On behalf of the Japan Fluid Power System Society (JFPS), we are pleased to present the proceedings of the 7th JFPS International Symposium on Fluid Power, held in Toyama, September 15-18, 2008.
It is my great pleasure that the recent results of research work and development on fluid power technology are published in the proceedings, which contain the information in 16 countries, i.e., 6 keynote lectures' papers, 33 organized sessions’ papers, and 116 poster sessions' papers, presented at the symposium.
The papers in the proceedings are very interesting and very valuable for fluid power technology.
Initial screening of the papers was firstly based on the content and merit of abstracts. The submitted full paper documents for the proceedings were checked the format of their texts in detail and published on the high grade.
We wish to express our appreciation to 6 keynote lectures, 10 organized sessions' lectures, and to all who presented their valuable papers in the poster sessions.
We hope that the proceedings will contribute greatly the further development of fluid power technology.

The par excellence papers within twenty percentages in the poster sessions' papers of the proceedings were internationally reviewed by two or three reviewers and selected as applied papers to the JFPS International Journal of Fluid Power System. I also would like to express my thanks to all of reviewers for their respective and excellent works to improve the quality of the JFPS International Journal.
In the review process, the symposium committee first carried out a rough screening of the 116 papers and narrowed the number down to some 40 papers. We then asked the international reviewers to evaluate three to four papers as the second review stage. During this review process, the reviewers were requested to take a close look at the paper content and quality. Based on the results of the review, approximately 20 papers will be selected as the par excellence papers and recommended to the English paper editorial committee of the JFPS. Especially the best paper will be commended as honorable recognition in the closing ceremony of the symposium.