At the end of December 2005, the 12-GeV proton synchrotron (PS) of KEK has been shut down after its ∼30-year operation. During the first several years, the major physics programs were in high-energy physics. In the last several years, a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, K2K, was conducted in the highest priority. Nevertheless, the KEK-PS has also been well known as one of the best accelerator facilities in the world in hypernuclear physics since 1980s. However, this is not the end of the hypernuclear physics studies in Japan. Now, the Japanese scientists in this field are eagerly waiting for new extended opportunities in the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), which is now under construction and expected to start its beam delivery in 2008. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.