Dear members:

Last year, 2011, was a very unfortunate period of time for us Japanese, because of the earthquake and tsunami disasters in the Tohoku area and the subsequent accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. I would like to express my deepest sympathy to all members of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc. who lived mainly in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and who have been suffering from that disaster. We were, however, fortunate to find out that no member died from, or was seriously injured by, these disasters. Our society supported all affected members as much as we could, even though it was not actually enough.

Although we were facing such a tough situation since last March 11^th, 2011, it was astonishing that we were able to count more than 5,000 participants at the 112^th Annual Meeting of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc., which was held last May, in Kyoto. More than 5000 participants were the highest, being approximately half of all our members, ever since our annual meeting began. There could be so many reasons why the Kyoto meeting was so successful, such as the program content, congress venue, best season, nice weather, and stronger intention of members to attend. It is important for our members to attend such a large academic meeting, in order to highly qualify their membership, so I am very satisfied with their performances.

Furthermore, it was also impressive to see that more than 2,500 attendants participated with lectures and practical skills at 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.

Throughout last year, we had made many efforts to ensure our future activities as a new legal body. But we still need to extensively change the articles of our incorporation. However, the point is that we must not only ensure and follow our previously-performed activities all together ﾂ（including each local activityﾂ）, but also simultaneously modify them to meet the new regulations proposed by the Cabinet office. Fortunately the revision of our articles of incorporation had been smoothly established, and as I already mentioned in the last edition of the Chairman's greeting, we were very pleased to receive proxies from more than three-fourths of the society's members, enabling the change in our articles of incorporation to proceed smoothly at the General Assembly last May in Kyoto. Afterwards, we were requested by the Cabinet office to revise the articles with a number of modifications and submit them again after we receive another proxy from you all. Therefore, we decided to create the opportunity to receive your proxy with the revised version, and fortunately succeeded in receiving proxies from more than three-fourths of the society's members, when we had 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. I really appreciate your cooperation with these plans.

Now we are waiting for approval of the latest version of the articles from the Cabinet office.

Finally, I am very eager to have the upcoming 113^th Annual Meeting of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan in Niigata, including the General Assembly of our new general incorporated association.

I do hope you have a happy new year.

Sincerely yours,

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

(February 23^th, 2012)