The 115th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology will be held at Toki Messe (Niigata Convention Center) and Hotel Nikko Niigata in Niigata City for three days from June 20th to 22nd, 2019. This will be the third time the meeting will be held in Niigata after a 63 year interval. We are very proud of hosting the meeting and will strive to give our very best. Thank you for your cooperation.

The theme of this meeting is “Psychiatry to bridge human, mind, and brain: Beyond time and current matters. The Japanese word “toki” in the Japanese theme, “toki-wo koete” (beyond time), has multiple meanings, including as the key to unlocking secrets, the turning wheels of time, and as the name of the Japanese crested ibis. It is infused with a message that signifies an unraveling of the mysteries of the functions and afflictions of the heart and mind, moving beyond the crested ibis, the timeless symbol of Niigata.

We take for granted that people exist in a biopsychosocial realm. In addition to people’s existence as biological entities, we also have a psychological presence complete with a complex mind, our greatest features that differentiate us from other creatures. We form an extremely complex society, where we can share “meaning” and “information” by acquiring the ability to shift from a “sense of recognizing differences” to “recognizing similarities by closing our eyes to differences (assimilation)” and where we emphasize the importance of this pursuit. As social beings, people influence society, while also simultaneously being greatly affected by society.

As experts, we develop responses to medical issues that appear in the “mind”. However, in order for us to properly deal with problems of the “mind”, we must understand this phenomenon well and enrich our understanding of the functions of the “brain”, which forms this base. It is extraordinarily difficult to shed light on this phenomenon, but we must move beyond. Yet, we also want to organize an academic meeting to help seek the flow of a future where psychiatry focuses on each “person” as a whole and not as a reductive understanding and connects the “mind” and “brain” with the “person” playing a leading role, trying to aim at medical care with an understanding of that person’s life experiences and value.

Through the organization of this meeting, we will of course contribute to the development of the academic field of psychiatry, while also collaborating with related academic societies to enrich areas where we can learn about the current state and challenges in each specialized field. As a core academic society leading the neuropsychiatric area, we will strive to create a lively space for serious discussions about training psychiatrists responsible for the next generation, supporting international activities, such as ICD, and psychiatry and psychiatric medicine that contribute to society, and one that can also pave a path to these destinations.

This is a fantastic opportunity to visit Niigata. I hope that you will also enjoy the great appeal of Niigata outside of the meeting. I sincerely hope that many of our members will be able to take part in the 115th annual meeting.