We invited Jim Thornton, the current NATA President, to the JATO's annual meeting and Symposium today to announce this partnership as a notable event in the history of 17 years of JATO. This agreement is made as a result of Ms. Eve Becker-Doyle, the former Secretary for NATA who have understood and supported our activities, the Present Secretary Mr. David Saddler and corporation and effort of NATA National Office.

JATO’s roots began in 1986 at the NATA annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a private meeting about creating an organization in Japan. On June 13^th (Thursday) 1996, when the 47^th NATA annual meeting was held in Orlando, Florida, JATO was established at the initial meeting while 48 Japanese NATA members and observers attended at the Peabody hotel nearby the annual meeting hall. As of March 2014, there were 170 members, and 2016 marked the celebration of the 20^th anniversary.

After establishing first Japanese ATC in 1977, NATA accepted a lot of Japanese and gave them educational opportunities. To meet people of NATA expectation there is no doubt that Japanese ATC of the JATO can provide Japanese society with the knowledge and skills, establishing a better sport environment and helping development of athletic training in Japan.

There were also presentations of today's symposium, as shown in “The Future of Global Education and Credentialing in Athletic Training” by the former president for WFATT Dr. Michael Ferrara, who showed that the formation of standard of athletic training at the world level is not far in the future. While respecting the differences of the environment surrounding the sports in various countries and regions, JATO will continue to expand the environment to support the people who enjoy sports and athletes with NATA.

We appreciate your continuous support and understanding of JATO.