Greeting

The 108th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Urological Association, which was scheduled to be held in April, will now be held in modified form at the Kobe Portopia Hotel, the Kobe International Conference Center, and the Kobe International Exhibition Hall on December 22–24, 2020, after an unavoidable nearly 8-month delay caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Amid the continuing international disruption as Covid-19 remains rampant worldwide, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to those members whose cooperation is enabling this Annual Meeting to take place.

It will have been 19 years since Kobe University last hosted the Annual Meeting in 2001, under the presidency of Professor Sadao Kamidono. As the theme of the 108th Annual Meeting, we have chosen "Urology's future, bright future." Japan is now approaching the era of "Society 5.0," and in medicine, too, previously unimaginable medical technologies and systems are now coming into use, impelled by new technology and innovation. In particular, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, robots, big data, genomic medicine, and digital health are among the key words that are shaping the future of medical practice. The program for this Annual Meeting will address these key words not only insofar as they concern urology, but also by hearing from speakers in a variety of other disciplines. The Keynote Lectures will be given by Professor Nagayasu Toyoda on the subject of "Where clinical research in Japan is heading" and Dr. Yoichi Ochiai on "Diversity in the computer age and art, nature, and human creation," and the Special Lectures and the President’s Designated Sessions have also been planned with a view to creating a bright future for urological medicine. The Japanese population is aging rapidly: by 2025 one in three people will be aged 65 or older, and by 2035 our society will be "super-aged." One of my aims for this meeting is to consider the future of urological care in clinical institutions treating older patients under these circumstances. However, the meeting is also an important opportunity for training in the latest advanced medical treatments and appropriate care in all areas of urology, and we are planning a range of educational lectures, an UP TO DATE program, and symposia, so that participants will find the meeting useful for the wide range of knowledge they can acquire. We are also including a Rising Stars Session, in which we will hear from young doctors active in a wide range of fields.

As every year, we have received a large number of submissions for General Presentations. Out of 1,902 abstracts submitted, a total of 1,887 have been accepted, 1,388 of which will be given as General Presentations (oral, poster, and video presentations), 149 as Annual General Meeting Award Presentations, 80 as International Session Award Presentations, 225 as International Session Presentations (oral and poster presentations), and 45 as Rising Stars Session Presentations. In particular, the number of applications from overseas for the International Sessions, including Award Presentations, rose steeply this year to 305. Like last year, a Late-breaking & Encore Session is also planned, at which I am looking forward to hearing presentations about the very latest findings. I hope that as many people as possible will be able to take part online.