It is our great honor to hold the 29th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Dysphagia Rehabilitation on September 2 and 3, 2023. This meeting is being prepared by the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine that I worked for until March 2021 and the Swallowing Center that was established in April 2021, both at the University of Tokyo Hospital, supported by medical professionals at other facilities. This meeting will be offered as a hybrid event with both in-person event at the Pacifico Yokohama North and on-demand broadcasting.

The theme of this meeting is “Diversity in Dysphagia Rehabilitation.” I consider that practice in rehabilitation medicine is like grappling with applied questions. The clients usually have multiple disabilities, differ in social backgrounds and so the aims of intervention. Grappling with such diverse disabilities necessitates observation with diverse “eyes” and discussion, to obtain better results. We expect that awareness of diversity in dysphagia rehabilitation will lead to the clients’ better outcome, namely improved quality of life.

Medical congress meetings, in my opinion, should offer three scenes: the scene of the proudest moment to announce the research results, the scene of mastering knowledge and skills through lectures and workshops, and the scene of communication with other medical professionals and researchers including in other medical fields. I myself have accumulated knowledge and experience through many such “scenes.” We are preparing this 29th Annual Meeting to provide all participants with these three scenes.

Though we cannot see any signs of settling down in both Russian military invasion into Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, we sincerely expect that many of you announce and share the clinical and research results in the scenes of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Dysphagia Rehabilitation. We kindly ask for your cooperation.