January 2024

Toyoko Yoshizawa, PhD
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
Japan Academy of Nursing Science

Dear Members,

The beginning of 2024 has been marked by a series of tragic disasters and accidents, including the “2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake” on the 1st and the Haneda Airport runway collision on the 2nd. I am sure our members were saddened by these two disasters.

Board of Directors would like to express our sympathies to all our members whose organizations are located in the disaster-stricken areas. I would also like to express my gratitude to all of you who have started various initial responses in the field as nurses. The Japan Academy of Nursing Science (hereinafter referred to as "JANS") is also beginning to collect information and would like to explore what JANS can do to help.

Two years ago, the chairperson of the World Academy of Nursing Science (WANS), which JANS has played a central role in, changed from Dr. Noriko Katada to Dr. Tassana Boontong, but due to the recent earthquake disaster and the aircraft accident, I received a series of emails of sympathy and encouragement from chairperson Dr.Boontong and other WANS board members, and I was moved by the messages that can only come from the nursing profession.

This year's zodiac sign, the Year of the Dragon, is said to be a year of great political change. In ancient times, there were the Boshin War (1868-1869) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and in the Showa era, corruption cases such as the Lockheed Incident and the Recruit Incident were discovered in the Year of the Dragon. Now we have entered the Reiwa period in Japan, last year the political world has been shaken by the issue of slush funds caused by political party funding. This year is expected to be a turbulent year, with the US presidential election, the Russian presidential election, and a general election likely to be held in Japan as well. It is no exaggeration to say that this year will be the pinnacle of the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) era. I firmly believe that this year is one in which JANS must clearly assess what we need to do now, and what we need to do in the future, and put into effect our future action plans with a renewed sense of determination.

The 43rd Annual Conference of the Japan Academy of Nursing Science, held in December last year, was hosted by Professor Makiko Tanaka of Yamaguchi Prefectural University. This was the first on-site event since the 2019 novel coronavirus became a Type 5 notifiable infectious disease, and more than 3,800 members attended Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture to participate in the "Science and Arts of Nursing that Opens the Future: Combining Tradition and Innovation." I would like to thank everyone for coming together and making this an extremely intensive conference.

This term, JANS started with a new Board of Directors in June 2023, and is moving smoothly ahead due to the activities of each committee. In order to foster future nursing researchers, the Young Scientists Committee has increased the amount of each grant and introduced a review system for each application to make it easier to use. In addition, the Social Contribution Committee has begun using Instagram to publicize nursing researchers to middle and high school students. The Nursing Care Development/Standardization Committee has published two guidelines so far, and the results are coming out. The impact factor (IF) of the English-language journal, Japan Journal of Nursing Science (JJNS) is gradually increasing, and it is becoming an important journal in nursing. In 2024, let us further accelerate the activities of the JANS Committees, and contribute to improving the Well-being of each and every citizen through nursing research.

I look forward to working with your continued support this year.