.
Makiko SUWA (AIST)advertisement/general affairs
Kazunobu TAKAHASHI (NINS)homepage
Kaoru MITSUOKA (AIST)enlightenment planning/physical society
Tomoyasu AIZAWA (Hokkaido Univ.)advertisement/general affairs
Kei-ichi OKAZAKI (Waseda Univ.)homepage
Hironari KAMIKUBO (NAIST)publication/electoral commision chairman
Shoji TAKADA (Kyoto Univ.)accounting/physical society
Masahide TERAZIMA (Kyoto Univ.)research core tech.
Hiroyuki NOJI (Osaka Univ.)enlightenment planning
Miho YANAGISAWA (Kyoto Univ.)clerical officer
Kuniaki NAGAYAMA (NINS)research core tech./foreign affairs
Masahiro SOKABE (Nagoya Univ.)research core tech.
SEIBUTSU BUTSURI chief editorAkinori KIDERA (Yokohama City Univ.)
BIOPHYSICS chief editorShinichi ISHIWATA (Waseda Univ.)
Homepage chief editorAkihiko ISHIJIMA (Tohoku Univ.)
Head of 2010 annual meetingMakoto SUZUKI (Tohoku Univ.)
Head of 2011 annual meetingTakashi OGURA (Univ. Hyogo)
Head of Hokkaido branchMakoto DEMURA (Hokkaido Univ.)
Head of Tohoku branchSatoshi TAKAHASHI (Tohoku Univ.)
Head of Chubu branchKunihiro KUWAJIMA (NINS)
Head of Shikoku branchYutaka KIRINO (Tokushima Bunri Univ.)
Head of Kyushu branchAkinori SARAI (KIT)