On behalf of the organizing committee, it gives me great pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all presenters, exhibiters and participants to 2014 International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP) / The 9th Asia-Pacific Microwave Photonics Conference (APMP), in Sapporo, Japan. MWP is the premier conference for microwave photonics technologies, which include the interactions between optical and radio waves for the generation, processing, control and distribution of microwave, millimeter-wave and terahertz frequency signals. APMP is the conference designed to discuss microwave photonics and related topics in Asia-Pacific region where the research activities are expanding. MWP/APMP 2014 provides an international forum for researchers, engineers, and manufacturers to meet and exchange ideas on the latest developments as well as the future direction of these systems for commercial applications. This conference is organized and sponsored by the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) of Japan, and is cooperatively sponsored by National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), the Telecommunications Advancement Foundation (TAF), Support Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology Research Foundation (SCAT), Murata Science Foundation, and Research Foundation for the Electrotechnology of Chubu (REFEC). The conference is also technically sponsored by IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) and IEEE Photonics Society (IPS). This year, we are honored to have three plenary talks by Dr. Dalma Novak, Prof. Masanori Koshiba and Prof. Ton (A. M. J.) Koonen, which cover recent microwave photonics technologies as well as optical fibers for space division multiplexing (SDM). As for the regular sessions, we have 9 invited talks as well as 111 contributed papers submitted from all over the world. We will also have two workshops on the first day of the conference. One is on “Advanced photonics & MWP”, where we hope we can have intensive discussion on collaboration between pure photonics and microwave technologies. Research on advanced photonics is quite active in Sapporo area. The other is on “Asia-Pacific Microwave Photonics”, to review and discuss research activities and futures in Asia-Pacific region. MWP/APMP 2014 would be the last conference in the series of APMP conferences. In addition, we have more than 30 exhibition booths from suppliers, research institutions, etc. This conference will be endorsed by a strong technical program. I express my sincere gratitude to all members of the organizing committee and technical program committee who are spending countless hours for this conference. Again, welcome and thank you for your contributions to MWP/APMP 2014. We hope you will join us in Sapporo to enjoy a beautiful city and an exciting conference, with the technical program, social events, and opportunities to meet something new in Hokkaido Island.