Thanks to your support, we will be holding the 50th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Surgeons over a period of three days from May 30, 2013. This will be the first time in 18 years for the Department of Pediatric Surgery of the University of Tokyo to organize the annual meeting since the late Professor Yoshiaki Tsuchida chaired the 32nd annual meeting in Yokohama. It is a great honor for our department to host the annual meeting that marks its half-century anniversary. We intend to do our utmost of fulfill this important responsibility.

The Japanese Society of Pediatric Surgeons is an organization of such specialists as pediatric surgeons, neonatal pediatricians, pediatric urologists, anesthesiologists, and pediatric gastroenterologists responsible for treating medical conditions related to the digestive, respiratory, and genitourinary systems as well as pediatric cancer, transplants, and external injuries for a broad range of patients from fetuses and premature infants to carry-over adult patients with lingering conditions needing pediatric surgical attention. Nurses, technicians, and other related medical staff will join these medical doctors to gather together on these three days to engage in discussions on high-quality pediatric surgery from the perspective of patients.

Since this annual meeting will be the 50th to take place, it will be organized around the theme of “Inheriting the legacy of evidence-based pediatric surgical medicine: Approaches to the following 50 years.” So as to be an annual meeting that looks back on the last 50 years and seeks to promote the further development of pediatric surgical medicine, we will invite many guests from abroad. From the World Federation of Associations of Pediatric Surgeons, we will invite eminent European and American pediatric surgeons who have introduced new learning and technology to Japan over many years. In addition, we will invite young, local pediatric surgeons working in Asia and other regions who are making strenuous efforts in the clinical setting surrounded by many patients to actively exchange views with Japan’s pediatric surgeons. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the annual meeting, we will also hold a celebratory gathering and a commemorative ceremony during this period.

Pediatric surgical medicine has saved many children suffering from disease, but we also sometimes experience heart-breaking situations. Medicine makes advances day by day. For those of us who examine children, we need to face patients with humility and pursue and adopt new medical treatments that are gentle to patients. Over the next few months, I will seek out the views of the members of our society as well as those of senior and related persons to consider what sorts of programs are desired, such as symposiums and panel discussions. I am also examining workshops and seminars on subjects that I want younger society members to learn and experience as well as public lectures that will be of great interest to mothers.

This is an annual meeting that will be held while the wounds inflicted by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, remain unhealed. I offer my deepest sympathies to the people affected by the earthquake and tsunami and hope that we can send them some kind of message through the success of the annual meeting. The staff, alumni, and related persons of the Department of Pediatric Surgery of the University of Tokyo will work as one over the next year to prepare for the annual meeting.

I look to your warm support and am eager to hear your views and proposals.