Greetings from the President

I am Masuo Koyasu of Kyoto University, elected on March 20, 2008 as President at the meetings of the Japan Society for Developmental Psychology. I was preceded in this position by Professors Hiroshi Azuma, Tamotsu Fujinaga, Keiko Kashiwagi, Takeshi Asao, and Takashi Muto. As I will undertake the management of the JSDP for the next three years, via its Executive Board of Directors, I ask for your support as General Director. My own research specialties include the acquisition of theory of mind in early and middle childhood, and developmental processes that form higher order cognition in the workings of the child's mind. My personal information and research activities are detailed (in Japanese) at: www.educ.kyoto-u.ac.jp/cogpsy/member/koyasu.htm.
The JSDP was founded in December of 1989, and in 2009 we will celebrate its 20-year anniversary. The first JSDP conference was held March 28-29, 1990 at Shirayuri College, and on July 25, 1990 the first issue of Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology was published. The number of members recorded in that first issue was approximately 800 people; the current membership has increased five-fold to over 4,000. It seems to me that the job of the leadership of JSDP in this era is to raise its status and organization to a level suitable for a person who has grown five-fold by age 20. The founding principle of the JSDP was to advance in harmony both scientific research and practical activities, serving its members and actively disseminating important information to society. To these ends the Board of Directors of JSDP proceeds to take on the following specific activities:
(1) publish four issues of Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology annually, while including special articles and increasing the number of published submissions.
(2) foster more vigorous research activity, and advance the use of information and communication technology in administration. For example, we will expand the mechanisms of our web site home page and introduce a new system for on-line submissions.
(3) reconsider the management of convening academic conferences, with stability of convening conferences in terms of quality and size.
(4) promote the internationalization of research. We will emphasize research exchange activities with scholars of various nations, and develop mechanisms by which the JSDP can disseminate its information more effectively in English to the world outside Japan.
(5) regarding the academic degree of developmental clinical psychologist that was fostered by this organization, provide support for the promotion of activities for the developmental clinical psychologist degree, and work in cooperation with the Society for Clinical Developmental Psychology.
(6) as one measure in the emphasis on mechanisms for disseminating information to society, take responsibility to undertake publication and dissemination activities.
The JSDP has made progress in its administration. For example, various committee chairpersons assemble as the Permanent Board of Directors, and it is customary for individual committees to provide reports. Members of different generations provide the energy that will enable the JSDP to progress further, and this support will be important in the future.
I want to listen to the voices of all members as we work for the further development of the JSDP. I will appreciate your support as the JSDP moves forward.