This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Application and Theory of Petri Nets, held in Osaka, Japan, in June 1996. The 26 revised full papers included in the book together with three invited presentations were selected from a total of 78 submissions. The book addresses the current theoretical and applicational aspects of the various types of Petri Nets and competently reflects the state of the art in the area.