The 68th Annual Meeting of Japan Society of Plastic Surgery (JSPRS) will be held on April 16-18 (Wed-Fri), 2025 at the Hotel New Otani Tokyo. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all members of JSPRS and many others who have supported us in various ways. This is the third time that our department has been privileged to host this Congress, following on from the 33rd (by Professor Takeshi Hirayama) and the 47th (by Professor Motohiro Nozaki) Annual Meetings, and it is a great honor. I and all the staff of my department are united in our efforts to prepare to welcome all of you with open arms.

The founders of JSPRS had been originated from various other departments such as surgery, dermatology, orthopedics, otorhinolaryngology, so on. Since 1958, they have gathered together under the banner of “Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery”, a novel but blurred department, while achieving outstanding surgical outcomes in their respective fields. The growth of the JSPRS that we see today is the result of the wide range of techniques and technologies that our predecessors have developed and implemented into other field, always aspiring to launch plastic and reconstructive surgery free from conventional disciplinary boundaries. For this reason, we need to share a common vision for our future from our own perspective, rather than from those of other surgical departments that have specialized in specific organs.

In recent years, we have witnessed several increasingly alarming issues that could pose a threat to the future of the JSPRS. These include the work-style reform of doctors, shortage of supervising doctors under board-certification system, biased orientation toward aesthetic surgery from various other treatments, regional disparities. We need a forum in which JSPRS members can engage in earnest discussions regarding these issues. The theme of the 68th Annual Meeting is “Beyond the Horizon”. I took the liberty of choosing this theme in the hope that lively discussions will be held to open the way for JSPRS, with its proud history of over 60 years, to move on to a new stage as a mature medical department.

We will do our best to ensure that the meeting will be fruitful for many of the participants and our Society. Thank you for your continued support and look forward to your participation.

April 2024