On Friday, August 5th, the above symposium was held at U Thant International Conference Hall of United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, Japan. The symposium was the second in a series of annual symposiums organized jointly by IORGC and FRCGC. The purpose of the series is to introduce and deepen public understanding of our research, and to convey information about the influence of global change on our lives and society. Many people attend the symposium every year. The topic of this year's symposium was "The Global Ecosystem".

The beginning highlighted the importance of cooperation between the humanities and the natural sciences and of public participation for introducing measures to mitigate or prepare for environmental change. The combination of observations, modeling and simulation was identified as providing a critical basis for developing such measures. The focus then shifted to ocean and land ecosystems and their observation from satellites, including research results. Following the presentation of research results, Dr. Yasui, Vice Rector of the UNU and co-organizer of the symposium, discussed the importance of global ecosystem management in addressing problems of limited natural resources (water, food, and energy) during the 21st century.

Mr. Muroyama, an NHK commentator, organized the symposium and served as the main host, introducing and explaining our research activities and results in a clear, simple and enjoyable manner. Results from our questionnaire survey of the audience indicated that many attendees were pleased and found the presentations interesting. Summaries of research results from each of our Programs were presented on twelve poster panels located outside the presentation hall. During the break periods in particular, many people from the audience looked at the posters and listened carefully to the researchers' explanations.