Greetings.

Abstract

I should like to congratulate Dr Ueda and all the members gathering in Kyoto in the beautiful Spring of 2018 once again for this wonderful ICICJ meeting. The ICICJ meeting is held jointly with the annual meeting of the Society of Interstitial Cystitis of Japan (SICJ). As the representative of SICJ, I cordially welcome those from abroad, who are fascinated by the mysterious disease, interstitial cystitis (IC). SICJ (http://sicj.umin.jp/) was established in 2001, and this was the very first medical society specializing in IC globally. The society started as a group of only four urologists and now comprises more than 170 members. SICJ has had a significant impact on medical society with regard to recognizing IC through scientific activities; IC has been a common and hot topic in recent Japanese Urological Congresses. We have had a tremendous impact on public awareness of IC; IC is now approved as an intractable disease by the Japanese government. A patient registry system has been set up to collect patient data and update the current condition of IC. At a scientific level, we published Clinical Guidelines for Interstitial Cystitis (in Japanese) in 2007. These were also the first clinical guidelines for IC based on medical evidence. The guidelines were updated by cooperating with Korean and Taiwanese urologists in 2016. Recently we have been emphasizing the distinct histopathology and pathophysiology of IC with Hunner lesions (Hunner type IC: HIC), as compared to that without Hunner lesions. In this special issue, we propose a new classification; IC/BPS as the umbrella term for the patients and HIC as a subgroup term for a distinct clinical entity. I hope that these social and scientific activities of SICJ have contributed to the success of the ICICJ meeting and importantly to the patients’ wellbeing. None declared.