Message from President                  

                                         1 January 2022

For people all over the world, 2020 and 2021 were very difficult years. The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious health threat and is still continuing its spread across the world.  Following social distancing recommendations to avoid spread of COVID-19, we, just like last year, decided to shift our face-to-face annual meeting to a virtual online meeting.  I deeply thank Prof. Masakazu Aoki (Tohoku University) and his organizing committee team who organized the online annual meeting in Oct. 2021. The premeeting work workshop for young crustacean researchers was also organized by Drs. Naoya Ohtsuchi and Yuzo Koyano (Ohta). I sincerely thank all attendees, speakers and organizers.   In this meeting, CSJ Best Poster Prize was awarded to Mr. Kaito Morishima (Kanagawa Univ.) and CSJ Best Oral Presentation Prize was awarded to Mr. Keisuke Ohnuki (Kyoto Univ.). Best Paper Prize was awarded to Dr. Akihiro Yoshikawa (Univ. Tokyo).   Congratulations !

"Crustacean Research" vol. 50 was published in December 2021.  The very beautiful cover photo was taken by Ms. Natsuko Yamamoto (nanana125209); a very cute crab, Dromidiopsis lethrinusae.  Its standard Japanese name is "Ogasawara Kamuri" but the crab is widely known as "Yukinko-Boushi-Gani"; where "Yukinko" is a spirit of snow who appears in a famous Japanese folktale from Niigata Prefecture. Our Japanese Journal "CANCER" continues to flourish under the leadership of our Editor Dr. Yuzo Koyano (Ohta). 

We received good news from Profs. Susumu Ohtsuka (Hiroshima Univ.) and Kaori Wakabanashi (Hiroshima Univ.).  The International Conference on Copepoda was decided to be held in Japan in Hiroshima.  The date of the conference is scheduled at first in early summer 2024 but the organizing committee is still seeing how COVID-19 spreading is going. I hope the COVID-19 disease goes away very soon and completely.

 
We further received good news.   Our esteemed,  honorable, emeritus member, Porf. Shiemitsu Shokita (Emeritus Professor, University of the Ryukyus) published a book "Life History of Freshwater Shrimp" based on his life-time works on freshwater shrimp in Ryukyu Archipelago.  If you want to buy this, please contact Prof. Tohru Naruse, University of the Ryukyus.
Another good news is also a book on freshwater crustaceans. Our active and energetic member, Dr. Tadashi Kawai and his colleagues published a book entitled "Recent Advances in Freshwater Crustacean Biodiversity and Conservation".  The majority of the chapters are based on papers presented at symposia organized by the editors at two international scientific meetings held in Barcelona and Washington DC and partly based on symposia organized by T. Kawai in Sapporo (IAA-CSJ Joint International Symposium) and Hong Kong (CSJ-TCS International Symposium). 

We further received good news.   Our esteemed,  honorable, emeritus member, Porf. Shiemitsu Shokita (Emeritus Professor, University of the Ryukyus) published a book "Life History of Freshwater Shrimp" based on his life-time works on freshwater shrimp in Ryukyu Archipelago.  If you want to buy this, please contact Prof. Tohru Naruse, University of the Ryukyus.

Another good news is also of a book on freshwater crustaceans. Our active and energetic member, Dr. Tadashi Kawai and his colleagues published a book entitled "Recent Advances in Freshwater Crustacean Biodiversity and Conservation".  The majority of the chapters are based on papers presented at symposia organized by the editors at two international scientific meetings held in Barcelona and Washington DC and partly based on symposia organized by T. Kawai in Sapporo (IAA-CSJ Joint International Symposium) and Hong Kong (CSJ-TCS International Symposium). 

Internationalization is one of our policies.  In light of recent development and internationalization of study of biology of crustaceans in countries in Asian region, it is the best time to establish Asian-Pacific network of crustacean biology. Caricinological Society of Japan will host the network. To make the idea  come true, we hold several international symposia and people who are intensively studying crustacean biology in Asian areas are invited to present a review of their study.

See the following web-pages for recent efforts on this matter.

Past Symposia by CSJ  

Symposia in 2017          

Symposia in 2019          

Finally I would like to ask all of you for your cooperation by inviting new members to join, attending to, and giving presentations at our annual meeting, as well as submitting manuscripts to "Crustacean Research" and "Cancer" for publication.

                    Akira Asakura, 

                       President, Carcinological Society of Japan

               　     Director and Professor, Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University