The Directors-Council of Japanese National Marine and Inland Water Biological Stations 2022 was hold on June 9th to 10th at Green Hill Hotel Onomichi. Despite being affected by the novel coronavirus infection, it was held locally for the first time in three years, and as a hybrid conference utilizing the web, we took a new first step in the time of COVID-19.
On the first day, a tour of the facilities of our laboratory was held, and the microscopes, lecture systems, and ship-related new equipment that were installed at the discretion of the president over the past two years were introduced. At the meeting, starting with the greetings of Executive Makoto Miyatani (Vice-President in charge of education at the university), activity reports of each facility, activity reports of each facility, activity reports of facilities certified as inter-University hub for education by MEXT Japan, Open Courses at Marine and Inland Water Stations, were reported and opinions were exchanged and lively discussions were held for future activities. In addition, mini-symposium on Marine Organisms, Professor Kazuo Inaba of the University of Tsukuba, who is the director of the Japanese Association for Marine Biology (JAMBIO), lectured "Current Status and Trends of JAMBIO", Associate Proffessor Naoaki Sakamoto of the Frontier Development Program for Genome Editing, Hiroshima University, lectured "Genome Editing of Sea Urchin", Assistant Professor Asuka Arimoto of the laboratory, lectured "Shaping of Single-Cell Organisms" and lively discussions were held.
On the second day, administrative explanations and opinions were exchanged with the officer in charge of the Special Education Division, Higher Education Bureau, MEXT Japan. Various opinions and questions were raised regarding the issues and future of each facility, and it was a conference that will lead to the further development of the Japanese National Marine and Inland Water Biological Stations in the future.