I am very pleased to announce that the 34th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Immunology will be held in Sapporo. This will be the first time in seven years that former President Yoshiki has presided over the meeting. Since graduating from university, I have been supported by the Japanese Society for Immunology over a long period of time. Therefore, I feel honored to be able to lend a hand for the upcoming Annual Meeting.

I was rather taken by surprise when I learned why I had come to be asked to serve as President of the Annual Meeting. We have some cause for concern regarding whether or not we can sufficiently prepare due partly to the small number on our Division staff. I would therefore like to ask for the cooperation of members of the Society.

Currently, we are proceeding with preparations under the initiative of the four Vice Presidents, i.e. Noriyuki Sato, a professor of Sapporo Medical University, Takao Koike, a professor of the Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Toshimitsu Uede and Takashi Nishimura, professors of the Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, and Dr. Kazuya Iwabuchi, in charge of the Secretariat. The venues will be the Royton Sapporo and Hokkaido Kouseinenkin Kaikan, and the meeting will be held from December 1 (Wed.) to 3 (Fri.). It will be the first time for the meeting to be held in Sapporo in December and the date was set to fit in with the commemorative event for the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of the US-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program, which will be held in Kyoto from December 5.

December in Sapporo is cold and since blizzards may cause traffic jams, the date of the meeting was brought forward compared with other areas that have hosted the meeting thus far. I am also concerned about road conditions as when road surfaces freeze, pedestrians frequently slip and fall. Therefore, you are kindly advised to bring warm clothes and anti-slip devices.

I have mentioned only the negative side of holding a meeting in December, but this is the season when Sapporo is the most beautiful. I recommend that you take a look at the powder snow and illumination in Odori Park, for example. As for food, the most delicious dishes become available in winter.

Although the Program Committee must organize the details of the Annual Meeting from this point, I have asked the committee, as my only request in the capacity of President, to include an event to pay a tribute to the memory of Dr. Robert A. Good, who passed away last year. Although I think it is not necessary to introduce Dr. Good here, he discovered thymus functions, followed by the elucidation of the overall picture of the immune system, which is composed of T and B cells. He was also the pediatrician who saved an SCID patient by bone marrow transplantation for the first time. He favored and frequently used the phrase �gexperiments of nature,�h which describes one of his most brilliant achievements: he actually conducted basic research using a human disease as a clue and ultimately overcame the disease. I believe that immunology plays an infinite role in addressing important concerns that have remained unresolved in many countries, such as cancer and various types of infectious diseases. In this context, the footprints of Dr. Good suggest one of the paths for us, members of the Japanese Society for Immunology, to take.

Relations between Dr. Good and Japan date back to those with late Yuichi Yamamura. There are numerous proteges among the members of the Japanese Society of Immunology who later received instructions from him, including myself. This is why I asked the committee to include such an event.