JBF - Learning from History and Expanding Globally -
In June 2015, I was appointed as the chairman of a historic public interest incorporated foundation, the Japan Bifidus Foundation (JBF). As you know, the JBF was established in April 1981 to promote research and development related to the mutually beneficial interactions between the host and intestinal microflora (gut flora) including bifidobacteria, thanks to the vision and efforts made by pioneering researchers. The academic activities our respected predecessors had performed over the first 10 years as a group to study the intestinal growth of bifidobacteria also provided a basis for its establishment. For further details of the foundation’s historical background, please access its website and read "The Foundation’s History". Under the leadership and with the efforts of Professor Shuichi Kaminogawa as its former chairman, as well as cooperation from those involved in it, the JBF has transformed into the organization of a public interest incorporated foundation since April 1, 2013 after being certified by the Cabinet Office of Japan for advancing our academic and scientific activities. Such activities aim to promote the development and expansion of this research field by gathering and providing new scientific information related to the molecular and cellular interactions between the host and intestinal microflora, including those of Bifidobacteria. Our foundation’s activity should reflect the excellent institutional memory established by our predecessors through their activities as a study group and inherited by us, with a view to contributing to the development of science in Japan. In fact, it is specified that the foundation is mainly engaged in the following 4 businesses in its articles of incorporation:
Through cooperation with all of the foundation and society members, we will continue to provide our expertise for further advancing this foundation as a public interest incorporated foundation, which was certified, thanks to cooperation from its supporters led by the former chairman Kaminogawa, aiming to contribute to both domestic and international scientific activities and promote the utilization of their outcomes for the establishment of a healthy society on a global basis in the near future. Therefore, further support and cooperation from all those involved in the foundation and Annual Meeting of Intestinal Microbiology, mainly organized by it, would be very much appreciated.
Regarding the Annual Meeting of Intestinal Microbiology, while the name of a domestic, academic society generally starts with “Japan” or “Japanese”, this does not in Japanese or English, representing the global, in addition to domestic, perspectives we adopt to perform our academic activities at all times. The organization is engaged in research activities, focusing on the importance of intestinal bacteria in microbiology, as well as the necessity of multifaceted studies, including physiological, immunological, pathological, nutritional, and neurological approaches, to examine their interactions with and bilateral manipulation by the host and microbe. In line with this, the JBF will make all efforts to: promote research activities integrating associated areas and multiple fields; share their outcomes on a global basis; contribute to both domestic and international research on intestinal microbiology; enhance the international significance of our activities; and play a leading role to globally establish a healthy society. While inheriting the management policies determined by the former chairman Kaminogawa, it will aim at global expansion as a challenge. From the viewpoint of bacteriology as the basis for the foundation, as I personally specialize in host mucosal immunology, and with the aim of simultaneously, smoothly, and constructively promoting the domestic and global expansion of its activities, I have appointed Professor Shigeru Kamiya, who are in charge of the chair of infectious disease medicine at Kyorin University School of Medicine, as its vice-chairman. Furthermore, through collaboration with Professors Shizunobu Igimi and Toshifumi Ohkusa as the members of standing directors and under the supervision of members of the board of directors and council, we will perform daily management of JBF. For the achievement of our common goals, we would like to hear honest opinions and constructive comments from those involved in the foundation and the Annual Meeting of Intestinal Microbiology, which will be reflected on such daily management of JBF. It is my sincere hope that the JBF expands globally.
