Dear Members:

The first meeting of the new Board of Directors was held at the 113^th Annual Meeting of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological (ORL) Society of Japan, Inc., which was presided over by Prof. Sugata Takahashi and held in Niigata. I was fortunately appointed once again to contribute to our society as the chairman. One-third of the members of the Board of Directors have been renewed, and they will be responsible for completing various tasks during the next two years. I would like to express my great appreciation for your kind cooperation with the new Board of Directors.

The ORL Society of Japan, Inc., has 6 departments and 17 committees, as you are well aware. Each department and committee is individually organized by an appointed chairperson and committee members under the supervision of the responsible directors. Each committee is now undertaking its necessary operations. If you have the time, please refer to the list of members on our home page, where you will also find the Duties Organization and Committee Constitution. Each committee will take over continuing works and will challenge forthcoming new operations. Because of limited space, I cannot make a detailed comment on the activities of all the committees, but I would like to highlight some of the activities here.

It was a large undertaking for the former Board of Directors to become a new General Incorporated Association, according to the newly implemented regulations for legal bodies. The new articles of incorporation were acknowledged at the general assemblies of the 112^th Annual Meeting of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc., which was held last May in Kyoto (meeting chairman: Prof. Juichi Ito), and the 25^th Annual Courses for Board Certified Otorhinolaryngologist organized by the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc., which was held last November in Osaka (meeting chairman: Prof. Yasuo Hisa). With these articles of incorporation, we were successful in receiving approval as a general incorporated association from the Prime Minister of Japan on March 21, 2012. Thereafter, the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc. was registered as a general incorporated association on April 1, 2012. Our new Board of Directors was organized under the new articles of incorporation.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the former Board of Directors, especially the Articles of Incorporation Committee, the General Affairs Committee, and the secretary of the executive office. Under the new articles of incorporation, the ORL Society of Japan, Inc. and the regional societies of the ORL must be financially integrated, otherwise the regional societies of the ORL will not be able to keep them continuously active as was done previously. Because of this large forthcoming burden on the financial committee with our present financial difficulties, your very best understanding and cooperation will be needed in the future.

Data accumulated from an annual nationwide investigation performed by our investigation committee is also a precious asset for our society. The basic materials obtained from this investigation are pertinent to considerations of our future direction. Such data will be helpful for standardizing the knowledge and skills of Board Certified Otorhinolaryngologists and the establishment of criteria for selecting training facilities. Based on these data, the Board Certification Committee has been discussing the future direction for the evaluation and approval of Board Certified Otorhinolaryngologists, training facilities, and supervisors. Furthermore, the Medical Insurance Committee has used this data as an important database, when negotiating with administrative bodies such as the Japan Medical Association and the Gaihoren. With these reasons in mind, your cooperation together with the cooperation of regional societies with regard to nationwide investigations is actually essential to expanding our interests with a higher quality.

To support our members academically, we are planning to be more active in addressing your needs through academic sessions at the annual meeting of the ORL Society of Japan, Inc. and the annual courses for Board Certified Otorhinolaryngologist, in addition to providing state-of-the-art information in our monthly journal (Nippon Jibiinkoka Gakkai Kaiho) and Auris Nasus Larynx. The Academic Affairs Committee, the Editorial Committee, the English Journal Committee (ANL), and the Public Relations committee will be in charge of completing these various goals.

Unfortunately, I do not have the space to comment on the other committees for medical welfare, school health and medical affairs, but nevertheless the contributions of these committees have been highly valuable, and their enthusiastic efforts will allow them to take important actions on various new items.

Finally, I hope that all our members will support our new Board of Directors during their appointed period of time.

Sincerely yours,

Toshiaki Yagi, MD,
Chairman, Board of Directors
The Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc.

(June 8^th, 2012)