Dear Friends:

Welcome to the 15th JKJC in Seoul!
It is my great honor that I host the 15th Japan-Korea Joint Conference on Surgery for Cerebral Stroke in Seoul.

The main theme of 15th JKJC Meeting is “New Horizon in Cerebrovascular Surgery”. We need to establish a new paradigm in this field, beyond aneurysms, vascular malformations, ischemic strokes, etc. to expand our role and territory. We will also commemorate the 30 year history of Japan-Korea relationship of cerebrovascular surgeons, focusing on the contributions of former giants, as well as on the masterplan of the future directions for the young generations in cerebrovascular surgery field.

Unfortunately, however, Covid-19 pandemic forced us to postpone the original meeting until September 2021. We had hoped that it would surely disappear within a year. But the pandemic keeps bothering the whole world yet.

I am very sorry that we finally decided to hold the 15th JKJC in Seoul with on-line format. Also, some down-sizing was inevitable due to limitation of fund raising in on-line format meeting compared to original format meeting. Kind understanding from Japanese friends will be appreciated very much.

The meeting will be held only one day on Friday (September 10), in two parallel rooms. Korean speakers and moderators will attend at Walkerhill hotel meeting place. We will invite Japanese speakers and moderators through internet video conference system.

We had won the Sapporo earthquake, are now fighting with Covid-19 pandemic, and will overcome any obstacles through strong bond of friendship between the two countries.

Though we cannot meet face to face in Seoul, we will do our best to overcome the lack of touch, taste or smell and surely make this virtual audio-visual meeting as real and cordial as possible.

Thank you.

Seung-Chyul Hong, M.D., Ph.D.
President
The 15th Japan-Korea Joint Conference for Cerebral Stroke
Professor of Cerebrovascular Surgery
Department of Neurosurgery
Samsung Medical Center