Dear Friends,

We are pleased to inform you how advancing the preparations for an International Symposium named the 1^st Cherry Blossom Symposium concerning Laboratory Automation and Robotics. It will be held on March 29-April 1,1998,at Tosa Royal Hotel nearby the Pacific Ocean in Kochi. The purpose of the symposium is to discuss recent progress of laboratory automation in the clinical laboratory fields, such as the sample transportation system and laboratory robotics system as well as laboratory information system using computer. It is hoped that the symposium will encourage international cooperation in laboratory and company workers.

As a speaker for the plenary lecture, we could get a successful to invite Prof. Takeshi Yamakawa who is a famous international doctor as a pioneer in the development of "the Fuzzy Theory ". He could present you a great lecture entitled "Fuzzy Linguistics Approach to Reasonable Medical Diagnosis and Sophisticated Modeling ". It gets ready for four tutorial sessions by Prof. Robin A.Felder (USA), Mr. Stephen Middleton(Canada), Prof. Pieraneglo Bonini (Italy) and Dr. Alain Donzel (Switzerland) who will give you wonderful lectures through their abundant experience and their situation. Also, we set up four symposia and poster sessions as shown in the next pages.

Furthermore, we have the open public report and meeting from the NCCLS by Prof. Rodney S.Markin (USA). Of course, about the exhibition, we have been received many offers from famous companies not only from Japan but also over sea. They will exhibit a lot of excellent and newly developed machines for laboratory automation.

On the other hand, we are planning to set up Welcome Party, the Cherry Blossom Night and Gala Evening (Sayonara Party) etc.. We firmly believe that you might enjoy the special Japanese Dinner of Kochi and SAKE!! Let's talk and discuss how to make the most useful and very convenient way for laboratory automation or how to get more economical system now and in the future as much as you like under the tree of cherry blossom. The spring time in Kochi is well known for its peaceful and romantic atmosphere, and the moon night is specially the most wonderful.

Further more, the plan of the post congress tour is also preparing two courses (Tokyo or Osaka) which you can visit the automation equipment company, the fully automated laboratory (University Hospital) and cherry blossom sightseeing at Kyoto or Tokyo.

We would be very pleased to hear from you of your attendance to the 1^st Cherry Blossom Symposium together with your many friends. We are looking forward to seeing you at Kochi next March.

Thank you.