On behalf of the Japan Fluid Power System Society (JFPS), it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the 7th International Symposium on Fluid Power.
One of our important activities is promoting international exchange of views and perspectives. Among those exchange activities, this international symposium is the most important one.
The first International Symposium was held back 1989, and Tokyo Institute of Technology was the venue. Ever since, it has been held every three years in diverse places such as Yokohama, Nara, and Tsukuba and we have now gathered here for the 7th meeting. A lot of papers have been presented in the previous JFPS International Symposia and approximately 150 general papers from 16 countries are going to be presented in this International Symposium.  I would like to sincerely thank all of you again for coming over to participate in our Symposium.
Now I would like to touch briefly on the history of JFPS, the host of this International Symposium. The JFPS has its roots in Japan Hydraulics and Pneumatics Society (JHPS), founded in 1970.  I believe it is not an overstatement to say that the history of JHPS is anonymous with the history of the hydraulic/pneumatic technologies in Japan as an academic society specializing in the field of hydraulics and pneumatics.  In 2001, the JHPS was renamed JFPS because it was recognized that hydraulic and pneumatic technologies would expand to the area of water hydraulics and functional fluid and their applications. This is not the end of course, and we will keep working to widen the area of research in this field. Currently, the JFPS has approximately 1,000 regular members and 200 student members as well as 13 honorary members and 134 supporting members. The JFPS Journals are published 7 times a year and provide a wide range of information. Moreover, it is possible to access worldwide database resources of newly published journals, transactions, and the proceedings on fluid power on our website. The JFPS journals carry approximately 20 papers a year. Also approximately 100 papers are delivered at regular spring/autumn conferences.
The JFPS will soon be celebrating its 40th anniversary counting from the JHPS years.  We are now under a situation where industrial development cannot move further forward without harmony between mankind and environment because the world is getting smaller and smaller, and human activities can easily have a large impact on the environment regardless of whether such has been intended or not. In this regard, it is my view that innovation of Fluid Power into so to say “Environment and Human-Friendly Fluid Power”, or EHFFP in short, is essential for development of fluid power technology. To achieve this, I think I know what I should keep doing. Make the Society function effectively, for one, to encourage incremental and breakthrough researches while building upon existing foundation, and for two, to extend coordination and cooperation between the academic and industrial worlds further, towards realizing such innovation.

In closing, it is my sincere wish to see a wider cooperation with experts and organizations in the fluid power area all over the world. Some of you may know and some of you may not, but I grew up in this area, and it was, and still has, plenty of greens. Therefore, I will be more than happy if we can find many new seeds and buds of a new generation of development in fluid power engineering through a vigorous and constructive academic exchange of views in my beautiful hometown Toyama, so that we will be able to see many blossoms and green forests of fluid power engineering far into the future. Last but not the least, I wish each of you will come to know each other better and find, renew or develop friendship here.