The Chemical Society of Japan, Contributing to Chemistry in Support of the Construction of a Sustainable Society

In these last two years, humanity has been buffeted by the corona pandemic. Unfortunately, it cannot be said to be over, however the exit is gradually coming into view. On the one hand, this pandemic has become for us an opportunity to know the wisdom of humankind. Not to mention the rapid development of corona vaccines, which surprisingly in scarcely two years have been provided to patients as an orally available therapeutic. This has not been solely the strength of basic biological research and technology, but also chemical technology has made a large contribution, and there is no doubt that we have survived through comprehensive human knowledge, including logistics. On the other hand, we humans need to continuously protect the global environment, a longer-term problem, and lead construction of a sustainable society that can cycle carbon resources. Comprehensive knowledge is obviously essential for building a carbon neutral society and building a carbon cycling society, but chemistry should exist at the center. Because of the comfortable lifestyle and economic prosperity brought to humankind by consumption of energy and chemical products based on fossil resources, henceforth chemistry should fulfill a role of developing new technology toward realizing a sustainable society, and conversely, this is possible because of chemistry. For this, collaboration between academia and industry should be indispensable. The same can be said for chemistry in any research field related to the Sustainable Development Goals. The Chemical Society of Japan is a place supporting the growth of future chemists and a place where academia and industry can interact. It has fulfilled this role to date, however, with the "Building a Startup Ecosystem" and "Startup Breakthrough Vision" promoted by the Japanese government and the Keidanren in mind, support of industry-academic collaboration including startups directly and indirectly related to chemistry should be necessary. As a public interest corporation, the Chemical Society of Japan would like to continue its efforts to be an academic society contributing to the construction of a sustainable society.