IEEE Tokyo Section History

Background

The IEEE Tokyo Section is one of the geographical units of the Institute of the Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional society. Globally, there are 324 local IEEE Sections and more than 1,700 technical Chapters.

Through the great efforts of Dr. Fumio Minozuma, a local section of the Institute of Radio Engineers was organized in 1956 in Japan as the IRE Tokyo Section. In 1963, IRE and the American American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) merged to form the IEEE. Accordingly, the IRE Tokyo Section became the IEEE Tokyo Section.

Initially, it started with a membership of 72 and has grown annually, to about 10,000 in 1998. Use of "Tokyo" in the name and not "Japan" came from the IEEE's traditional use of a city name in a Section name. However, in 1998, it was decided that the Tokyo Section should be split into eight Sections to further develop IEEE activities and promote member services and membership development in local region in Japan. In November 1998, a petition for the formation of seven new Sections was officially approved by IEEE Headquarters. Under the reorganization, the new Tokyo Section became one of eight Sections in Japan. A breakdown of membership by IEEE grade and Section can be found at http://www.ieee-jp.org/japancouncil/adm/kaiin/kaiin_e.htm

In June 1999, the eight Sections agreed to establish the IEEE Japan Council for the purpose of providing a centralized coordination of all sections in Japan.

The Tokyo Section was the parent Section of 35 Chapters until 1998. Then, the Chapters were placed under the Japan Council as a temporary measure until efforts to form new Chapters under the current Sections bear fruit. You can see a list of Japan Chapters and their activities at http://www.ieee-jp.org/section/tokyo/chapter_e.htm.

In December 2000, the EDS Kansai Chapter and in January 2001, the SSCS Kansai Chapter have been established.

Tokyo Section is managed by the Section Executive Committee, or ExCom. ExCom meetings are generally held five times a year. In addition, the Tokyo Section now has seven Standing Committees to promote Section activities. The Section also holds an Annual General Assembly.The General Assembly features a report on the Section activities of the previous year and the budgeting of operational funds for the next year, the presentation of Fellow certificates, a special lecture by an IEEE award recipient, as well as a party for members.

The Tokyo Section Publications Committee released the first issue of a Section newsletter called the "IEEE Tokyo Bulletin" on May 31, 2000 as a new means of communication for its members. Since then, the Bulletin has regularly been both published and posted on the IEEE Tokyo Section's home page, so that every member belonging to the Section may be well informed of the activities progress and operation criteria of their Section. The IEEE Tokyo Section has been making efforts to link the members electronically, so that the communications cost be reduced to as least as possible. Today, most of the members receives this communication through electronic mails, while one tenth receives by FAX, and the rest via the regular mailing services by using post card. For enhanced communication among the members, we will continue to make the best possible use of this newsletter.

The Tokyo Section's other activities include holding lectures by inviting well-known scientists and engineers from around the world, supporting Fellow nominations, and assisting students with their activities through the IEEE Student Branches.

On 16 April 2010, the Tokyo Section Life Member affinity group was inaugrated. Dr Kohei Habara was the founding chair.

On 18 November 2011, the Tokyo Section and Japan Council commemorated the NHK Direct Public Satellite Broadcasting milestone. The event was recorded in Super-HD. The event was managed by Dr Eiju Matsumoto.

Section Officers

Section Officers - Tokyo Section

Year	Chair	Vice-chair	Secretary	Treasurer
2010
2011
2012	Tomonori Aoyama	Hirohisa Gambe	Yoshihiro Arimoto	Ryuji Kohno

Milestone Events and Other Notes

Outline of Tokyo Section History

Year	Event	Membership
1955	IRE Tokyo Section Created	50
1956	First General Assembly	72
1958	First Chapter (MTT)	222
1963	IEEE Tokyo Section	573
1975	Support System by Companies	1,915
1996	Section Assessment	9,186
1997	Independent Office start	9,454
1998	Eight Section born	10,010
1999	Japan Council Established	10,375
2005	Fifty Years Anniversary	12,703

Establishment of Tokyo Section and Chapters (1955-74)

1. IRE Tokyo Section Established in December 1955. First Chair H. Yagi, Vice Chair Y. Niwa, Secretary F. Minozuma. Renamed to IEEE Tokyp Section in 1963.

2. Organization of Section Chapters: MTT 1958; PE 1964; C 1967; EMD 1970; ED, CAS, & BTR 1971.

3. Publication of "Densai Tokyo" from teh First Issue in 1959 to Last Inssue (no. 33) in 1994

4. International Conferences held in Japan: ICMCI 1964 (on microwave, cc't & inf. theory), INTERMAG 1972

Establishment of Supporting System and Sound Financial Basis 1975-1997

1. Key Companies held Section Office alternately; Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, NEC, NTT, KDD< Sumitomo

2.  Section Assessment to make sound financial basis; Independent Office opened with member service improvement

3. International Conferences held more frequently: IECON 1984, ICASSP 1986, IROS 1988, Asia Pacific Year 1994 Symposium

Start of Eight Sections and New Activities

1. Division of Tokyo Section into Eight Sections: Start of Ad hoc Comm. 1998/2. Approval of IEEE HQ 1998/10. Sapporo (Hokkaido), Sendai (Tohoku), Tokyo (Kanto & Koshinetsu), Nagaya (tokai & Hokuriku), Kansai, Hiroshima (Chugaku), Shikoku, Fukuoka (Kyushu, Okinawa)

2. Japan Council and Operation of Chapters. Sections are main players, JC supports and coordinates. Chapter Operation: Japan Chapters, and Section Chapters.

3. Member's Activities: IEEE HQ; VP (1), Secreatary (3), R-10 Director (6), Div. X Director (1), Society President (7), Medals (18) & Awards (63), Sister Section with Boston Section, Formation fo WIE in Japan

IEEE Medals, Awards, Milestone Recipients

IEEE Medal of Honor (2)

Leo Esaki (1991), Tadahiro Sekimoto (2004)

IEEE Medals (16)

M. Ibuka, H. Omi, S. Yonezawa, K. Kobayashi, S. Tominga, M. Ieta, A. Morita, H. Inose, M. Morita, K. Morii, J. Nishizawa, H. Sasaki, S. Yamamura, T. Nakahara, Y. Suematsu, F. Itakura

IEEE Technical Field Awards (62), Prize Paper Award (1)

L. Esaki (1961), K. Suzuki (1967), T. Koga (1969), S. Miyaoka (1974), etc.

IEEE Honorary Member (5)

H. Yamashita, A. Morita, H. Mizuno, H. Ohga, T. Sasaki

IEEE Corporate Recognition (3)

Sony (1987), Seiko Epson (2002), NTT Docomo (2005)

IEEE Milestone (5)

Yagi Anntena, Tokaido Shinkansen, Quartz Watch , Electronic Calculator

Membership

Membership of Sections in Japan as of end of Dec. 2005

Section	Total Member	Fellow	SM	St	St. Branch	Chapter
Sapporo	218	2	14	37	1	0
Sendai	579	32	32	71	1	2
Tokyo	7,708	326	467	516	6	36 (JC)
Nagoya	961	27	37	108	2	0
Kansai	2,031	68	99	320	4	3
Hiroshima	365	9	26	22	1	0
Shikoku	203	4	8	46	1	0
Fukuoka	638	12	28	95	1	4
Total	12,703	480	711	1,215	17	45

Archival documents

IEEE Geographic Unit Organizing Document - Tokyo

IEEE Tokyo Section Report, 2011

IEEE Tokyo Section 50th Anniversary Pamphlet, 2006

Further Reading

Link to Section Homepage