The decision to establish The Japanese Pharmacological Society was made in 1926 by the meeting of a subcommittee on Pharmacology convened for that purpose at the Seventh General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress. Its initial base of operation was broadly specified to be at a Department of Pharmacology in a Japanese University. In those days the Councilors of Society consisted of Senior Professors in Pharmacology at twenty-nine Japanese universities that boasted such departments. In those days the annual meeting of the Society was hosted by the Senior Professors in various regions.
Ever since the first meeting of the JPS held at The University of Tokyo in 1927, the annual meetings have been convened throughout Japan.
In 1941, the JPS began to publish Folia Pharmacologica Japonica as its official Japanese journal.
In 1951, the JPS issued the Japanese Journal of Pharmacology as its official English journal, later renamed Journal of Pharmacological Sciences in 2002.
In 2007, the JPS established the Ebashi Setsuro Prize as the highest award of the Society. The Ebashi Setsuro Prize is awarded to a distinguished member of our Society who has made a significant contribution to the progress of pharmacological research through original and epochmaking achievements. The Prize was established in the memory of late Professor Setsuro Ebashi (1922-2006), The University of Tokyo, an honorary member of our Society who made remarkable contributions to life sciences. The Award presentation ceremony/lecture has been held at the annual JPS meeting every year since it was established.
The achievements of Professor Setsuro Ebashi are described in more detail in the NEWS & VIEWS section of Nature, Vol. 442 (31 August 2006), p. 996: The Physiologist who uncovered the regulatory role of calcium in cells.
Past Ebashi Setsuro Award Winners
March 2008: “Endothelin and endothelial dysfunction”
Professor Tomoh Masaki (Tokyo Women’s Medical University)
March 2009: “Induction of pluripotency by defined factors”
Professor Shinya Yamanaka* (Kyoto University)
*2012 Nobel Prize Laureate
March 2010: “A neuropharmacological research on the functions of ATP receptors”
Professor Kazuhide Inoue (Kyushu University)
March 2011: “Glutamate receptors and brain function”
Professor Masayoshi Mishina (The University of Tokyo)
March 2012: “Pharmacological adventures in prostanoid receptors and the small GTPase Rho”
Professor Shuh Narumiya (Kyoto University)
March 2013: “Regulation of cell functions by spatiotemporal dynamics of Ca2+ signaling”
Professor Masamitsu Iino (The University of Tokyo)
March 2014: “Molecular identification of transporters and their application to molecular target drug discovery”
Professor Yoshikatsu Kanai (Osaka University)
March 2015: “Exploring mechanism of cell contraction, movement and polarity toward understanding molecular pathology of various diseases”
Professor Kozo Kaibuchi (Nagoya University)
March 2016: “Pharmacological and physiological studies of Ca2+ channels on the basis of their molecular entities”
Professor Yasuo Mori (Kyoto University)
March 2017: “Studies on Function and Pathology of Brain Circuits”
Professor Yuji Ikegaya (The University of Tokyo)
July 2018: “The Impossible Dream Comes True: Magic Bullets Targeting Incurable Diseases”
Professor Masatoshi Hagiwara (Kyoto University)
March 2019: “Immunopharmacology from Japan – based on intravital imaging analyses on cellular dynamics in living systems”
Professor Masaru Ishii (Osaka University)
March 2020: “Elucidation and application of activity-dependent neural plasticity mechanisms linking the synapses and the nucleus”
Professor Haruhiko Bito (The University of Tokyo)
March 2021: “Translational research targeting inflammatory responses and development of novel drugs”
Professor Masahiro Nishibori (Okayama University)
March 2022: “Molecular mechanism of hippocampal synaptic plasticity”
Professor Hayashi Yasunori (Kyoto University)
