Presidential Lecture of the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery in 2019

The Japanese Association for Chest Surgery, JACS, was established in 1984. The Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery, JATS, was founded in 1964 by thoracic surgeons, but cardiovascular surgeon came to occupy a large number, and it was necessary to establish a society exclusively for thoracic surgeon. And we use the name “Chest” instead of “Thoracic” for the academic society, because abdominal surgeons do esophageal surgery in Japan. In this meaning, thoracic surgery usually means chest surgery in Japan. Both cardiovascular surgeons and thoracic surgeons are members of the Japan Surgery Society, JSS. JSS has about 40,000 members, and JACS accounts for about 8% of the JSS membership.