Akinori Iwasaki JSES 2018 Congress President Professor, Department of General Thoracic, Breast and Pediatric Surgery, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University

Dear Colleagues,

Fukuoka City is delighted to host the 31st Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Endoscopic Surgery on December 6-8, 2018.
It is a great honor for me to be appointed president of the most active meeting and the world’s largest congress associated with endoscopic surgery. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity.
I have reserved the Marinemesse Fukuoka Convention Center and the neighboring Fukuoka Sun-Palace Hotel as the meeting site so that attendees can easily participate in the congress.

The theme of our meeting is "The Next Step Forward."
No longer are endoscopic surgeries special techniques; they have become common procedures based on high-quality evidence gathered from daily practice.
As you may know, Japan's National Medical Insurance System was revised in April this year to finally cover robotic surgery not only in urology, but also in the fields of gastrointestinal surgery, respiratory surgery, gynecology, and cardiovascular surgery.
It is clearly the inaugural year for robotic surgery in Japan.

In addition, innovative discoveries arising from the fusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cutting-edge technology are always expected in the field of endoscopic surgery.
I believe that the door to a new era will be opened at this meeting.
We are also pleased to provide the opportunity to meet with specialists from other fields, allowing participants to both share knowledge and gain wisdom not accessible in our everyday routines.

According to your opinions and requests, we have prepared a variety of special lectures, educational lectures, symposiums, panel discussions and workshops.
Specialists from overseas will also provide relevant updates on the latest information.
Those of you interested in participating, either as a speaker or as a listener, will hopefully be satisfied by the comfortable space and sufficient time allowance we have arranged for each presentation.

It is my sincere hope to receive many paper submissions, and I look forward to welcoming attendees from across the world to this year's meeting.
Incidentally, Fukuoka is home to a wealth of fascinating foods and places for excursion, such as the Kyushu National Museum, Munakata and Okino-shima World Heritage sites, all of which offer opportunities to make lasting memories of your visit to Fukuoka.
I look forward to seeing you in Fukuoka this December.