Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I am most pleased to inform you that the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Japan Neurosurgical Society will be held for three consecutive days from 9 October (Thursday) to 11 October (Saturday), 2014 at Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo.

The Japan Neurosurgical Society, since its foundation in 1948, has been developing and greatly contributing to the progress of neurosurgery in Japan. While it currently has over 9,000 members and over 7,000 neurosurgeon members, it is sometimes discussed through the media that there are an excessive number of neurosurgeons in Japan. However, the scope of clinical activities is extensive for neurosurgeons in Japan, treating a patient in a consistent manner from the diagnosis of neurological disorder, surgical or non-surgical treatment and perioperative management to long-term prognostic management, which is, in fact, a totally different system compared to the Western countries. Working at the forefront of the emergency medical service such as stroke as well as performing highly demanding surgeries, by no means do we acknowledge that there are an excessive number of neurosurgeons.

Needless to say, an enormous wave of globalization is hitting the whole Japanese society. The field of medicine cannot be an exception. Global standards are to be set in clinical and research areas as well as medical education; thus, the medical education in Japan will change greatly within the next ten years or so. However, it should be made clear that true globalization is not about copying and following foreign countries. In my opinion, it is expected to learn what should be learned from foreign countries without falling into blind nationalism while maintaining the traditions established by our pioneers, as well as to develop an original style of Japan and disseminate it globally. The theme of this annual meeting is “Creating Knowledge and Inheriting it to the Future – to Link it for the Society”, with an intention to maintain our pioneers’ knowledge, create new knowledge and disseminate it to the society and the world. From this perspective, the meeting has been designed to include keynote speeches, educational speeches and symposiums. Seminars and hands-on courses will cover from basic to state-of-the-art subjects in consideration of lifelong education.

With a hope that this meeting will become fruitful to each member, I look forward to seeing many of you at the meeting.

Sincerely,

Hajime Arai, MD, PhD
President of the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Japan Neurosurgical Society
Professor and Chairman
Department of Neurosurgery
Juntendo University