Hadrons and nuclei show up different layers of phenomena governed by the same dynamics dictated by the fundamental law of the strong interaction, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The basic building blocks of matter, quarks and gluons, are confined in hadrons, generating their masses dynamically and breaking chiral symmetry spontaneously. The latter is the origin of the presence of the pion which governs the essential part of the nuclear interaction. Therefore, the common key words are chiral symmetry and pions.

This volume contains reports of current achievements in hadron physics including exotic multiquark states, meson production reactions and non-linear dynamics of hadrons, and those in nuclear physics clustering phenomena, exotic neutron rich nuclei and the pions in nuclei. As related subjects, applications to astronuclear physics, including accelerator physics and laser physics are also discussed comprehensively.