60th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Hepatology
Chairman Yasuhito Tanaka, M.D., Ph.D.,
Chief Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology,
Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University

 I am pleased to invite you to participate the 60th General Meeting of the Japanese Society of Hepatology in Kumamoto from June 13th (Thursday) to June 14th (Friday), 2024. It is an overwhelming honor for me to host the 60th annual meeting, which will mark a major milestone in the history of this society. The event will be held at the Kumamoto Castle Hall, which was completed in 2019. 2024 will also be a memorable year when the new 1,000 JYN bill will be issued, featuring Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato, a graduate of Kojo Medical School (predecessor of Kumamoto University School of Medicine). We hope that many of our members will come to Kumamoto, which has recovered from the earthquake, to participate in person, and all of our medical staff and alumni are working together to prepare for the event.

 As part of the internationalization efforts of the Japanese Society of Hepatology, we are planning the International Japan Joint Symposium in Asia, which will feature six themes, inviting prominent researchers in various hepatology fields from Asia and other countries. Additionally, in addition to the joint sessions we have held with EASL, we will hold our first joint symposium with TASL, the Taiwanese Society of Liver Studies and KASL, the Korean Society of Liver Studies. Prof. Harvey J. Alter my mentor and 2020 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, will gave a special lecture entitled “Hepatitis C: Then, Now and Beyond,” and Dr. Yoshinobu Baba, professor at the Institute of Innovation for Future Society of Nagoya University and a native of Kumamoto Prefecture, will gave another special lecture entitled "Future medicine pioneered by nano bio-AI devices and quantum life science." Invited speakers included President Hisao Ogawa, Kumamoto University's leading experts in the fields of clinical and basic research, and honorary president of the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, and Dr. Hiroaki Mitsuya, director of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine Research Institute, who discovered AZT that was the first concept of ‘reverse transcriptase inhibitors’. Dr. Makoto Nakanishi, director of the Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo and professor of Division of Cancer Cell Biology, Department of Cancer Biology, who is a leading researcher in aging and cancer research and a senior at Nagoya City University. We will also invite Dr. Yujin Hoshida, who is a native of Kumamoto Prefecture and famous for his research on liver cancer, and Professor Yasuko Iwakiri, who is a native of Miyazaki Prefecture and famous for her fibrosis research.

 Lastly, I would like to introduce Kumamoto. The introductory video for this annual meeting uses the music of “Antagata Dokosa” Speaking of Kumamoto, Fire: Mt. Aso, Water: natural water from Mt. Aso, Hot springs: 118 hot springs in the prefecture (Kurokawa Onsen, etc.), History: Besides Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato, Kiyomasa Kato, who built Kumamoto Castle, is famous in ancient times. Food: We also hope you enjoy the food: horse sashimi, Aso's red beef, and Kumamoto prefecture's proud Kikka wine. Kumamon, the Sales Manager and Happiness Manager of Kumamoto Prefecture, and I sincerely hope that everyone will be able to enjoy Kumamoto's rich delicacies in between the academic meeting.

 We hope that this annual meeting will revive the "hot discussion" locally and serve as a springboard for spreading Japanese hepatology from Kumamoto to the world. We look forward to your participation and registration.