To the Memory of Mr. Miyazaki

It was a great surprise and shock to everyone who knew Mr. Tugio Miyazaki to hear of his sudden death on May 16, 1999. Until the last day, Mr. Miyazaki was quite busy editing English manuscripts for publication by the Japan Scientific Societies Press. He was the only editorial staff member of Advances in Biophysics during the nearly 30 years since its publication began.

Mr. Miyazaki was born in Aomori Prefecture, the northernmost region of mainland Japan on May 21, 1942. After graduation from Ichinohe High School, he entered the School of Education of Tohoku University in Sendai in 1961. He majored in science educa- tion and graduated in 1965. He engaged in the editing of textbooks for high schools and then joined the University of Tokyo Press in 1969, where he was responsible for editorial work on the Journal of Biochemistry, Gann Monograph on Cancer Research and Advances in Bio- physics. When Mr. Takeshi Yamada founded the Japan Scientific Soci- eties Press (JSSP), Mr. Miyazaki followed him, leaving the University of Tokyo Press and thereafter he edited over 250 English books pub- lished by JSSP.

From the mid-1970s Mr. Miyazaki participated in the Interna- tional Book Fair at Frankfurt, Germany, promoting Japanese scientific publications written in English. He served as information director of the Japan division of STM (International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) and also as the news editor of FSIE (the Forum for Scientific Information Exchange, Tokyo). He delivered a speech entitled “Japan’s scholarly publishing from the

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viewpoint of international communication” at the 8th International Publication Research Forum held at the United Nations University in Tokyo on October 23, 1997. Thus Mr. Miyazaki was regarded as one of the key representatives of scientific editors of English publications in Japan. His sudden death was therefore a great loss to this society.

I was first introduced to Mr. Miyazaki in 1968 by Mr. Yamada. He was a young, cheerful and friendly person. At that time I asked Mr. Yamada to publish an annual series of Advances in Biophysics. Dr. Masao Kotani, the founder of the Biophysical Society of Japan, wanted to publish it on behalf of the Society. Mr. Yamada agreed to publish it provided the deficient budget was somehow covered by the Editors, and Dr. Kotani applied for and received a grant-in-aid to cover the publication from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Since 1970 Advances in Biophysics has been published annu- ally and I met Mr. Miyazaki several times each year and I have served as secretary of the Editorial Committee of the Advances.

Miyazaki was very reliable; always did his best in collecting manuscripts and editing them for publication. All I had to do was to mention something on phone. One evening when we met I asked him: “Isn’t “editing” a sort of background support for someone’s publi- cation?” He answered with a smile: “Yes, it is indeed. Someone must do the job; otherwise, the work of scientists will not be published at all. I like this job very much and I feel very good when it is well done.”

I feel deepest sorrow for Mr. Miyazaki’s untimely passing. He is survived by his beloved wife, Yoko, and their two daugh-

ters.

Koscak Maruyama