The Jaques-Dalcroze Society of Japan began its activity with forty members on the 27th of July 1999, with the approval from the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze Geneva. Under the first president, Mr. Mabuchi, the society has held three directors meetings and five regular board meetings per year. During our first 2 years, our discussions were mainly focused on the importance of the society’s existence, its purpose, development. 

After much reflective thinking, with our civic responsibility in mind, we have selected three objectives for the development of our Society:

1. To offer a place of communication for the members of the society to promote activities for the members.
2. To expand and develop eurhythmics according to the principles of Jaques-Dalcroze.
3. To build and maintain contact with other Dalcroze organizations World-Wide.

CHRONICLE: DALCROZE SOCIETY of JAPAN

June 1999 : General Meeting - Organization of the Regulations
June 2000 : Lecture : “Theoretical view of Dalcroze Eurhythmics” 
Yasushi　Itano (Honorary Professor, Kunitachi College of Music; first license holder as a Japanese)
June 2001 : Forum 1 - Theme: “Nice to meet you” 
Every member participated in a Eurhythmics related activity.
Sept 2001 : Commenced general public membership acceptance
April 2002 : Election : Change of President and Board Members 
June 2002 : General Meeting
June 2003 : Forum 2 -Theme: “Eurhythmics and I”
Members specializing in piano, violin, or percussion gave presentations incorporating Eurhythmics

The Annual General Meetings are conducted along with various activities deemed beneficial to the members, namely, -namely, participatory workshops, interactions of members, and presentations of research studies.

To raise the level of interest in Eurhythmics and to increase our membership, we held a “Dalcroze-Eurhythmics Special Workshop” in Feb 2001 and invited Professor Lisa Parker from the United States, and fifty students participated and the event was a big success.
Again this past February, Dr. Annabelle Joseph from the United States and Professor Sandra Nash from Australia were invited and lectures were held at Tokyo and Kurashiki City. Again the event proved to be a huge success and many favorable reviews was received. 

As a result of effort and activities, the Society which started with only 40 members has now grown to 220 members. 

Nearly a hundred years ago, Eurhythmics was first introduced into Japan. Back then, Eurhythmics was classified among the Arts along with Drama and Dancing. Soon, thereafter, it was incorporated into the program of preschool education and began to attract the attention and the interest of many people. 

Dalcroze had the original idea of Eurhythmics. However, recognition of Eurhythmics as an approach to music education along is insufficient. Globalization and development of the subject a higher level is already underway.

One of our themes is the promotion of Dalcroze knowledge for the further expansion and development of Eurhythmics in music world at large. There is need to provide more opportunities to learn from other experienced lecturers to teach the depth of Eurhythmics.
With this in mind, we have decided to hold “The Dalcroze-Eurhythmics International Conference 2004” in Tokyo next summer, from 11th to 14th August 2004.
Through such an event, it is our sincere hope that our effort will contribute in some degree toward the future development of Eurhythmics, not only in Japan, but also in many countries throughout Asia.

At this time, the holders of Dalcroze qualifications in our country are as follows: 2 diplomas, 28 licenses, and 33 certificates.