The Neurospinal Society of Japan: For a Start of Our New Journal
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Launch of Neurospine, the journal for ASIA SPINE, the tripartite confederation of spine neurosurgical societies in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, is to be commemorated as a truly mile-stone event. The unity and history of friendship of the 3 organizations, the Neurospinal Society of Japan (NSJ), the Korean Spinal Neurosurgery Society (KSNS), and Taiwan Neurosurgical Spine Society (TNSS), are the basis for the historical undertaking.
The federation started first as the biennial friendship meeting for spine neurosurgeons in Korea and Japan, created with the initiative of Prof. Hiroshi Nakagawa and Prof. Young Soo Kim and Prof. Jung Keun Suh. The first Korea-Japan Conference on Spinal Surgery was held in 1997 (Nagoya, President: Prof. Hiroshi Nakagawa). Since then the conference has been meeting biennially in Japan and Korea until the 7th one in Nikko Japan in 2007 (President: Phyo Kim). On that occasion, a delegate from Taiwan Neurosurgical Spine Society was officially invited. The executive board held in Nikko decided to make the meeting to be reorganized as a tripartite union including the TNSS. The conference became to meet annually, with rotation among the three countries, and it became to be held in conjunction with annual assembly of each society. The intention was to fixate the union meeting as a strong routine and to improve the attendance. First of such assembly took place in Incheon (2010, President; Prof. Seung Chul Rhim). Enthusiasm among the participants in the meeting was memorable. Some board members, passionate with the prospects of international expansion, discussed for extending recruitments to the countries in the continent and subcontinents. However, prudent and constructive opinions prevailed. An agreement was reached in the board as to the strategy in making firm confederation of the three national societies as priority. To make it a gathering of wider international participation was included as a later secondary scope. Since then, the union, soon renamed ASIA SPINE, has been held following the scheme for 8 years.
On the occasion of the board meeting last year in Osaka, an official agenda was raised for creating a common English publication platform for the 3 societies. The idea had been discussed preliminarily between the Presidents and Editors of the Societies in Japan and Korea over the previous years. The primary aim is to make a platform which would archive and publish works of the members of our regional societies and to promote their global transmission. When considering practical means for the aim, the most feasible solution was to enhance and restructure a pre-existing English-language periodical, and that of KSNS appeared to be the foremost candidate.
Professor Yong-Eun Cho, then President of KSNS, and Phyo Kim as the President of the Board of Directors of NSJ, had ongoing discussions and brought the issue back to their Societies. Subsequently, after thorough discussions including that for the title, basic consensus for the communal endeavor was reached in the two Societies, as well as in the TNSS. We appreciate very much the support agreement from the entire member societies and especially thank the enthusiasm of our Korean colleagues, starting from Prof. Yoon Ha, in their efforts to realize it and their willingness to accept extra-works.
As the joint task being started, I sincerely hope to see this endeavor to thrive with the participation of all members of the three societies, and our new journal Neurospine to serve the aspirations of the tripartite confederation for long time to come.
March 2018