The World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS) is an international organization established in 1968 for national rose societies and other rose-related groups, and at present it has 41 national rose societies as its members. It has held world rose conventions every three years with a view to encouraging research and exchange of information on roses, and promoting friendship among rose lovers of the world.
On the other hand, biennial international heritage rose conferences have been held since 1984 in various countries of the world. The purpose of these conferences is to support and encourage the research and preservation of heritage roses, that is, old garden roses and wild roses which have been cherished by people since ancient times and which should be handed down to future generations as a precious heritage of mankind. The conferences have provided excellent opportunities for the exchange of necessary information on those roses, and the above-mentioned purpose has been steadily attained.

As the interest in heritage roses mounted among rose lovers of the world, those two main currents of rose promotion effort were to be combined. At the WFRS world convention held in Osaka, Japan, in 2006, the heritage rose committee was added to the group of standing committees of the WFRS, and at the next world conference held in Vancouver, Canada, in 2009, it was decided that thereafter international heritage rose conferences would be held every three years under the auspices of the WFRS. The conference in Sakura in 2012 is the first international heritage rose conference held as an official event of the Federation.

The organising committee for the heritage rose conference in Sakura decided to cancel the event in 2011 in the confused aftermath of the unprecedented disaster in March. It had been carefully observing the progress of reconstruction work, and also how the problem of radiation leakage from the nuclear power plant destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami had been handled. It had a meeting on the 11th of July, and judging that a safe environment for this important international rose event will be available in ten months, decided to host the conference for seven days from the 31st of May to the 6th of June, 2012,.