Haruhiro Inoue, MD, PhD
President of JGES

Fellow JGES members,

I would like to say a few words of appreciation to all of you at the beginning of the year 2021. Last year, an unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic spread all over the world. Many countries locked down in April and May, including metropolitan cities like New York, London, and Paris. The same situation happened in Japan, and the government issued a state of national emergency. Several months later, many cities reopened but locked down again because of a 2nd or 3rd surge.

Even in such a difficult situation, we had to maintain our hospital’s activities in order to save our patients. The Medical Safety Committee of JGES (chair: Atsushi Irisawa, MD) published the JGES statement endorsing management of endoscopy suites during the COVID-19 pandemic. This announcement was revised a total of 6 times according to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in government policy towards the pandemic. Please refer to the article on recommendations of gastrointestinal endoscopy in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic [Digestive Endoscopy 2020; 32: 648–650 (doi: 10.1111/den.13703)].

The JGES biannual congresses in 2020 (99th and 100th Congresses) were also influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The spring meeting (The 99th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, President: Kazuhide Higuchi, MD, PhD) was postponed to September 2-3, 2020. It was successfully held in hybrid style, with the actual meeting in Kyoto along with the web-based meeting, and there were more than 7,000 attendees. The autumn meeting [The 100th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society in conjunction with JDDW 2020] was held in Kobe. This huge meeting was also organized in a hybrid style. More than 20,000 registrants attended mostly by web connection.

Last year, we newly launched the FJGES (Fellow of JGES) recognition program in which the title of FJGES was conferred to overseas endoscopists who greatly contributed to the JGES in the past. Selected overseas members have already received FJGES recognition, and approved Japanese members will begin to receive it soon.

This year, DEN Open, which is a sister journal to Digestive Endoscopy, will publish its first issue (Editor-in-Chief: Takao Itoi, MD, PhD).

The Women Doctor Promotion Committee, which was newly developed from the previous sub-committee group in JGES, began its activities last year, and it will support women doctors’ smooth and seamless upward career trajectory.

All other committees in JGES have also been active.

I hope that in this new year the COVID-19 pandemic will settle down, and we can return to regular and normal life. Until then, stay safe and healthy.