Dear members:

First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for the members who suffered from the earthquake and tsunami disasters in the Tohoku area. However, it was reported that we fortunately had no wounded or dead persons among our society members in the Tohoku area. Nevertheless, they have no doubt been suffering from the shortage of daily supplies and mental stress. So, they still have a long way to go before they can completely recover. I sincerely hope that they will be able to overcome these disasters and re-start their activities for future lives. Actually, I believe that they have already started this process.

On this occasion, the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc., wishes to extend its very best support to our members in the Tohoku area. As one measure, we have already recruited a small amount of financial support for the three prefectures that suffered the most damage: Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima.

The 112^th annual meeting of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc., which was held May 19 - 21 in Kyoto, was very successful, with about 5000 participants, in the name of making the new articles of incorporation, and recovering from the earthquake and tsunami disasters in the Tohoku area. In the history of our society, our articles of incorporation were first established on April 1, 1953, when the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc. was acknowledged as a General Incorporated Association. Since then, the articles have been revised 21 times according to prevailing demands. However, to this end, a total overhaul is now needed according to the newly implemented regulations for legal bodies, which became effective on December 1, 2008. At the last annual meeting of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Inc., the need to disband the Board of Councilors and to establish a Board of Representatives was acknowledged. As has already been mentioned, the change in our articles of incorporation absolutely requires the attendance of more than three-fourths of the society's members, so we requested all our members either to attend the general assembly or to send a proxy. As a result, 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. I think that we had better call them the new articles of incorporation, since we will become a new General Incorporated Association. To complete this process, we were obliged to address you a new version of the planned undertakings and budget, which was not the same as the earlier version and so difficult to compare. Nevertheless, you have all been patient in understanding our situation and acknowledging it. Thus, I would like to thank all our members for their excellent cooperation. With your kind agreement, we plan to examine this matter in further detail and are scheduled to proceed the new articles of incorporation to the cabinet office this coming September. Hopefully, these articles will be quickly acknowledged so as to ensure our future activities as a new legal body.

Sincerely yours,

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

(June 8^th, 2011)