I am Naoya Sakamoto of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine. It is a great honor to serve as the President of the 66th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Gastroenterology at JDDW 2024 Kobe.　It is our third time for the Hokkaido University to host this JSGE annual meeting, and all our staff members are making concerted efforts in the preparation of the meeting.

Gastroenterology covers a broad range of organs, including gastrointestinal tract, liver, biliary tract, and pancreas, and covers a wide range of topics in both basic and clinical medicine. Each field has made a remarkable progress in recent years due to innovative research techniques, the introduction of new treatments, and changes in the disease concepts. In our annual meeting, we would like to take up the most current and advanced topics, and deepen the discussion by incorporating cross organ and combined basic and clinical perspectives.

In addition, to promote the international exchanges, which has been interrupted past years due to COVID19 pandemic, we have several sessions in which presentations and discussions are conducted in English, and lectures by leading experts from Europe, the United States, and Asia are also scheduled.

I hope that in the autumn of 2024, many of our members will come to Kobe and enliven the meeting through your participation. Thank you.

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