It is a great pleasure to welcome Patricia Wetzel as the new President-Elect of ATJ! We will be meeting soon to discuss how to divide responsibilities and maintain communications as we move into a new era for our organization. I also want to extend a welcome to the newly-elected Board members: Ken-ichi Miura (Literature), Dennis Washburn (Literature), and Yuki Johnson (At-Large). The 2002 ATJ seminar was lively and informative, thanks to the hard work of the Seminar committee, Naomi McGloin, Kazuko Nakajima, Patricia Thornton, Carl Falsgraf, and Ryuko Kubota. The Seminar this year was dedicated to the memory of Professor Akira Komai, President of ATJ from 1975-1977, who passed away last year. My deepest gratitude to Tom Rohlich and Shun'ichi Kato for their inspiring reminiscences of Komai sensei at the Annual Business Meeting. If you did not have a chance to hear them, please take a moment to read the text of Tom Rohlich's remarks, which begins on page 2. Summaries of all of the Seminar presentations also appear in this issue. Finally, a hearty thank you to the outgoing Board members, Yukiko Hatasa, Mari Noda, Viginia Marcus, Ann Sherif, and Masakazu Watabe, for three years of devoted service to ATJ.

Laurel Rasplica Rodd

President-Elect's Message

I would like to thank the members of the ATJ for giving me this opportunity to lead the organization. I will work with the board and continue to advance the quality of Japanese language education. Our association spans geographic as well as disciplinary boundaries. But as academic disciplines grow less and less distinct, we have more to say to each other across borders that once seemed timeless-as in the current trend in pedagogy to see language as performance. ATJ can and should be a leader in language education. Our own ability to draw on each other's strengths is the key to our organization's success.

Patricia Wetzel