Enantioselective intramolecular conjugate addition reactions of short-lived C-O axially chiral enolates have been developed. The reactions proceeded with inversion of the configuration and provided dihydrobenzofurans with contiguous tetra-and trisubstituted carbon centers in up to 96% enantiomeric excess (ee).Key words axially chiral enolate; asymmetric synthesis; chiral C-O axis; dihydrobenzofuran; conjugate addition; restricted bond rotation Asymmetric synthesis had been classified into three categories: 1) optical resolution of the racemate by diastereomer formation, 2) diastereoselective synthesis using chiral auxiliaries, and 3) enantioselective synthesis using chiral catalysts or chiral reagents. On the other hand, we have studied asymmetric reactions that proceed via enolate intermediates with intrinsic axial chirality (MOC: memory of chirality).1-6) This strategy does not belong to any of above three categories. We believe that MOC strategy created the forth category of asymmetric synthesis. The characteristic feature of the asymmetric reactions based on MOC strategy is asymmetric reactions take place at the original stereogenic center of the starting material in the absence of external chiral sources. Accordingly, when the optically active starting materials are abundant and ubiquitous α-amino acids, asymmetric synthesis based on MOC strategy is especially advantageous. MOC strategy also has salient feature in the mechanistic point of view. The asymmetric synthesis proceeds via the transient chiral species with limited half-lives of racemization. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] We have developed strategy for asymmetric induction via enolate intermediate A with a chiral C-C axis in 1991 1) (Chart 1, Eq. 1). The half-life of racemization of the axially chiral enolate A at the reaction temperature (−20°C) was estimated to be ca. 24 d. 1) We then developed a method for asymmetric induction via enolate intermediate B with a chiral C-N axis in 20002) (Chart 1, Eq. 2). The half-life of racemization of the axially chiral enolate B was determined to be 22 h at the reaction temperature (−78°C) by the measurement of the time-dependent racemization of enolate B. As logical possibility, the asymmetric induction might take place via configurationally stable carbanion B′ (Chart 1, Eq. 4). However, this possibility was eliminated because diBoc derivative 2a (>99% enantiomeric excess (ee)) gave the racemic product by the same treatment for 2 (Chart 1, Eq. 5). Since the enolate B″ generated from 2a cannot to be axially chiral along the C-N axis even through rotation of the C-N bond is restricted, racemate formation is a reasonable consequence. We finally succeeded to develop asymmetric synthesis via short-lived C-O axially chiral enolates with the supposed half-life of racemization as short as ca. 1 s at −78°C 6) (Chart 1, Eq. 3). The reaction shown in Eq. 3 was the first example of asymmetric reaction that proceeds via an axially chiral enolate with the restricted rotation of the C-O axis as the sole source ...