On Announcing the Fifth TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2009
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 June 12, 2009
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Toshihiro Hayashi
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Chairperson of the Board, Japan TRIZ Society, NPO

　Since TRIZ, i.e. Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, was introduced to Japan in 1996 as a philosophy, methodology and knowledge engineering tool to strongly support technology innovation in the industrial arena, a lot of application experiences have been accumulated by Japanese users interested in TRIZ. Nowadays, it has been applied in a variety of contexts as an effective tool also for software problems and business innovation. Until now, 4 annual TRIZ Symposia in Japan have been organized. Last year, as the first symposium organized by the Japan TRIZ Society, which had been changed to a nonprofit organization, it was particularly prosperous with 46 presentations including 14 from abroad and 2 tutorials, attended by 180 participants including 15 from abroad.

　This year, returning the venue to the Tokyo metropolitan area, the symposium will be held at National Women's Education Center (Ranzan-machi, Hiki-gun, Saitama Prefecture, about 60 minutes by express train on the Tobu-Tojo Line from Ikebukuro Station) for 3 days from Thursday the 10th of September to Saturday the 12th under the theme "Toward a New Creative Era with TRIZ!"

　The application due date for presenting at this symposium was May 27th. Even during this unprecedented economic recession, we have received applications close in number to those of last year. Currently, 44 presentations including 16 from 9 foreign countries, 1 tutorial and 1 introductory discussion session with participants from Japan and abroad are planned. Besides, utilizing the merits of a lodging-type symposium, other events such as free discussion sessions on several themes and round-table discussion sessions on new trends in TRIZ are also planned in the evenings.

　We have invited TRIZ Master Boris Zlotin from Ideation International Inc, USA and Mr. Darrell Mann from Systematic Innovation LTD, UK for keynote lectures. Mr. Zlotin will talk about "Use of TRIZ for Prediction of the Future of Technological Systems", which has not penetrated yet in Japan even though it is one of the fundamental techniques in TRIZ. In contrast, Mr. Mann will deliver a lecture titled "TRIZ: Necessary But Not Sufficient: Customers And Theories Of Everything."

　For the first morning of the symposium, we have asked Mr. Yojiro Fukushima from Panasonic Corporation for a tutorial on "Using TRIZ in an Effective Way for Problem Recognition and Solving" aimed at people who are relatively new to TRIZ. He will tell specifically in the context of practices based on his experiences in promoting TRIZ within their R&D division.

　As for the contributed presentations, the applicable scope of TRIZ is expanding this year again from presentations of approaches and case studies at big companies to those at small and medium-sized enterprises and even to those at public research institutes, and also from industry-centered applications to non-industrial applications.

　Once again, we have adopted 2 presentation styles in the symposium, namely an ordinal oral presentation style and also a poster presentation style, where it is possible to have close contact with the presenter. The contributed oral presentations will run in double-track and the posters will be presented in 2 sessions each with nearly 10 presentations and discussions in parallel.

As mentioned above, a multitude of more interesting themes than ever before will be presented in this Fifth Symposium collecting presentations suited to its centered theme "Toward a New Creative Era with TRIZ!" In order to make a new leap forward after this unprecedented economic recession, it is required at this particular time to accurately predict the future to increase the success rate of innovation, and we have no doubt that this TRIZ Symposium will give you a multitude of useful hints for this purpose.

We look forward to active participations of TRIZ practitioners, TRIZ promoters and people who are starting TRIZ. People interested in TRIZ and those who are new to TRIZ but seeking next-generation innovations and new business models are also invited to attend. You don't need to be a member of the NPO Japan TRIZ Society, and those who will take this occasion to become a member are heartily welcome. We believe that this symposium will help all the participants at various situations in their work and business.

In planning the symposium this time, the participation fee has been set lower than that of last year and the program has been organized in principle to get started at 10 a.m. each day so that the participants from the Tokyo metropolitan area can make day trips, considering the present economic conditions. Though the environment is severe in various ways, we are looking forward to seeing as many people as possible at National Women's Education Center.