Professor Makoto Seiji was a wonderful colleague and friend to me. He did a great work in the field of ultrastructural research in dermatology using the electron microscope to get a better inside cellular functions on the basis of subcellular structures.  A most important finding to that time was the detection of subcellular particles in melanocytes with tyrosinase activity which were later named and known as melanosomes, the basic structural element in melanin synthesis.  Because of his outstanding contributions to dermatology, he was elected at the occasion of the XVth International Congress of Dermatology in Mexico 1977, Secretary General of the XVI International Congress of Dermatology 1982 in Tokyo.

I had the opportunity to work closely together with Makoto.  As a member of the ICD since 1967, I was elected President of the International Committee of Dermatology (ICD) and the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS) in 1977 in Mexico.  In Mexico, as the decision was made by the ILDS to hold the XVI International Congress of Dermatology in Tokyo, Professor Toshiaki Yasuda as Honorary President, Professor Atsushi Kukita as President, and Professor Makoto Seiji as Secretary-General as the key people of the Japanese Organizing Committee were elected.

With great enthusiasm, these Japanese colleagues went to work and organized one of the greatest meetings we ever had in dermatology (see also Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Dermatology), the World Congress in East Asia.  Makoto Seiji did an extremely good job.  On the basis of his excellent relations to American dermatology and American dermatologists, it was a wonderful meeting at the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo.

Our personal collaboration was always characterized by mutual friendship and adherence to the principals of preparing a congress of the highest standards.  The Tokyo meeting with the consuming work of our good Japanese friends and especially of Makoto Seiji will stay as a milestone in the development of dermatology and world meetings of dermatology.  As one of the late pioneers in realizing such an important meeting of the international family of dermatology, this event will stay forever connected with the name of Makoto Seiji, who passed away so early, so that he could not earn his efforts in relation to the XVI International Congress of Dermatology in Tokyo.  All those who knew Makoto will not forget him.