On the Occasion of Japan Digestive Disease Week 2020 (JDDW 2020)

From November 5 (Thu.) to 8 (Sun.), 2020, JDDW 2020 will be held over four days in Kobe Convention Center, by jointly organizing the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology (President Keiichi Kubota), the 100th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society (President Takashi Kawai), the 24th General Meeting of the Japan Society of Hepatology (President Yoshiyuki Takei), the 18th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery (President Souji Ozawa), and the 58th General Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening (President Yosuke Iriguchi).

JDDW was originally modeled after Digestive Disease Week (DDW) of the U.S. In consideration of the view that too many scientific society meetings were being held in different specializations, representatives from scientific societies related to digestive diseases gathered to lay down regulations, and in September 1993, the 1st Digestive Disease Week Japan (DDW-Japan 1993) was organized. Based on the concept of JDDW of “contributing to the improvement of gastroenterological research, education, and diagnosis and treatment,” it was at the 22nd convention at JDDW 2014 that the current format of having five member societies participate was established. Since then, JDDW has shown steady development. JDDW covers almost all fields of digestive diseases, and is attended not only by internists and surgeons, but also by physicians and health care professionals from multiple departments, including radiologists, pathologists, and nurses. We take pride in the fact that JDDW allows participants to study in depth the latest in diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis in a broad range of diseases from attending just a single convention. The number of participants at the inaugural DDW-Japan 1993 was estimated at 9,000. The number of participants surpassed 20,000 in 2012 and has been growing each year since.

In addition to symposiums, panel discussions, and workshops that make the best use of the unique features of each participating society, JDDW will also have the Integrated Program where five participating societies will cooperate in organizing discussions around six themes from a broad perspective. For this year, we have chosen such themes as digestive disease care for the oldest old, microbiota, and paradigm shift in digestive disease care. It will be a good opportunity for using the mobile interactive device to collect the views of the participants. I am convinced that we will have meaningful discussions.

With a large number of participants from other Asian countries in recent years, JDDW is becoming more international. For this year, we will be having the 4th Joint Session between JDDW, KDDW, and TDDW as a joint symposium with KDDW of South Korea and TDDW of Taiwan. We have, moreover, provided for Strategic International Session to strengthen collaboration with scientific societies abroad. We also have the Travel Award Program to help young participants from abroad to participate. We hope to make JDDW fully adaptive to increasing calls for internationalizing JDDW in the future.

Despite the fact that almost all clinical research today requires the approval of the ethics committee, we hope that there will be submission of many abstracts of high quality as before. We would make efforts towards making the meeting a success with the help of everyone.
We look forward to your participation in JDDW 2020.

JDDW 2020 Steering Committee
Chairperson, Keiichi Kubota

Sponsoring Societies:

The 62nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology

President: Keiichi Kubota

The 100th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society

President: Takashi Kawai

The 24th General Meeting of the Japan Society of Hepatology

President: Yoshiyuki Takei

The 18th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery

President: Soji Ozawa

The 58th General Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening

President: Yosuke Iriguchi