The 66th Autumn Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Pathology

The 66th Autumn Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Pathology
Congress President　Haruhiko Sugimura
Professor of Tumor Pathology, National University Cooperation Hamamatsu University School of Medicine

It gives me immense pleasure to announce that the 66th annual autumn meeting of the Japanese Pathology Society is scheduled to be held on November 12 and 13, 2020 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka.

For the benefit of our international participants, I would like to give an introduction of the venue. Hamamatsu is one among the two big cities of Shizuoka prefecture and well known as a city of innovations. Numerous companies, well known worldwide, were founded in Hamamatsu. Also, “Hamamatsu” is, for many foreigners, a brand of camera manufactured by one of these companies. The city of Hamamatsu has more than a few hundred years of history and is famous for the castle from where Ieyasu TOKUGAWA, the Shogun who established the Tokugawa government which continued for 260 years(Edo period), began his rule. Hamamatsu is located west to the city of Shizuoka, the capital of Shizuoka prefecture, which is ranked 13th by area among 47 prefectures in Japan. It has a long shoreline stretching from east to west facing the Pacific Ocean. The city is accessible by the Shinkansen, which has numerous stops, making it convenient for travelers from Tokyo (1.5 hrs), Kyoto (1.5 hrs), and Nagoya (1 hr). The prefecture’s large area means that main community hospitals are sparsely located, and thus the management of the medical and pathology service has been challenging. There is only one medical school in Shizuoka prefecture, which was established in Hamamatsu just 40 years ago. I can respectfully imagine the struggles to maintain and heighten the level of medical practice here by the professors of the first generation of Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, local pathologists devoting themselves to high quality diagnosis in local hospitals, and administration staffs during the inaugural stage. I believe their efforts have paid off.

Pathology, being an age-old discipline, is generally perceived within the medical community as not being cutting edge. This misconception has surfaced once in a while even within the short duration of my career. However, as all of us have witnessed, pathologists are increasingly making greater contributions in the medical community. Human Genome Project based on automatic sequencing system, was also achieved by "transcending" physicists (Akimitsu WADA). I would like to quote a few words by an anonymous source, “There are three kinds of problems in the world: one which can be solved in a few months, the second one in a few years, and the last which is unsolvable even in a few decades.” I hope the younger generation of pathologists will ambitiously tackle the last one and extend their services transcending the borders, regional and otherwise.