This special issue of JLP is devoted to high-performance implementations of logic programming systems. The idea of having a special issue was born during a conversation with the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Logic Programming, Maurice Bruynooghe, at the International Logic Programming Symposium in Ithaca, NY, in 1994. Maurice discussed the idea with Manuel Hermenegildo, the area editor for implementation and architecture, and gave us a go-ahead in December 1994. We were motivated to have a special issue on high-performance implementations, because if one looks at the conference proceedings of ILPSs and ICLPs and at journals such as JLP, one finds very few articles on implementation aspects of LP. Surely, this is not because no interesting work is being done in the area of LP implementation. Thus, our objective in compiling this special issue is to bring the research work being done on logic programming implementation to the foreground. A call for papers was issued in early January 1995. Abstracts were to be submitted first by February 15th, followed by full papers by February 28th. To our surprise we received a large number of abstracts, about 35. However, only 28 of them materialized into papers. The papers came from 15 different countries spread across four different continents. For one abstract we did not receive a full paper because one of its co-authors was from Kobe University. Between the deadlines for submission of the abstract and the full paper, Kobe, Japan, was hit by a devastating earthquake. Therefore, we dedicate this special issue to the survivors and victims of the Kobe earthquake. Each paper was sent to three referees for reviewing. After the first round of reviewing, ten papers were tentatively selected. Most papers were of very high quality, and we could not include many good papers due to lack of space. Of the ten papers selected, nine had been submitted as extended papers and one as a short paper. The authors of the selected papers were asked to revise their papers. The revised papers went through another round of reviewing, and those that