Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the organizing committee, I am pleased to announce the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Immunology (JSI). This event will be held at Kyoto National Conference Center from December 10 (Wed) to 12 (Fri), 2014. Six years have passed since JSI Annual Meeting was held in Kyoto last time, and organizing committee heartily welcomes all the JSI members to Kyoto in this winter.

I may already belong to a minor group of JSI members, who actually participated in this Annual Meeting at the early days and remember the atmosphere. Among a number of meetings of various biological and medical societies, this Meeting had a big reputation for the most active, sometimes aggressive and often endless discussions and arguments, and I still vividly remember the tension I felt, when I first made a presentation as a junior researcher. Time has passed, and everything including science has become much more refined and elegant, yet, I think, the great spirit of this Annual Meeting continues to live.

Science journal elected “Cancer Immunotherapy” for the breakthrough of the Year 2013. This is based on the recent clinical success of antibodies affecting the immune system rather than cancers per se. It was somewhat surprising that cancer immunity or immune surveillance, which has been an issue of great arguments in immunology for many decades, attracted such a big attention among entire scientific fields. Rather paradoxically, this may indicate that major, classical issues in Immunology yet remain to be resolved and understood. On the other hand, recent research advances show the involvement of immune system in much broader and even unexpected aspects of host homeostasis and diseases than previously thought, such as metabolic, endocrine, skeletal and nervous systems as well as aging. We may witness much more surprises to come, and, I think, Immunology is not a developed but still a developing scientific field.

Symposia on the cutting-edge topics in current immunology are being planned with leading invited researchers from all over the world as well as open Workshops covering entire immunology. These sessions are all held in English, and the participants from overseas including Asian countries are most welcome. The “Call for papers” is scheduled to open at the end of May, and the abstract submission by oversea researchers is also welcome. Kyoto is one of the most beautiful old cities in Japan, and winter in Kyoto is something special. In addition to the hottest scientific discussions, you may enjoy the flavor of real Japanese history and beauty.

We welcome all of you and sincerely look forward to your abstract submission and participation in the exciting the 43rd Annual Meeting of JSI.