I am Takashi kawai of the Department of Gastroenterological Endoscopy at Tokyo Medical University. It is my great pleasure and honor to be serving as President of the 100th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society (JGES), an academic society that has a long-standing history. The 100th Congress of JGES will be a part of Japan Digestive Disease Week (JDDW) 2020 in Kobe, which will be held from November 5 (Thursday) to 8 (Sunday) in 2020.

Our department was established in 2016 for elucidation of pathophysiology in Gastroenterological Endoscopy and prevention medicine in gastrointestinal cancer screening. The 17th Congress of JGES was chaired by Tokyo Medical University Honorary Professor Shinroku Ashizawa, 55th Congress of JGES convened during DDW-japan 1998 was chaired Tokyo Medical University Honorary Professor Toshihiko Saito. This means that I am the third person from Tokyo Medical University to chair of Congress of JGES.

JDDW is an academic meeting where five gastroenterology-related academic societies gather to discuss various issues from all directions. For the 100th Congress of JGES, Bridging Japan and the US in the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, as a Strategic International Session has been planned. In the session, we planned invited special talk of western authoritative doctors and short lecture of young Japanese doctors active overseas. Besides 15 themes have been selected after careful consideration of the current issues and future perspectives of both gastroenterological endoscopy and gastroenterology by the program committee based on a questionnaire survey of JGES members. These include three JGES core sessions and two international sessions. JGES core sessions is related Cutting edge of endoscopy in inflammatory disease (H.pylori gastritis, tumor of inflammatory bowel disease, acute cholecystitis). The two international sessions are: " Cutting edge of upper and lower GI endoscopy in Asia " and " Improving diagnostic and therapeutic pancreaticobiliary endoscopy ". I sincerely hope that these sessions will provide a great opportunity for meaningful discussions with researchers invited from abroad. Furthermore, taking advantage of the collaborative feature of JDDW, we have many themes that will be addressed in joint sessions with other societies.

We would like to ask many of you to attend the meeting, make presentations, and participate in the discussions actively.