The fourth Japanese}Swedish symposium on noise e!ects on man followed a previously established tradition with informal presentations, plenty of time for discussions and personal interaction. The concept of soundscapes*proposed at the second Japanese}Swedish symposium [1]*has now established itself in terms of a completeness of environmental sounds and their interpretation, in contrast to the previous focus on the negative e!ects of speci"c noises. The collaboration between Japanese and Swedish researchers has continued in spite of increasingly meagre funding on both sides*ingenuity to "nd the resources for project costs and the use of electronic exchange of data has greatly contributed to its success.
The collaboration between countries with quite di!erent social attitudes and perceptions of the environment has been particularly fruitful regarding the e!ect of transportation noises. The availability of high-exposure environments for aircraft noise in Japan has contributed to the understanding of noise-induced e!ects on the upper part of the dose}response scale and will allow a better interpretation of weaker data at lower exposure levels as being researched in Sweden. In perspective, we have also seen the emergence of a new generation of noise researchers. Aggressive research on new acoustical characteristics and their importance as well as the e!ects of new noises such as low-frequency noise and its e!ects illustrate this point.
One of the major goals of research on the e!ects of noise is to provide an improved basis for control of the soundscape, optimizing the impact of environmental sounds on humans. This symposium has brought forward important information for the ful"lment of this goal but there is still a lot of work to be done. Further collaborative work and additional symposia represent an important path to ultimately achieve this goal.