This special section named as ‘Anthropogenic soils in the world’ is issued under the framework of the ‘Kenkyukan’ Project 2015–2017 supported by Tokyo Metropolitan University. The call for papers was announced to the members of the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (JSSSPN) through the website of the society and at the ninth meeting of Soils of Urban Industry Traffic Mining and Military Areas (SUITMA) held in Moscow, Russia, 22–27 May 2017. A symposium ‘Anthropized soils’ sponsored by the ‘Kenkyukan’ project was also held in the 13th meeting of the East and South East Asian Federation of Soil Sciences (ESAFS), 12–15 December 2017, in Pattaya, Thailand, as an introduction of the topics with respect to this special section. Two invited speakers who are the main editors of World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) 2014 and Keys to Soil Taxonomy 2014 also contributed the topic for the modern and future orientation of anthropized soils in the soil classification systems of WRB and Keys to Soil Taxonomy to this special section. Then, through these research meetings and advertisement, reviews of the anthropized soils and new relating researches were submitted to this special section. The papers were peer-reviewed and a selected number of them were accepted for publication. This special section is consisting of seven papers with new findings and proposals for SUITMA researches.
The Kenkyukan project during these 3 years has financially supported our activities of collection, discussion, and dissemination of the results and outcomes of soil research by organizing and assisting three symposia including three international conferences, International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), SUITMA and ESAFS, one domestic conference held in Korea with the Chair of SUITMA, and two regional workshops in Japan. We are pleased of the collaboration with international, regional, and national societies and organizations in related fields of science that realized producing this special section and two relating books.
We would like to thank all the reviewers for their precious comments and spending time in reviewing the manuscripts. This special section of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition is published by the full financial support from Tokyo Metropolitan University.
