This volume contains selected papers presented at two joint German-Japanese symposia on data analysis and related elds. The articles substantially extend and further develop material presented at the two symposia organized on the basis of longstanding and close relationships which have been cultivated in the last couple of decades between the two classi cation societies: the German Class- cation Society (Gesellschaft fu ..r Klassi kation e. V.) and the Japanese Classi cation Society. These symposia have been very helpful in exchanging ideas, views, and knowledge between the two societies and have served as a spring board for more extensive and closer co-operation between the societies as well as among their individual members. The scienti c program of the rst Joint Japanese-German Symposium (Tokyo 2005)included23presentations;forthesecondJointGerman-JapaneseSymposium (Berlin 2006) 27 presentations were scheduled. This volume presents 21 peer refereed papers, which are grouped into three parts: 1. Part 1 Clustering and Visualization (eight papers) 2. Part 2 Methods in Fields (nine papers) 3.
Part 3 Applications in Clustering and Visualization (four papers) The concept of having a joint symposium of the two classi cation societies came from the talks with Hans-Hermann and Wolfgang when Akinori attended the 28th Annual Conference of the German Classi cation Society held in Dortmund in March 2004.