I am Yoshikazu Kinoshita of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Shimane University School of Medicine. I will be serving as President of the 60th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology at JDDW 2018. It is a great pleasure for me to be serving as President of this Annual Meeting, one of the world’s largest scientific conferences on gastroenterology.

The 60th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology will be held from November 1st to 3rd, 2018, in Kobe International Conference Center and Portopia Hotel in Kobe. My hope is that the Annual Meeting will help many gastroenterologists and hepatologists to improve their daily medical practice, education of students and young doctors, and basic and clinical research. I also hope that we have a large participation from those who are interested in gastroenterological and hepatological diseases.

For this purpose, we have prepared this year’s program through close consultation with the Presidents and staffs of other societies participating in JDDW 2018, namely, Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, the Japan Society of Hepatology, the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery, and the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening.

For the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology’s part of the program, we have asked the world’s leading medical scientists to present invited lectures on such topics as Barrett’s esophagus and drug-induced gastrointestinal disorders. In addition, we are planning to have 15 theme sessions, including an international symposium on inflammatory bowel disease, a workshop on gastric cancer unrelated to Helicobacter pylori infection, a panel discussion on treatment strategy on PPI-resistant GERD, and a symposium on the prevention of Hepatitis B virus infection.

We envisage that the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology’s segment of JDDW alone will have more than 800 presentations, including the poster sessions. Therefore, we sincerely hope that those who are interested in the diagnosis, treatment, education, and research on gastroenterological diseases attend the meeting, make presentations, and participate in the discussions to add vigor to our meeting and make it more meaningful.

We look forward to your active participation in the meeting.