It is a great honor for me to undertake the big post of chairman of the Society at the time when ISME Tokyo 2000, the 6th of international symposiums to be held by the Society every 5 years, is scheduled for next year. At this occasion I swear to exert my best efforts for further development of the Society. It will be my great pleasure if all members of the Society would lend their cooperation for that purpose.
When this Society was established in 1966, the thriving time of shipbuilding business, our predecessors had a confidence that a ship is composed with a hull and machinery and a ship should not be rated as first class unless the contents of the hull are also first class. They made it the objective of the foundation of the Society to promote the development of the marine engineering that lies between the naval architecture and the mechanical engineering and contribute to supply of high quality marine equipment.
Since then, 33 years has passed and the political and economic situation are now in confusion.
The Society itself now faces difficulties in its operation, and the prospect of shipping and shipbuilding industries to which the Society is much related is not clear. At this time, I believe, the Society must take initiatives to become the priming power for the activities for shaping a bright future. Among various recent technical topics and development themes on ship and ocean engineering, we find an unexpectedly large number of subjects in the fields in which our Society is specialized. For example, global environmental preservation issues, improvement of reliability of equipment, new nautical instrument, safe navigation and the ISM code (the international safety management code) are all suitable themes for which Marine Engine Society can play a leading role of investigation. It is suggested that we appeal to both domestic and overseas societies and organizations concerned and obtain their cooperation in order to cope with new themes for shaping a bright future.
Furthermore, regarding the way of the operation of the Society, I wish to proceed in due consultation with the members of the Society Activation Committee as well as Directors, Councilors and members of committees, and consider the following three points are the most important for the development of the Society.
The first point is advancement of the level of our technical studies. Needless to say learning and technology are the backbone of our Society. Without them there is no meaning in the existence of the Society. I wish to activate the Society in these fields by obtaining support of two Vice Chairmen, Mr. Oka and Mr. Okada, as well as the members of the Research and Management Committee.
The second point is the improvement of services offered by the Society. Especially, we have to produce Society publications that are attractive to everybody concerned, plan events in which everybody concerned wishes to participate, and provide latest information services through home pages.
* Translated from Journal of MESJ Vol. 34, No. 8
(Manuscript Received Jun 7, 1999)
** President of the Marine Engineering Society in Japan
NKK Design & Engineering Corporation
