As ICT (information and communication technologies) make rapidprogress in areas such as measurement, telecommunication, informationretrieval and computation, the human society and technologicalenvironment of academic research is changing significantly. In the late20th century, progress in the fields of simulation-based computationalscience, as well as theoretical and experimental science, fosteredadvances in previously intractable fields such as nonlinear phenomenaand complex systems, which were difficult to be treated by conventionalanalytic methods. With the coming of the 21st century, increased availabilityof a variety of large-scale data sets has facilitated progress in manyfields of research, and a method for prediction and discovery calledthe 4th science, which is based on large-scale data analysis, is makingsignificant progress. Only with the establishment of the 4th sciencecan we use both the deductive approach (computational science) andthe inductive approach (large-scale data science), which are based oncomputers, in addition to conventional theoretical and experimentalsciences that depend on researchers' intuition, and establish thescientific methodology essential for research in the information age.

With this in view, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics has promotedresearch aimed at establishing methods for prediction and knowledgediscovery based on large-scale data sets by setting up the Predictionand Knowledge Discovery Research Center and the Risk AnalysisResearch Center. In the current fiscal year, we also set up a ResearchGroup for Reliability and Quality Assurance of Service and Product inthe Risk Analysis Research Center and started research on the reliabilityof products and quality of services, which have become an importantsocial problem in recent years. In addition, we have set up a ResearchInnovation Center in order to systematically support research activitiesaimed at innovation in statistical mathematics, and started researchon social survey information, statistical inference based on functionanalysis, Monte Carlo algorithm and random numbers.

The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, which serves as an interuniversityresearch organization, has promoted joint research projectswith various organizations in academic research. Establishment ofsuch joint research coordination and research networks is increasinglyimportant in a society that is increasingly complex and diverse. In particular, our effort to establish an NOE (Network of Excellence),which the Risk Analysis Research Center has promoted, is attractingattention in many areas. While focusing on these activities, theInstitute of Statistical Mathematics intends to contribute to society byfostering the progress and development of statistical modeling, largescaledata analysis and mathematical approaches.

We would appreciate your continued understanding and support forthe activities of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics.

Genshiro Kitagawa
Director-General
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics