A message from the President of the Society
The President of the Japan Society of Nutrition and Food Science
(FY2024-2025):
Hitoshi Ashida
I am Hitoshi Ashida, who was appointed as the president of the Japan Society of Nutrition and Food Science (JSNFS) upon approval at its general meeting of employees and the board of trustees, which was held on May 24 (Fri), 2024. I would like to take this opportunity to extend greetings to the members of the society.
The COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 and largely affected our society in various aspects. Now, Japan has reclassified COVID-19’s category from the “Novel Influenza and Other Diseases (which is equivalent to Class 2)” category to “Class 5” on May 8, 2023, and peoples’ lives have started to return back to normal. Our society has also resumed face-to-face meetings, rejuvenating discussions at meetings and communications among members.
As part of the 75th anniversary memorial project of our society, we held the 75th anniversary memorial lecture series during the 76th annual meetings in June, 2022, where I was honored to take charge. Subsequently, we have published a book for the 75th anniversary of the foundation of JSNFS, titled “For the future developed by nutrition and food science: the history of JSNFS and messages from the members,” with the publisher Kenpakusha. We offer a special discount for JSNFS members to purchase this book. We should be much obliged if you check it out.
Under the circumstances that the society has almost completely resumed regular operations, I would like to strive after further development of JSNFS during my 2 year term as the president. Specifically, I am planning to conduct activities aiming for the development of JSNFS according to the following 5 pillars based on the activity plan described in the materials for the 78th annual meeting, which was held in May, 2024.
Pillar 1: Continuing activities aiming for increasing the members.
There is a tendency for the number of members to decrease at not only our JSNFS but also many other academic societies, leading to a possible adverse impact on the overall operation of the societies. Aiming to ensure further development of the fields of nutrition and food science and promote research in these fields, I am striving to offer attractive projects at our annual meetings and chapter conventions, where we ask non-members to give lectures, and to engage with such activities as to effectively encourage non-members to become members.
Pillar 2: Establishing a hub for information dissemination for younger members.
JSNFS has been offering a presentation award for students since the 70th meeting, in order to provide more opportunities for them to give presentations; however, there are actually not many chances for younger members to be actively involved in various activities and promote their research. Therefore, as related to Pillar 1, we have formed a “Youth Community” at annual meetings and chapter conventions, which allows younger members to send out information about their research and communicate with each other, as well as hosting a symposium and other types of gatherings.
We also publish articles about projects organized by younger members in our academic journal. All our efforts above lead to providing a place for younger members to spread information. We are further striving to come up with attractive projects, which encourage student members to keep participating in our society as a full member of JSNFS even after graduation.
Pillar 3: Enhancing international exchange capabilities
Many of the members probably still vividly remember the 22nd International Congress of Nutrition (the 22nd IUNS-ICN), which was chaired by Hisanori Kato, the former president of JSNFS, from December 6th to 11th, 2022. In August next year (2025), the 23rd IUNS-ICN is scheduled to be held in Paris. We are planning to organize the symposiums as part of our participation in this ICN. In September 2027, the Asian Congress of Nutrition (ACN) is scheduled to be held in Malaysia.
As for our past annual meetings, the International Academic Cooperation Committee has held an international symposium at the meetings. For the last few years, we have been hosting an international symposium alternately with the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition (KFN) and the Nutrition Society of Taiwan (NST) in their respective countries. For our upcoming 80th anniversary, we have started preparing for hosting an international symposium, for which we will invite not only Korean and Taiwanese societies but also American Society for Nutrition, as one of the commemorative projects, at our 81st annual meeting.
In addition, since the lecture by the British Journal of Nutrition (BJN) held at the 78th annual meeting was highly successful, attracting a large audience, we continue to offer similar projects in collaboration with other foreign academic journal editing offices. Currently, we are in process of selecting and recommending candidates from our members to be editorial board members for BJN and Journal of Nutrition (JN).
Pillar 4: Promoting an accreditation system for space food
With an increasing interest in space, along with Japan’s agreement with the Artemis program, a moon exploration program proposed by NASA, research and development in the fields of health and nutrition in outer space has been in high demand more than ever. Therefore, we are planning to establish an accreditation system for space food along with training of specialized personnel and a qualification system. With the aim of becoming an accreditation body for the system, we have been proceeding with this project in consultation with the Cabinet Office.
Space food is said to have some similarities to emergency food for disasters, in terms of nutrition and packaging for storage. From this perspective, it is important to establish this system for the purposes of considering and evaluating health and nutritional aspects under extreme conditions. Thus, an earlier launch of this project is believed to largely contribute to future development of our society. For these reasons, we are planning to make some changes to our articles of incorporation at the general meeting next year so that our exploratory committee for the space food accreditation system can be in charge of establishing a “Space Food Health Accreditation System.”
Pillar 5: Promoting diversity
JSNFS is characterized by the larger percentage of female members compared to other academic societies. However, we have not been part of the Japan Inter-society Liaison Association Committee for Promoting Equal Participation of Men and Women in Science and Engineering (EPMEWSE), which many academic societies have been participating in. Thus, for the fiscal year 2024, we have decided to join EPMEWSE by establishing a “Diversity Promoting Committee.” This committee aims to establish a gender equality system; however, it is also expected to address various issues, not only gender issues, in the future, so it shall be called a “diversity promoting committee.”
We also consider that, in addition to these 5 pillars, collaboration with medical societies has great significance for our activities. As we all know, JSNFS serves as the 14th specialist medical society of the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences. We have been hosting a joint symposium with them at our annual meetings. At our 75th anniversary project, we asked the late Dr. Morito Monden, who was the president of the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences then, to join the meeting and he offered a congratulatory address. For this year, we are aiming to be in closer collaboration with them by participating in the TEAM Project of the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences.
We are committed to a mission to further promote and accelerate research in the fields of nutrition and food science, which are relevant to the prevention and treatment of life-style diseases and frailty, extending healthy life expectancy, and solutions to emerging health-related issues. For the recent occurrence of health hazard related to health food products, we immediately responded to it by posting our statement on our HP under the cooperation of the former president, Dr. Yoshida, along with the current vice president, Dr. Sone. This has expanded our role as a society not only to be engaged with research but also to develop the research-based products, which are the outcomes of research. I believe that it is our duty not only to establish a system capable of responding quickly to similar issues and contribute to the development of academic fields but also to put our efforts for activities closely related to society in general.
We are committed to strive for continuous improvement of the environment and systems, which enables us to provide support for our members to advance research in the fields of nutrition and food science and obtain results leading to the contribution to society, centering around the contents of the pillars described above. I am determined to work for the successful operation of this society along with my fellow members, including trustees, auditors, and general and financial affairs secretaries, with help and advice from past JSNFS presidents, including Dr. Hiroshi Yoshida. I sincerely appreciate your continued support and cooperation.
Messages from Past Presidents
