Introduction
	President, Yanagida Takayoshi (Professor, Bunkyo University)
Objectives
Today the electronic keyboard has penetrated and found wide application in diverse areas of our musical culture. The Japan Society for Electronic Keyboard Music was founded to encourage research into both its theory and its articulation in composition and performance. The progress of digital technology has been astonishing not only for the electronic keyboard. In 21st century society what sort of culture will be formed by the development of this technology? The Japan Society for Electronic Keyboard Music hopes to make its own contribution to musical culture and educational activity through its members' energetic research and inquiry.

Specific Objectives
1） Meetings and workshops etc. for the presentation of scholarly research concerning the electronic keyboard 2） Compilation and publication of the society's journal,Electronic Keyboard Music Research 3） Data collection and surveys for research purposes 4） Exchange of data and co-operative research with research organizations in other countries 5） Anything else considered necessary for the fulfillment of this society's objectives

Board　of Directors (November, 2008 - November, 2010)
President		Yanagida Takayoshi
Vice President		Shimoyakawa Kyousuke
Vice President		Ideta Keizou
Secretary General		Agata Suguru
Emeritus Director		Takahagi Yasuharu
Director		Yoshida Taisuke
Director		Nita Etsuroh
Director		Ogura Ryuichiro
Director		Kaizu Sachiko
Director		Morishita Kinuyo
Director		Nakaji Masayuki

Contact Information
	The Japan Society for Electronic Keyboard Music c/o Showa Academia Musicae 1-11-1 Kami-Aso, Aso Ward, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Japan 215-8558 Telephone: ＋81 44-953-1121 　81 44-953-1121 FAX: +81 44-953-1311 E-mail: jsekm@view.snow.ocn.ne.jp URL: http://jsekm.jp/

The Voice of JSEKM

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The Role of The Japan Society for Electronic Keyboard Music

July, 2010

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The Japan Society for Electronic Keyboard Music began in 2004 with a General Meeting to make preparations for its establishment. It has held five National Meetings, annually for the years 2005 to 2009. Let us consider the reasons that led to the founding of this society and its role.

(1) The number of electronic musical instruments produced in Japan, in other words, the demand for musical instruments, surpassed that of acoustic musical instruments like the piano and violin in 1984. Since then that trend has become ever more prominent. The demand for pianos, which reached its peak in 1980, has continually decreased, to the point where it is now but a fraction of what it was then. The decreasing birth rate can be considered a cause of this, but the spread of relatively cheap and high quality electronic musical instruments is a far larger one, as the overall demand for keyboard instruments has not decreased. Demand, which once centered on acoustic keyboard instruments, now centers on the electronic keyboard (electronic pianos, electronic organs, simple single-keyboard instruments, and the like).

(2) When electronic musical instruments first appeared, they developed and spread centered on the music schools of musical instrument manufacturers as instruments for the hobbyist or as a first instrument for those just taking up music. However, the latest in electronic keyboards have gathered all the latest vogues in high technology and with their built-in computers and what not have evolved to a level not to be compared with that of the past. Musicians and educators in Japan and many other countries have begun to see and actualize the new musical and educational possibilities in the performance of not only popular music but also classical music, as well as in both life-long and specialist education. For example, at teacher-training institutions new measures in group classes and teaching methodology based on the use of electronic pianos can be seen. At these institutions comprehensive music education, which transcends mere skills training, is being accomplished. In the USA there are already cases of similar educational methods being put into practice in the "Comprehensive Musicianship Project".

(3) Japan is known as a musical instrument empire. And in that realm electronic keyboard instruments boast a near overwhelmingly dominant share. This is made abundantly clear if one takes a look at the world's two great musical instrument shows, America's NAMM and Europe's Messe Frankfurt.

(4) However, even though Japan is a country of high-performance and productivity, one can not help but point out that it has fallen behind when it comes to comprehensive measures on the application side of musical expression, music education, and life-long study. We believe that it is vital for us henceforth as a learned society to engage in research on all relevant problems and to transmit our findings to all those interested both at home and abroad, while gaining co-operation from the hardware side, beginning, of course, with specialists in all the various fields of music. This society seeks its raison d'etre in research activity which fixes its gaze on the new state of music accompanying changes in the demand for musical instruments and the evolution of electronic musical instruments and on educational practices themselves.