I am honored to be serving as President of the International Association for Human Caring (IAHC) and Chairperson of the 35^th International Association for Human Caring conference to be held in Kyoto, Japan, May 24-28^th 2014. The conference theme the Universality of Caring reflects the mission and values of our organization for we have nurses from all over the world as members, publishing in our journal, and traveling to our conferences. We have not had a conference outside of the USA since 2006 and this will be the first time that an IAHC conference will be in Japan. The relationships, scholarship, research, and intellectual discourses on caring that emerge from our conferences are the fabric of our organization and a source of energetic renewal allowing for emerging creativity in the area of caring theory/caring science. I have been involved with caring being a substantive area of study within the discipline of nursing and the IAHC since entering graduate school at Florida Atlantic University in 1989 and feel privileged to connect with nurses all over the world through my own scholarship and the IAHC. We will have scholars from all over the world presenting papers and showcasing posters related to the conference theme of caring being universal as we continue to inform and change nursing on a global level through caring innovations in education, practice, and research. Dr. Jean Watson and Dr. Marilyn Ray will be hosting a special tribute to Dr. Madeline Leininger on the evening of May 24^th to recognize her commitment to transcultural caring and nursing. In addition, our hosts from Japan have planned special educational tours for May 28^th. When we ended our 2013 conference in Orlando, Florida, Dr. Hohashi and I set our intentions to have at least 1,000 nurses from all over the world gather for this conference. Please help make our shared vision a reality. Join us for an experience of a lifetime, make it a vacation, re-connect with colleagues, meet new colleagues, find renewal, practice self-care, and enjoy the sites of this beautiful city and country.

In caring and peace,

The International Association for Human Caring (IAHC) is a professional academic and practice organization founded in 1978 by the late Dr. Madeleine Leininger, whose work is being carried on by the joint efforts of nurse theorists, scholars of caring, academicians, educators, researchers, and nurses in practice. The organization with its proud history has up to now held conferences in the United States and other countries, but never in Japan.

On the occasion of its 35^th conference, we are delighted that IAHC members will be converging on Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto, where the 2014 conference will adopt the theme of "The Universality of Caring." Nursing professionals from Japan, the United States and the rest of the world will gather together to discuss how aspects of care and caring transcend national boundaries.

Caring is a way of being, knowing, and doing that reflects on all areas of nursing, embodying the origins and fundamental essence of nursing studies and nursing. Its holistic aspects can be encompass multiple disciplines in numerous fields, including Fundamental Nursing, Infection Control Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Ethics, Family Health Nursing, Adult Health Nursing, Gerontological Nursing, Child Health Nursing, Women's Health Nursing, Midwifery, Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Home Care Nursing, Community Health Nursing, Public Health Nursing, Genetic Nursing, Disaster Nursing, International Nursing, Transcultural Nursing and others.

I am eagerly looking forward to joining with all of you in Kyoto, to explore the universal aspects of care and caring, so as to discover and better understand its true essence.

Naohiro Hohashi, PhD, RN, PHN, LSN, Professor and Department Director

Division of Family Health Care Nursing (Certified Nurse Specialist [CNS] in Family Health Nursing Program)
Department of Nursing, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences

I was privileged to be part of the human caring movement in nursing from the beginning, presenting on the philosophy of caring at the First Caring Conference in 1978 hosted by the late Dr. Madeleine Leininger with Dr. Jean Watson at the University of Utah, College of Nursing, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. As the founder of the caring movement in nursing, the first nurse-anthropologist, and the "mother" of transcultural nursing, Dr. Leininger was committed to connecting with colleagues in different cultures and different nations around the world. She passed along that legacy to all of us all over the world, and she would be overjoyed at our "coming together" here in Kyoto, Japan in 2014 for our conference on the Universality of Caring with our special interest in Transcultural Nursing: East and West.

I have been able to advance the ideals of caring, transcultural nursing and complexity science through my scholarship in transcultural caring dynamics. It gives me great pleasure to be in Kyoto sharing ideas, theories, research and practices of transcultural caring in nursing and health care with you, my colleagues from Japan. I also welcome our colleagues from other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), North America, and people from around the world. I look forward to collegial dialogue and opportunities to advance our collective creative ideas of transcultural caring science that will continue to contribute to vast change in the global health care community.