Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the organizing committee, I am pleased to announce the 44th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Immunology (JSI). This event will be held at the Sapporo Convention Center from November 18th-20th (Wed-Fri), 2015. Eleven years have passed since the JSI Annual Meeting was last held in Sapporo, and the organizing committee heartily welcomes all the JSI members back to Sapporo in this harvest season.

I was introduced to the world of Immunology about thirty years ago when I started investigating the mechanisms of cell cycle regulation using T lymphocytes. When I first participated in the JSI annual meeting, I was very surprised by the lively dialogue. Many people formed a line in front of the microphone even during presentations and there were many questions and discussions. This tradition continued in the many subsequent years, and the JSI annual meeting has come to be considered one of the most active scientific meetings in this country. JSI is one of the world leaders in this field and many foreign researchers now participate in its annual meeting.

Symposia on cutting-edge topics in current immunology are being planned with leading researchers invited from all over the world. There will also be open Workshops covering the entire scope of immunology. These sessions will all be conducted in English, and participants from overseas, including Asian countries, will be most welcome. The “Call for papers” is scheduled to open soon, and abstract submissions from overseas researchers are also welcome. I am sure that the crisp weather in Sapporo will cool you down after the hot discussion during the meeting.

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