Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, visited East Japan Railways and had the opportunity and pleasure to hold meetings with Mr Seino, Chairman of JR East, and Mr Ogata, Vice-Chairman of JR East.

In this respect several points were openly discussed, firstly with regard to the forthcoming High Speed Congress to be held in Tokyo in 2015, in which the Scientific and Organising Committee is making very good progress in defining the themes, panels and venue logistics. On this occasion UIC and JR East also agreed on the respective arrangements that needed to be concluded to make efficient progress.

There was also a special meeting with Chairman of JR East Mr Seino, who is also chair of the Asia Pacific region, to focus on a vision to increase activity within this region of UIC and to prepare ideas and activities for 2014 to be discussed at the next assembly to be held in Sydney at the same time as the World Congress for Rail Research.