The Japanese Dental Society of Anesthesiology (JDSA), with ∼2600 members, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special banquet after its annual scientific session at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on Sunday, October 30th, hosted by JDSA President, Professor Takehiko Iijima. Professor Emeritus Yuzuro Kaneko gave the celebration address titled “The History of Japanese Dental Anesthesiology.”Dental anesthesiology in Japan began with physician anesthesiologists who saw the need to train dentists to provide anesthesia for dental and oral & maxillofacial surgery. Professor Yasuya Kubota, a physician who later trained as a dentist, opened the first dental anesthesiology department in Japan at Tokyo Medical and Dental University in 1967. Gradually, virtually every dental school opened their own separate department in the 1970s and 1980s, and these departments began dental anesthesiology residency programs. To manage patients who required hospital admission following surgery, dedicated dental hospitals run jointly by dental anesthesiology and oral & maxillofacial surgery emerged with some facilities having dedicated intensive care units for patients requiring intubation following surgery, such as for head and neck cancer surgery and, as was common in the past, orthognathic surgery. Dental anesthesiology was recognized as one of only 5 dental specialties by the Japanese federal government in 2006.The Japanese Board of Dental Anesthesiology (JBDA) was formed to assess competence in anesthesia care in 1977. With time, 2 examinations were developed – Board Certification (1336 dentists) and Specialist Certification (339 dentists). The examination for JDBA board certified dentists occurs after 2 years of dental anesthesiology residency and allows these dentists to provide conscious sedation (as it is referred to in Japan), including the use of propofol to achieve this level of sedation, in private dental offices. Specialist Certification allows for general anesthesia to be administered in dental offices and generally requires an additional 3 years of training. Oral & maxillofacial surgeons may also provide conscious sedation after their residencies. Unlike in the US, conscious sedation guidelines recommend that the sedation dentist does not participate in the surgical procedure. Deep sedation and general anesthesia may only be provided by dentist anesthesiologists dedicated to anesthesia provision as is the case in all other parts of the world other than North America.At the 50th Anniversary Celebration, congratulations were offered by the presidents of the Japanese Society of Dental Sciences, the Japanese Dental Association, the Japanese Society of Anesthesiology, and various elected officials representing several agencies of government. Greetings and congratulations from the ASDA and the ADSA were made by Dr. Steven Ganzberg, who also lectured at the annual scientific session.We applaud the outstanding research and high level of clinical activity by dental anesthesiology in Japan. We in the US are all proud to have Japanese dental anesthesiologists as our colleagues. We wish the JDSA continued success as we celebrate 50 years of dedication to the art and science of dental anesthesiology with them.Respectfully submitted,