Welcome to the 5th congress of Asia Pacific Federation of Societies for Reconstructive Microsurgery (5th APFSRM) in 2020. It is with great honor and pleasure that we invite you to attend the 5th APFSRM, which will be held at Kitakyushu International Conference Center in Kitakyushu city in Fukuoka from Nov 18th to 20th in 2020. The congress will be held in conjunction with the 47th annual meeting of Japanese Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (47th JSRM) (Congress Chairman: Dr. Yasunori Hattori). The congress will be held under the theme“Pioneering the Future of Microsurgery”.My personal interpretation of this theme is that we have to continue to search for something new in microsurgery and devote ourselves to develop microsurgery. We hope this congress will give you some new ideas or hints for your clinical practice and research.

It gives us great pleasure to host this congress in Japan where many famous microsurgeons have emerged, such as Prof. Susumu Tamai, who performed the first successful replantation of the thumb in 1965, Prof. Kiyonori Harii, who performed the first successful free flap in 1972, Prof, Yasuo Ueba, who performed the first free fibula bone graft in 1978, Prof, Yoshikazu Ikuta who treated Volkmann contracture using free functioning muscle transfer, Prof. Kazuteru Doi, well known as the creator of the double free muscle transfer technique for total brachial plexus injury and Prof. Isao Koshima, who established the concept of perforator flaps and well known for lymphatic surgery.

On behalf of all the members of JSRM, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all who are related to the APFSRM organization for giving us an opportunity to host the congress in Japan. Organizing committee members for 5th APFSRM are now making great efforts to prepare for the congress to make it attractive and fruitful. On the first day of the congress (Nov.18th 2020), we are planning to have the pre-congress workshop of the World Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery. In this workshop, we would like several microsurgery giants to give us a few presentations that we hope would give some important messages to young microsurgeons following the footsteps of the experts.

Kitakyushu is located in the north of Kyushu island. The access to Kitakyushu is very convenient. Kitakyushu airport is linked with several domestic as well as Asian cities with direct flights. Kitakyushu is also connected to many big cities in Japan by the bullet train railroad system (Shin-kansen). You can enjoy tours to Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe with a 2-3 hour ride on the bullet train from Kitakyushu. In addition, Japan is very safe even after dark. Many people including young ladies enjoy drinking, eating and various entertainments until midnight in Kitakyushu. Let’s enjoy Japanese cuisine and culture in Japan.

It would be our honor to have a great number of microsurgeons from all over the world participating in this congress to achieve fruitful and successful outcomes. See you in Kitakyushu.

Ryosuke Kakinoki, M.D.

President of APFSRM

Kindai University