Greetings from President

Takahiro Shiotsuki, The 24th President of the Pesticide Science Society of Japan

　I am Takahiro Shiotsuki, the President of the Pesticide Science Society of Japan for the 24th term (April 2021 - March 2023). I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest regards to you.

　The Pesticide Science Society of Japan founded in 1975 aims to contribute to human welfare and society through development of all aspects of fundamental and applied pesticide science. Our primary objectives include crop protection for stable supply of agricultural products, environmental conservation, and human health. Thanks to the vision of our founding members, these objectives are in line with multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) set up by the United Nations as below.

Goal 2 : Zero Hunger [End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, promote sustainable agriculture]
Goal 3 : Good Health and Well-being [Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages]
Goal 15 : Life on Land [Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss]
　

　In this regard, the society carries out various activities including but not limited to 1) organizing study groups in each of the seven specialties, symposia and conferences, 2) publication of books, journals and other materials in both Japanese and English languages, 3) providing research grants and overseas travel subsidies to members and 4) providing access to pesticide-related information to a wide range of non-members.

　The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused major changes globally and our society is no exception. Since the situation was never encountered before, keeping safety of all members in mind, we had to cancel scheduled annual meeting in 2020. However, we adapted and held the conference online in 2021. We found that remote conferences and online workshops can still provide effective opportunities for participants. Hereafter, we will consider the situation carefully and plan future conferences with wide options including on-site events.

　

　As for the Journal of Pesticide Science, thanks to the persistent efforts by former Editor-in-Chief Yoshiaki Nakagawa, the journal is indexed in PubMed starting since 2018 and in the international Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) since 2020. We have also enhanced our reviews and published a special issue on Insect Growth Regulators in Issue 1, 2021. We are glad that number of submissions, article views and citations have been consistently increasing over the years leading to an Impact Factor of 2.529 on 2021. As a result, the journal has gained global recognition and rightly acquired status of an international journal. To reflect the growing stature and keep up with changing publication landscape, we have renewed the cover of the journal in 2021 and included Graphical Abstracts to make published works more comprehensible and attractive to our readers. Keeping with the spirit of environmental conservation even in management of societal activities, this journal has been switched to a paperless e-journal from 2022. We request all our members to continue their active contributions to the Journal.

　On the ideological front, consumers' perception/image of "pesticides" and what is expected of farmers have been evolving rapidly since the inception of our society. Needless to mention, it is one of our missions to understand and respond to these changes. Therefore, for the former, we actively continue to provide accurate scientific explanations and share appropriate information in our website in Japanese language. For the latter, we are working comprehensively based on the keyword "pesticide science" to respond to global changes in the agricultural environment and social responsibility. We like to achieve this by connecting with each other in the basic/applied fields of molecular design and synthesis, mechanism of action, formulation and application methods, resistance/resistance, metabolism, and environmental impact etc. While global population is increasing steadily, locally in Japan, the population is both aging and shrinking leading to decreasing number of agricultural workers. Considering both global and local situations along with climate change, food shortage is imminent, and the use of pesticides is becoming more indispensable. Therefore, the importance of our society in supporting this trend is rapidly increasing and contribution from each member is valuable.

　We would like to carefully consider the opinions of our members, review and revitalize our activities to meet our aims and serve all stake-holders. We would be grateful for your continued participation, support, and cooperation in our societal activities.

April. 2021