The 112th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Pathology (JSP) is to be held in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, from April 13 to 15, 2023. It is a great honor to host this traditional meeting in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Pathology is an academic field that explores the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of diseases that would lead to new therapeutic strategies and improve patients’ prognosis. On the other hand, diagnostic pathology has been established based on accumulated knowledge in an academic field of pathology, and its role in clinical settings is becoming more and more important. Consequently, an annual meeting of the JSP is required to provide the opportunity not only to discuss the academic researches but also to control the quality of diagnostic pathologists for reliable performances in hospitals. Quality control of diagnostic skills has another aspect as the training of researchers capable of picking up clues within pathological lesions under a microscope to improve the prognosis of patients with intractable diseases. This is a great advantage of pathology over the other research fields. Therefore, doors to the medical innovation which can never be seen by researchers other than pathologists must become visible when all the pathologists at universities, research institutes as well as hospitals would come together. To discuss this unique research possibility of pathology, “Doors to Overcoming Intractable Diseases: Potential of Pathology and Pathological Diagnostics” is raised as the theme of the 112th Annual Meeting of JSP.

Symposia and workshops will be organized to converge the above theme. The Japan Pathology Award lectures will be given by Dr. Yae Kanai, Keio University, Dr. Shinya Tanaka, Hokkaido University and Dr. Isao Shimokawa, Nagasaki University. Educational programs including seminars on diagnostic pathology, molecular pathology and autopsy will be offered as usual. The international programs supported by the Committee of International Exchange of the JSP have not been held on-site for the past 3 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in this year, our Japan-Germany Exchange Program is scheduled to commence on-site this year while monitoring the COVID-19 situation. We are also preparing sessions for undergraduate students. As a positive message to our members, especially our younger colleagues, we will have special lectures by researchers who have pioneered and driven new research fields for medical innovation.

Many academic meetings have been held in a hybrid (on-site and on-demand) format due to the pandemic, and we have determined the benefits of on-demand delivery for the future direction of such meetings. We will employ a hybrid format for the upcoming annual meeting, featuring on-site sessions for oral and poster presentations where academic discussion is essential and on-demand delivery sessions for educational programs

The Yamaguchi Prefecture had produced many young individuals who led the Meiji Restoration. The Shoukasonjuku Academy was a symbolic presence. Although Headmaster Shoin Yoshida passed away before achieving his dream of traveling overseas, he provided educational opportunities at his academy even to youths of low social class, developing eminent figures and contributing to enormous changes in Japan. He showed that aspiration is all that it requires for a small school to change the course of history. It would be a great pleasure if this Annual Meeting hosted by our small department could provide an opportunity for all the members who chose the path of pathology, including our younger colleagues, to engage in hot discussions and bring new perspectives to the pathology and the diagnostic pathology.

May, 2022