The 2012 International Conference on Flexible and Printed Electronics (ICFPE) was held in Tokyo, Japan, on 6-8 September 2012. This is one of the major international conferences held annually in Asia, focusing on the flexible and printed electronics. The other two similar international conferences are the Large Organic and Printed Electronics Conference (LOPEC) held in Europe annually and the Flexible Electronics & Displays conference (FlexTech) held in USA annually. The ICFPE was initiated by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in 2009. In the last three years the ICFPE is gaining more and more importance because of the rapid development and advances in flexible and printed electronics in Asia region. The 2012 ICFPE in Tokyo had over 1200 attendees participating, which is the record number since the conference started, showing the trend that flexible and printed electronics are drawing wider attention from both academics and industries. It is also reflecting the fact that Asia is increasingly becoming the major manufacturing base as well as the major market of flexible and printed electronics.

Compared to other Asian countries and regions, China has been lagging behind in this area. However, the situation started changing since 2010 when the Printable Electronics Research Center (PERC) was established at the Suzhou Institute of Nanotech (SINANO), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other similar centers spun up across China, as well as the first Chinese Printed Electronics Symposium was held that year. Since then the Chinese symposium has been held in three consecutive years. The awareness on this new technology development in China is fast rising and more research groups and, particularly, the industrial sectors, start to look into this new technology seriously. As the flexible and printed electronics are mostly for consumer electronic products, China cannot be ignored as the world largest market for these products. China also has the world largest manufacturing base for consumer electronic products. The increased activity in printed electronics in China has got noticed in the international community. The ICFPE, which used to be rotated among the initiating countries and region, wish to get other Asian countries involved. So when Professor Zheng CUI, Director of PERC, attended the ICFPE organizing committee meeting in Tokyo and proposed to host the 2014 ICFPE in China, the committee unanimously accepted the proposal. It is exciting news to the Chinese flexible and printed electronics research community. Professor Zheng CUI promised to mobilize the community, to call upon wider participation in this new and exciting technology development, so that China can show its strength and achievements in flexible and printed electronics in two years time at the 2014 ICFPE.

Venue of ICFPE2012 at Tokyo University, Japan Photo by SINANO