GREETING

Since its emergence as a mechanism for “using ICT to shift the work to the workers” instead of vice versa, telework has attracted attention on a global scale as a means of alleviating temporal, locational and organizational constraints.In Japan, many experiments aimed at exploring diverse workstyles have taken place, starting with the early satellite office and resort office pilots, the establishment of telework centres and the rise of SOHO businesses. The Japan Telework Society (J@TS) was established in 1999 to act as a vehicle for promoting broad-ranging research in the telework field, for assessing telework program effectiveness and proposing best practice. With some 200 members, we are by no means a large academic society, but we continue to contribute to the formation of a rigorous research basis with our annual research conferences, publication of a refereed journal and research groups. On a more personal note, I am also pleased to mention that the J@TS homepage houses the full archives of the International Flexwork Forum’s newsletter (1991-99). As attested to by the Japanese government’s latest e-Japan strategy, social expectations for telework continue to grow and it is in this climate that we aim to provide a multidisciplinary vehicle for active dialogue between researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the field. To that end, we intend to maintain our existing cooperative bonds with other related bodies and hope to see continued growth in our membership base as well as ongoing support from a diverse range of quarters.