It is a great pleasure to be able to welcome you to the 62^nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery, an organization with a long and proud history.

Over the years, the association has contributed to the advancement of thoracic surgery in Japan by integrating surgery in three areas: the heart, the lungs, and the esophagus. I am confident that it will continue to play an important role hereafter in moving the profession forward in these fields.

At the same time, recent years have brought some dramatic changes in the environment surrounding our profession. As an organization, we are now being called upon to deal with a wide variety of issues, ranging from new technologies which affect our systems of treatment to securing and training residents and enhancing the identity of thoracic surgeons as a professional group.

To meet these challenges, it will be vitally important for the association to invest its energies wholeheartedly into solving a number of tasks, beginning with achieving organizational unity and solidarity. We must then also adopt measures that contribute to the professional pride of thoracic surgeons, further enhance the quality of the medical care that we provide, and help mentor the best and the brightest surgeons of the next generation.

Reflecting these challenges, we have selected as the theme of the 62^nd annual meeting “The Art and Science of Thoracic Surgery.”

Our goal will be to hold a fruitful scientific meeting from which the future direction of our organization emerges. We will do so by bringing together people who, through their clinical practices, have built surgery into an art, full of originality and ingenuity. We will also encourage lively discussions of these achievements based on scientific data.

One important focus of our meeting will be postgraduate courses, which we will be expanding and improving. The aim will be to offer stimulating and attractive programs to young thoracic surgeons, who hold the progress and development of the next generation of thoracic surgery in their hands.

Our plans also include symposia and discussions which will feature invitees from overseas who are making significant contributions in their fields. These events will offer participants the opportunity to exchange opinions on research findings from a broad perspective.

The meeting will be held from Sunday, October 11 to Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at Minato Mirai 21, an urban setting that has become a gathering place for people generating new information and ideas. Minato Mirai lies adjacent to the Port of Yokohama, which will be celebrating the 150^th anniversary of its opening to the outside world.

Thank you and we look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to this event.