Greeting from the Director General

One of the most important missions of the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) is to promote advanced research on the solid earth for better understanding earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to mitigate the relevant disasters. The great Sumatra earthquake (M 9.0) and the Chuetsu earthquake (M 6.8) in 2004 remind us of the mission once again.
To achieve the goal, we must have multi-disciplinary and long-lasting observational data on global, regional and local scales. These observations require close cooperation of researchers in and outside our country. ERI, a Shared Institute of Japanese Universities, provides the partners with opportunities to work together for contributing to the development of earth sciences. For example, ERI is promoting the national research programs for earthquake prediction and for volcanic eruption as a core institute, collaborating with researchers all over the nation. In addition, two more seats for foreign visiting researchers become available from April 2005, which will surely stimulates international research cooperation.

Faculty members of ERI are deeply involved in the education of graduate students at the University of Tokyo. Graduate students at ERI enjoy advanced field and laboratory works with their supervisors, feeling a "breath" of the Earth. We will continue to promote education characterized by the above features in collaboration with graduate schools of the University of Tokyo.

ERI is well aware that its scientific and engineering achievements should be made open to the public. ERI will strengthen its outreach effort through various activities including open house and public lectures. Lastly but not in the least, let me remind you that ERI welcomes your scientific proposals, fair criticism and any suggestions.

Director Shuhei OKUBO