I congratulate the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics (JRM) on the publication of its 30th anniversary issue. As one of JRM’s past Editors-in- Chief, I am extremely pleased and proud of this great achievement. JRM was the first journal dealing with robotics and mechatronics in the world when it was launched thirty years ago. Since then, the journal has made a strong impact on the robotics and mechatronics field. It has been hard for the journal to provide high quality issues for so many years. I would like to sincerely express my great respect to Mr. Hayashi, founder and former president of Fuji Technology Press Ltd.; former Editors-in-Chief Prof. Yamafuji, Prof. Fukuda, and Prof. Kaneko; the current Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Takita; and our colleagues, including the editorial board and editorial staff, for their hard work. I would also like to express my great appreciation to all the authors, reviewers, and readers for their superb contributions. This grand thirty-year achievement could not have been attained without all their contributions.

I was Editor-in-Chief for seven years ‒ volumes 19 through 25 ‒ beginning in January 2007. I enjoyed my role as Editor-in-Chief, since many young, talented researchers and engineers took part in the editorial process, and I could discuss with them how we would achieve a high-quality journal. I remember clearly how hard they worked to edit superlative volumes by proposing and organizing special issues with up-to-date topics. During that period, we had the good fortune of collaborating with the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME). They supported us in providing committee members for our editorial board, and in collecting and reviewing the many excellent papers. I would also express my thanks to JSME for their abundant and generous support. Because of it, JRM achieved a high reputation and contributed to both academia and industry.

Today there are many relevant journals in the world. Competing with them and producing an even higher quality journal than ever before are the most critical issues in the next step of JRM’s advancement. I applaud the current editorial board members and staff and expect JRM to become the very top journal in the field. In conclusion, I hope I can celebrate with you ten and twenty years from now, again and again!

Tatsuo Arai