History

Purpose of establishment and history
This Society was founded in order to establish head and neck surgery as a new area and to develop specialized surgical medicine which comprehensively covers the interdisciplinary fields of the maxillofacial region, cervical region, skull base, functional reconstruction, rehabilitation, etc., in addition to the conventional fields of otorhinolaryngology, namely, otology, rhinology, stomato-pharyngology, and laryngology. With this background, we established an academic society centering on otorhinolaryngologists who aspire to work in education, research and medical practice in the field of head and neck surgery. The idea was taken forward by Professor Chisato Takeda (Tokyo Medical University), who was the representative founder, and 26 other founders, and, after much consideration, the Japan Society for Head and Neck Surgery was founded on March 10, 1990. The first meeting of the board of directors was held at the same time to approve Professor Takeda as the first Chairperson, the 26 founders as members of the board of directors, etc., and six preparation committee members as the secretaries. The list of chairpersons, etc. at the time is shown in the table. It was decided that members of the Society needed to be regular members of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, and that the secretariat would be established in the Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, Tokai University. As of 2022, there are more than 2,100 regular members, and the secretariat has been relocated to Hitotsubashi Printing Co., Ltd.

Activities as an academic society
The 1st Annual Meeting and Lecture Meeting of the Japan Society for Head and Neck Surgery was held at Meiji Kinenkan on January 24 and 25, 1991, under the direction of Hirosato Miyake, the Chairperson of Tokai University. It covered a wide range of fields from basics to medical practice, with four symposiums and reporting on 22 general subjects. Thereafter, the annual meeting was held every year until the 16th meeting in 2006. The list of all past chairpersons and the venues can be accessed from the Annual Meeting page. In the milestone 10th Annual Meeting (Medical College of Oita, chaired by Goro Mogi), Professor Chisato Takeda (Tokyo Medical University), who had served as the first Chairperson of the Society, gave a commemorative lecture to mark the 10th anniversary of the Society on the topic “Decisions on head and neck surgery.” In 2020, we held the 30th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony in Okinawa under the direction of Chairperson Mikio Suzuki (University of the Ryukyus). The number of members, which had been 231 at the time of foundation, increased to 407 in the following year, 1,063 as of December 2005, and 2,149 as of 2022. The first issue of our academic journal “Journal of Japan Society for Head and Neck Surgery” was published on December 25, 1991, and contained details of the 1st Annual Meeting and Lecture Meeting. To date, 32 volumes have been published.
As of 2022, the Society is implementing diverse activities as an academic society, including a certification system for head and neck cancer specialists, provision of training on robot-assisted surgeries in otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery, proctor certification, and medical instructor certification for Alluminox treatment of the head and neck region.

Successive chairpersons