About the Cover

Vol. 99 No. 8 (2023)

The cover picture of this issue has a historic importance. The Proceedings of the Imperial Academy, the predecessor of the present Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B started its publication in 1912. However, its publication was initially sporadic and it was not until 1926 when its publication became regular. Despite some minor irregularities during the World War II, publication of 10 issues per year has continued to this day. In 1977, it was divided to the current Series A: Mathematical Sciences and Series B: Physical and Biological Sciences. It is now possible to read without fee all articles online since the first issue of the journal. And now, we are looking forward to Vol. 100 in 2024. As a part of the commemorative projects, we are planning to re-publish some of the important papers together with retrospective analysis by experts. Please look up the joint greeting by the Editor-in-Chief, Kunihiko Suzuki and the Executive Editor, Shigekazu Nagata in this issue (p. 227).

The special article published in this issue by Dr. Masanori Iye, “Proceedings of the Japan Academy—History, Database and Trend—” (pp. 228–240) provides not only the introduction of the history of this journal but also many statistical analyses. The database is added as an electronic appendix.

The pictures show mainly the covers of all the issue 1 of Vols. 1 to 99. Since early publications were irregular, the covers of Vol. 1, No. 2 (1913), No. 3 (1914) and No. 5 (1918) are also included. On the left upper corner, shown slightly larger, is the cover of Vol. 1, No. 1. Publication was initially in the B5 format but changed to the A4 format from Vol. 71. Also, photographs were added to the cover from Vol. 79. 

All of the articles so far published represent an important segment of scientific progress in Japan and we look forward to continuing contributions by the Proceeding of the Japan Academy Series B in the future.

Kunihiko Suzuki
Editor-in-Chief
Proceeding of the Japan Academy, Series B