On behalf of the organizing committee, it is a great honor for me to extend a cordial invitation to you for the 58^th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Oral Biology (JAOB), which will be held August 24-26, 2016 at the Sapporo Convention Center in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The basic slogan of the 58^th Annual Meeting of JAOB is "A New Horizon for Oral Health Science."

Professor Hideyuki OKANO, Dean of the Department of Medicine, Keio University, will give the plenary lecture sponsored by the LOTTE foundation. The title of the lecture is "Modeling Human Psychiatric/Neurological Disorders using iPS cell technologies and Transgenic Non-human Primates."

In addition to the plenary lecture, the program includes the Symposium sponsored by the Science Council of Japan, a Symposium sponsored by the JAOB, other main Symposia, and more than 15 Satellite Symposia proposed by active JAOB members. Oral sessions, Poster Presentations, and Luncheon Seminars will also be held in the Meeting. All the presenters, including the Japanese and international participants, are strongly encouraged to prepare all slides and posters in English.

Sapporo is the capital city of Hokkaido, the northern main island of Japan. Sapporo may be well known to everybody as the city that held the 1972 Winter Olympic games. Since then we frequently host ski jumping games in winter and summer too as shown in the photo on our top page. Hokkaido presents two unique traditional dimensions, the culture of the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, and that of settlers from other parts of Japan arriving since the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The Meiji Government also introduced modern agriculture technologies into Hokkaido from the New England area of the United States. I hope you will enjoy the unique cultures here and also the many and varied delicious cuisines, including Sapporo ramen and fresh seafood.

In Sapporo you can enjoy a comfortable early autumn climate at the end of August. The average high and low temperatures are 25-27℃ and 17-20℃, respectively. We are looking forward to seeing you soon in cool Sapporo.

The 58^th Annual Meeting of The Japanese Association for Oral Biology
Congress President
Taishin TAKUMA, PhD
Professor,
Department of Biochemistry, School of Dentistry,
Health Sciences University of Hokkaido