Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to IWPMA2018 (Workshop on Piezoelectric Materials and Applications in Actuators), to be held in Kobe, Japan. After IWPMA2012 in Hirosaki, Japan, this conference had been annually hosted in different countries including Korea, Germany, China, and the USA. It is our great pleasure to be organizing this exciting conference in Japan for the second time. As you know, this conference underpins piezoelectric materials and their applications such as actuators and energy harvesting; however, we would like to pioneer new technologies for our future. Many researchers are expected to join IWPMA2018 and participate in many inspiring and fruitful discussions.

The conference will be held in Kobe, located in Hyogo prefecture in the west side of Japan. During Edo-period, Japan had been sealed off from the outside world and Kobe was one of the first seaport cities that were open for trade with the western countries at the end of Edo period. Since then, the city had been known as a cosmopolitan port city. At the port of Kobe, many exotic things were imported; therefore, the city had developed a unique atmosphere having a touch of the European class along with its traditional Japanese culture. In Kobe, one can enjoy the world-famous Kobe beef and the delicious Nada Sake. Besides Kobe's great attractions, one will have easy access to many other attractive cities, such as Kyoto, Nara or Osaka. During this conference, we hope you get the chance to enjoy the beauty of this city and its marvelous surroundings.

We hope you can join us for this year IWPMA conference where, once a year, we can get together as old friends, and find a great opportunity to make new ones. I wish everybody spends invaluable time during this conference, making the best out of it for their future research.