PREPARED FOR NOISE/NEWS INTERNATIONAL, 2002 MARCH.
The Acoustical Society of Japan (ASJ) promotes the advancement of the science and technology of acoustics, in all its disciplines, and the exchange of ideas in relation thereto. It was founded on April 15th, 1936 by 15 members. By the end of 2001, more than 65 years later, the membership had reached 4,812 including 3,997 Members, 22 Honorary Members, 74 Life Members, and 719 Student Members. Members are drawn from varying backgrounds and have varying interests. In addition to these individual members, the Society is supported by 251 Sustaining Members and Special Members. The ASJ also has 8 Friends of the Society. There are four Regional Chapters of the ASJ; in Kansai, Tohoku, Tokai and Kyushu.
Each year, in spring and autumn, the Society holds a three-day national meeting, the venue in different cities in Japan. The meetings cover a wide range of topics in acoustics and interdisciplinary areas. In addition to regular sessions, several special sessions are organized, with invited lectures and contributed papers. In total, roughly 600 papers are presented and 1,200 people participate in each meeting.
The ASJ publishes the Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan (in Japanese) monthly, and Acoustical Science and Technology (in English) bimonthly, which has been an electronic online journal from the beginning of this century These Journals include technical papers and review papers. Special issues are organized occasionally. The Society also publishes textbooks and reference books for students, professors, and researchers, to promote acoustics by the dissemination of information on various topics.
The Society has eight Technical Committees: Architectural Acoustics, Electroacoustics, Musical Acoustics, Noise and Vibration, Psychological and Physiological Acoustics, Speech, Ultrasonic and Underwater Acoustics, and Acoustical-chemistry. Each Committee holds a meeting with paper presentations almost every month at various places in Japan. The ASJ periodically offers fundamental training courses as well as continuing education in various areas, such as psychological measurement and signal processing.
The Society has hosted or sponsored a large number of International Conferences, including the 6th ICA in 1968, INTER-NOISE in 1975 and 1994, the ASA-ASJ Joint Meetings in 1978, 1988 and 1996, the Japan-Korea Joint Meetings on Acoustics in 1981, 1982, and 1991, WESTPRAC since 1982, the Sino-Japanese Joint Symposium on Acoustics in 1985, ICASSP in 1986, the Congress of the International Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics in 1986, the Japan-China Symposium on Ultrasonic in 1987, the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition in 1989, the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing in 1990, the International Symposium on Active Control of Sound and Vibration in 1991, and the International Symposium on the Contribution of Acoustics to the Creation of a Comfortable Sound Environment in 1992, International Symposium on Simulation, Visualization and Auralization for Acoustic Research and Education in1997, WESTPRAC and the Japan-Germany Joint Symposium on Acoustics in 2000.
The Society will sponsor the ASJ-EAA Joint Symposium in 2002, the Second China-Japan Joint Conference on Acoustics in 2002, and host the 18th ICA in 2004.
The ASJ presents several awards. The Prize for Distinguished Achievements in Acoustics is given to at most three persons a year for outstanding scientific achievements in acoustics. The Sato Prize is awarded for at most two outstanding papers appearing in a journal of the ASJ (either in Japanese or in English) every year to commemorate Dr. Koji Sato, a founding member. The Awaya Prize is given to six (or fewer) promising young researchers every year for outstanding presentations given at the ASJ meetings, to commemorate Dr. Kiyoshi Awaya. The Prize for Outstanding Technological Development in Acoustics is given to about three groups or persons a year.
An Executive Council Meeting is held every month, and the Board of Directors Meeting is held occasionally.
For more information about the ASJ contact The Acoustical Society of Japan, Nakaura 5th-Bldg., 2-18-20 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0021, Japan. FAX. +81 3 5256 1022, URL: http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/asj/index-e.html