On behalf of the International Board of the German-Japanese Society of Dermatology and as Chairman of this Congress it is my great honor to welcome you to the 10th Meeting of the German-Japanese Society of Dermatology (GJSD) held November 14 to 17, in a calm and warm city Tokushima, Japan. As all members of GJSD know that on March 11, 2011, at 14:46, the largest earthquake ever recorded with a magnitude 9.0 hit Eastern Japan, followed by a huge tsunami of up to 40 meters in height that struck the coastal areas of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Iwate Prefectures. The number of people killed or missing in the catastrophic disaster reached 22,000. The tsunami also inflicted devastating damage to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants, causing a meltdown in a reactor, which had been the worst fears of all, and the release of a large amount of radioactive substances. Although reconstruction work is progressing in the disaster-stricken areas, with support and assistance offered by Germany and many other countries following the earthquake, no end to the nuclear accident is currently in sight. The government announced in May that it will take at least one year to stop the release of radioactive materials. At the 9th GJSD Meeting held in Weimar in June 2010, when I was appointed as the incoming chairperson, I announced that the 10th GJSD Meeting will be held in “ Tokushima City of Shikoku ” in June 2012. It was when we were in the final stage of preparation that the serious earthquake and nuclear power plants crisis occurred. Being 500 and 800 km away from Tokyo and eastern Japan, respectively, Tokushima was not affected by the earthquake or nuclear accident at all. However, we changed the date of the meeting to November 2012 because we would like guests coming all the way from Germany to feel as much at ease and safe as possible. By this time, the Japanese will have recovered from the destructive earthquake and returned to their comfortable, normal lives, living in peace while helping each other. Tokushima, the site of the upcoming meeting, is a small local city with a population of 260,000. There are no particular scenic spots or places of historical interest. I cannot think of many notable figures or celebrities from the city either. Tokushima boasts a centuries-old history in which ordinary people have lived ordinary lives while developing and maintaining good-old Japanese mentality and warm and kind hospitality. During and towards the end of World War I, a large number of German soldiers were held captive in Tokushima. However, local residents in Tokushima treated them with respect, and they even learned a lot of things from each other through friendly interaction. At that time, these German captive soldiers and residents in Tokushima organized an orchestra and performed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the first time in Japan, of which Tokushima people, including myself, are very proud. I was born and raised in Tokushima, surrounded by those warm people. Although it will be the first time for most of the GJSD members to visit Tokushima, I believe that it is one of the best places for intellectual information exchange. We feel very glad and excited to be able to invite guests to this wonderful city. We sincerely look forward to seeing you in Tokushima. Yours sincerely, Seiji Arase M.D., Ph.D. Chairman of the 10th GJSD Meeting Professor Emeritus, School of Medicine, the University of Tokushima |
Department of Dermatology, Institute of Health Biosciences,
The University of Tokushima Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan