We are delighted to announce that the 45th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research (JSSR) will take place in Yokohama from September 15-17, 2023. Originally scheduled for September 2020, the 45th meeting had to be postponed due to the sudden and violent spread of COVID-19. We welcome all the society members who are eager for direct interaction from across Japan to this three-day event at Pacifico Yokohama North, a new, spacious and easily accessible venue.

The 2023 meeting will be held jointly with the Japanese Society for Chronobiology (JSC) for the first time since 2007 and 2009. We are honored to plan the meeting together with Prof. Kazuhiko Kume, Nagoya City University, the President of the 30th Meeting of JSC. We hope that this joint meeting will be a valuable opportunity for researchers, clinicians, and technical staff to gain further stimulation from each other. Together with Vice President Fusae Kawana of Juntendo University, and Vice Presidents Masayumi Kimura and Takashi Kambayashi of WPI-IIIS, University of Tsukuba, we will make every possible preparation to ensure the quality of the meeting, following the great successes in Hakata in 2021 and Kyoto in 2022, held under the COVID-19 situation.

Since its inception, JSSR has fostered an interdisciplinary tradition of multifaceted studies on sleep, bringing together people from a variety of fields, including basic sleep science, clinical somnology, and sleep sociology. At the annual meeting, we aim to open up new areas for discussion together with members of JSC, as well as JSSR members from a wide range of fields beyond those to which they belong.

In line with this interdisciplinary approach, we have chosen the theme “Sleepless in Somnology and Chronobiology” in reference to a hit movie. We intend to make participants “sleepless” in excitement, with a program that covers basic, clinical, and society-level sleep sciences.

We will also take the utmost care to prevent infection at the venue, and we hope you will enjoy exploring the port city of Yokohama. We eagerly anticipate seeing you there.

We are pleased to announce that the 30th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Chronobiology (JSC) will be held jointly with the 45th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research (JSSR) at Pacifico Yokohama in Japan, from September 15 (Fri.) to 17 (Sun.), 2023. Originally scheduled for 2020, the joint meeting was postponed for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and JSSR had to cancel the meeting, while JSC held an online meeting alone.

JSC was established in 1994 by merging the Society for Biological Rhythms in basic science and the Society for Clinical Chronobiology, and this will be the 30th anniversary meeting of the society. The society has a rich and diverse history spanning 40 years from its origin, covering a wide range of phenomena, including various species ranging from bacteria and plants to humans, and phenomena ranging from molecular phosphorylation to the nap of kindergarten children. JSC is highly respected in Japan and abroad, and collaborates with Chronobiology societies in Asia, Europe and the United States.

This year's meeting will be held jointly with JSSR after a long interval since 2007 and 2009. Dr. Yanagisawa, the President of the JSSR meeting, has been leading the world's sleep research since the discovery of orexin. As a researcher who was inspired by Dr. Yanagisawa and started sleep research more than 20 years ago, I am delighted to co-chair this joint meeting with him. Although JSSR has a larger membership and budget, the breadth of the field and the level of basic scientific research of JSC are not inferior to those of JSSR, and it will contribute comparably to the meeting. The circadian biological clock that regulates sleep is one of the central themes of JCS, and JSC also has many studies of unusual organisms and mysterious rhythms that are not found in JSSR. On the other hand, JSSR presents many clinical studies, which are rare in JSC. I hope this joint meeting will be a good opportunity for all members of both societies to gain stimulation and mutual understanding.

The theme of this joint meeting, “Sleepless in Somnology and Chronobiology,” implies that “You cannot sleep because research of sleep and biological rhythm is too interesting.” I always tell my students that research is always a fun endeavor, so that they can continue their efforts. I would like to make this meeting as intellectually stimulating and enjoyable as possible in line with this theme. For that purpose, I hope many of you will present interesting studies. We look forward to seeing you in Yokohama!