dr. emilie morasi who is the executive director of that agency to say a few words about the history of this event. >> thank you very much, president chiu. i am joined today by commissioner kay [speaker not understood]. i'd like to ask her to come on up. she's very familiar with these chambers, having served as clerk for many, many years. and if there are any other commissioners who joined us, please come on up. i have just returned from japan through the u.s. japan council and as a guest of the ministry of foreign affairs. 10 of us throughout the united states traveled to japan for a week. we met with the prime minister and the foreign minister, and i was invited to speak among other things about women's issues. my staff has just returned from new york where they participated at the u.n. on the status of women. they presented three panels, talking about san francisco's response to domestic violence, human trafficking, micro finance, and [speaker not understood] quality of the work place. they also traveled to washington, d.c. where they met with staff of the white house council on women and