The Japan Biology Olympiad Committee (JBO), chaired byDr. Hideo Mohri (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo),submitted a bid to host the 20th International BiologyOlympiad (IBO) in July 2009 and subsequently won the bidafter International Biology Olympiad coordinators cast theirvotes electronically in early April 2007. IBO 2009 will takeplace in Tsukuba, Japan.
Each nation that participates in the IBO is expected to makea bid to host the event within a period of ten years after firstparticipation. Although host countries for each year hadalready been selected through 2017, it was revealed at aDecember 2006 meeting of the IBO Advisory Board that theoriginally-scheduled host of IBO 2009 had suddenly with-drawn. Consequently, the Advisory Board urged Japan totake over as the new IBO 2009 host country.
While the details are still under consideration, the plan is forthe University of Tsukuba to help organize the event withcooperation from national and private research institutes and organizations located in Tsukuba Science City. In additionto the Japan Science Foundation (Science Museum), whichserves as JBO’s secretariat office, the University of Tokyo,Toho University, and other universities that have beenactively involved in IBO activities in the past, JBO plans towin the cooperation of numerous other Japanese organiza-tions in the field of biology in order to make IBO 2009 asuccess. Dr. Hiroo Imura (Professor Emeritus, KyotoUniversity) will serve as chairman of the InternationalBiology Olympiad 2009 Organizing Committee.
The year 2009 will mark the 200-year anniversary of thebirth of Charles Darwin, the man who advocated the theoryof evolution, and the 150-year anniversary of the first publi-cation of his primary work “Origin of Species.” It will alsobe 100 years since the term “gene” was proposed to describeMendel’s “factors.”
The first of the International Science Olympiads ? theMathematical Olympiad ? was held in 1959. The PhysicsOlympiad was added in 1967, the Chemistry Olympiad in1968, and the Informatics Olympiad in 1989. The firstBiology Olympiad was held in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia in1990 and attracted competitors from six countries. Sincethen, the number of participating countries and competitorshas increased; 50 countries and 198 competitors participatedin IBO 2005 (Beijing, China) and 47 countries and 185 com-petitors participated in IBO 2006 (Rio Cuarto, Argentina).For further details regarding the meaning of IBO, pleaserefer to Dr. Koh Kobayashi’s previous article in Bioscience & Industry (Vol. 63 No. 4).
Similar to other International Science Olympiads, the pur-pose of the International Biology Olympiad is to heightenhigh school students’ interest in science (specifically biolo-gy in this case), help them to develop their abilities, andassist them in becoming the scientists (biologists) of tomor-row. The event is also intended to promote the exchange ofinformation concerning biology education in each participat-ing country.
Each IBO competitor is given five hours to complete a testconsisting of theoretical problems and five hours to com-plete an experiment-based test. Contests require not onlyknowledge and experiment skills but an interest in biology,creativity, originality, and endurance. Competitors are alsotreated to receptions, tours, lectures, and excursions that pro-vide opportunities for them to network with other like-mind-ed students. Researchers and teachers who come as chaper-ones have the opportunity to debate, determine, and translatetest questions. There are also opportunities for frank discus-sions on current conditions in each country’s biology educa-tion programs.
Although Japan is a late-comer to IBO activities, the JapanBiology Olympiad Committee JBO was established inFebruary 2005 as a voluntary organization. Universityresearchers and high school teachers volunteered to promoteIBO activities in Japan, and national contests were conduct-ed with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology and the Japan Science andTechnology Agency. As a result, Japan was able to send itsfirst team of four competitors to the Beijing IBO in July2005. The team won two bronze medals as reported by Dr.Kobayashi in this newsletter. The Japanese team also wonthree bronze medals at the IBO held in Argentina the follow-ing year.
This year (Saskatoon, Canada) marks the third year in whichJapan has participated in the International BiologyOlympiad. Researchers and teachers who provide guidanceto the Japanese team have acquired experience over the pasttwo years, and global-standard texts have been translated foruse by high school students, which means that there are par-ticularly high expectations for this year’s team.It is our wish that Japan’s bioindustry organizations andcompanies, in addition to the national population, turn out tosupport the team’s efforts in 2009. We also hope thatJapan’s high school students are ready to compete and winmore medals.

Addendum
On March 22, Chairman Dr. Leo Esaki convened a meetingof the Japan Science Olympiad Promotion Committee,which is comprised of experts from various industrial sec-tors. He made a broad request for the understanding andsupport of the International Science Olympiads. At themeeting it was stated that the nation was fully behind the2009 IBO in Tsukuba and 2010 International ChemistryOlympiad to be held in Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. Hideo Mohri
Chairman, Japan Biology Olympiad Committee
Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo