To all medical professionals, researchers,
patients, and their family members
related to Kawasaki disease around the world,
On behalf of the Kawasaki disease community in Japan, I hereby cordially invite you to attend the 13th International Kawasaki Disease Symposium.
At the time of the 12th IKDS in Yokohama 2018, preparations for the next International Symposium were already underway and the invitation was anticipated to take place much sooner. However, as you are all aware, everyone in the world is struggling to combat the threat of SARS-CoV-2 now, and cross-border travels are almost literally impossible to this date. Co-chairman, Professor Yoshikazu Nakamura and I have been considering how we can hold the event whilst preventing the virus infection. We don't even know at this stage if the Tokyo Olympics will happen next summer, and it is impossible to predict the global situations in the autumn of 2021.
It is with great sadness that we had to share the news of Professor Tomisaku Kawasaki’s passing on June 5 this year. Dr. Kawasaki was keenly looking forward to gathering with attendees from across the world at the 13th IKDS. Now we imagine him gently watching over us from heaven with his wife, Reiko, who passed away just a year prior to him. Dr. Kawasaki pursued his avid research into the disease until his last moment. Since the SARS-CoV-2 may have one of the keys to establishing the cause of Kawasaki disease, he must have been encouraging us in our efforts to study the coronavirus thoroughly. As colleagues deeply interested in Kawasaki disease, I have no doubt that we all wish to gather as fellow researchers every three years no matter what.
After extensive consideration, we decided to hold the 13th International Kawasaki Disease Symposium in October 2021, as a full online meeting. Considering the time difference, sessions are scheduled to be held on one of the weekends for the convenience of the international attendees, and we plan to add the On-Demand delivery to implement as many sessions as possible.
We decided the theme of the 13th IKDS as ‘Studying the Past to Create the Future’. We would like to collect research results from all over the world and share the excellent insights to help clarify the cause of Kawasaki disease. We are committed to creating a fruitful international symposium together. Although the exact dates and other details are still being established, we will make the most of the global online networks to connect Tokyo and the world.
I sincerely hope for all of your safety and the development of the researches. Please kindly wait for the further notice, and be sure to get together at the next IKDS!
December4, 2020
 |
| President Mamoru Ayusawa MD., Ph.D. 
Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, |
It is my great pleasure and honor to host the 13th International Kawasaki Disease Symposium with Dr. Mamoru Ayusawa on October 2021 in Tokyo. As an epidemiologist, I have been conducting epidemiologic studies of Kawasaki disease, including nationwide surveys of the disease in Japan, for around 40 years, since just after the graduation from a medical school. The purpose of epidemiology is to describe the epidemiologic features of a disease, then to inquire the risk factors and etiology of the disease, and finally to establish the prevention of the disease. Although the epidemiologic features of Kawasaki disease have been established through nationwide surveys in Japan as well as other descriptive epidemiology in many countries and areas around the world, unfortunately the etiology and preventive methods of the disease have not yet. I have a dream;
“Once upon a time, there was a disease named Kawasaki disease, and it inflicted pain on children and those with sequelae. However, the treatment and preventive methods have been established, and no patient nor those with sequelae exist nowadays.”
If the Symposium would contribute to be one step to make this dream real, it should be great pleasure. I invite all of the researchers for Kawasaki disease around the world.
 |
| President Yosikazu Nakamura, MD, MPH, FFPH 
Department of Public Health, |
