Message from the President

Message from the President

 Thank you for visiting the homepage of the Japanese Ophthalmological Society. With a history of 125 years, the Japanese Ophthalmological Society is a society with a long tradition. Among the all medical societies in Japan, it is the second oldest only to the Anatomical Society. In the field of clinical medicine, we have the longest history, indicating that Ophthalmology is one of the earliest medical specialties which were recognized to be independent from general surgery.
 The first meeting of the Japanese Ophthalmological Society was held in 1897. Comparing this with other ophthalmological societies around the world, the first one was in Germany in 1857, followed by Britain in 1890 and France at around the same time. In the United States a joined society of ophthalmology and otolaryngology was established in 1896 with the ophthalmological society forming its separate society in 1979. This shows that the Japanese Ophthalmological Society is one of the oldest in the world. We are following in the footsteps of our outstanding predecessors, and our mission is to further improve and sophisticate their legacy, which will be transmitted to the present and future generations.
 The present public foundation of the Japanese Ophthalmological Society has more than 16,000 members marking it as a large scale society. Within our umbrella, 27 societies operate focusing on various sub-specialties in the field of ophthalmology.
 The very first objective of the Japanese Ophthalmological Society is to guarantee the high level of clinical ophthalmology in Japan and, thereby the health of the population. To that end, it is crucial to have a proper accreditation system for specialist physicians and promote top-level training of experts in the field. At the same time, it is the duty of the society to establish a set of standard ground rules that will support and guide the ophthalmological profession.
 It is also important to increase the public consciousness of issues related to the health of the eye and to promote these issues. We use journals and other media, press conferences and briefings to emphasize the importance of eye and vision health and, through this, to elucidate the advanced status of ophthalmology in Japan and its contribution to the public welfare working in this way with the general public.

Tetsuro Oshika

President, the Japanese Ophthalmological Society