The 64th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy will be held at the PACIFICO Yokohama, Yokohama, Japan from Friday 28 June to Sunday 30 June 2019.

The Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy (JSDT) is one of the major scientific conferences in Japan. This meeting is consisted of not only medical doctors, but also patients, nurses, clinical engineers, nutritionists, pharmacists and many other medical staffs. This conference conducts serious and flexible debate on patients’ quality of life (QOL) undergoing renal replacement therapy (RRT) which is the key principle of the JSDT. This makes the conference a valuable venue for society members and member facilities throughout Japan to improve and maintain their knowledge and skills. The number of dialysis patients is on the increase, mainly in Asia. The clinical result of Japanese patients treated with RRT is one of the best in the world. Therefore, the theme of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy has been set as “From Japan to World, From World to Japan”. We would like to show the world not only Japan’s many nice experiences in dialysis therapy, but also to open about problems to contribute for the world community. I have the great honor to open this academic big conference and feel big responsibility.

In Japan, dialysis treatment is called Dialysis Therapy and the academic society is known as the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy (JSDT). However, globally, dialysis therapy is referred to as Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT). In addition to the typical hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, Renal Replacement Therapy also incorporates comprehensive and advanced fields including kidney transplant and kidney regeneration therapy. Therefore, we have decided the Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) instead of dialysis therapy. Our meeting major thesis is “Renal Replacement Therapy: Aiming for the Future”, which aims to improve and establish the broader concept of renal replacement therapy as a term used worldwide. Opportunely, the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy founded an international official journal on 24 November 2015 jointly with four other societies [Japanese Society for Clinical Renal Transplantation (JSCRT), Japanese Society for Peritoneal Dialysis (JSPD), Japan Society of Blood Purification in Critical Care (JSBPCC) and the Japanese Society of Renal Rehabilitation (JSRR)]. This new official journal is called “Renal Replacement Therapy”, and is abbreviated to RRT journal. I have been working as the Editor in Chief. This RRT journal as an official journal has been slowly growing for more than 3 years. This journal is completely open journal with free publication fee. I hope that you will also take a look at the RRT journal website (https://rrtjournal.biomedcentral.com).

Invited guest speakers from around the world would provide a venue for closer interaction with Asian physicians. We are planning to hold many valuable special lectures and educational lectures addressing knowledge and contemplation on topics. There would be a full array of educational lectures for training young doctors and specialist doctors. We are now in the process of preparing the 64th JSDT meeting that will be fruitful and meaningful for all the members of academic societies as well as for patients. We are looking forward to your participation and contribution to successfully achieve this outcome.