by Professor Insun Kim
Originally, the Korean-Japanese Joint Conference emerged from the mutual accord between Professor Sakamoto, Atuhiko, Medical School of Tokyo University, and Professor Chang, Eun Sook, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital and Professor Kim, Insun, Korea University Medical College in June 1997. In September 1997, the Japanese delegates and the Korean delegates met at the Scandinavia Club in Seoul for the preparation of the joint conference. The 1st Joint Conference was held at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo where the Korea-Japan IAP Slide Conference was held. The conference was held in the afternoon and consisted of a special lecture and slide discussion of 4 cases from each country.
In 1999, the 2nd and the 3rd conference were held in February and in October at Seoul National University Hospital, respectively. In October 2000, there was the 4th conference during the IAP Meeting in Nagoya, Japan. From that time on, the Joint Conference has been held once in a year. However, two mini-lectures provided by each country were added to the program from 2002.
When the 14th conference was held in Kurasiki in October 2010, Taiwan pathologists, Professor Jung, Shih-Ming and Professor Lin, Ming-Chieh, took part in as an observer. In the following year, the 15th Korean-Japanese Joint Conference as well as the first Korean-Japanese-Taiwanese Joint Conference for Gynecological Pathology was held in Gyeongju, Korea. In 2012, the 16th Conference was held in Kumamoto, Japan, and the 17th was in Seoul in 2013. This year, the 18th conference will be held in Taiwan. The one-day conference consists of one special lecture provided by the host country, and 3 mini-lectures and 9 cases of slide discussion provided by 3 countries.
Every year, this joint conference develops and discusses diligently on the common themes of the Gynecological Pathologists for the further academic improvement in far eastern Asia.