The Japanese Society of Hypertension

report on the Kyoto Hypertension Summit 2016

6 June 2016

Ten years have passed since the Fukuoka Statement for overcoming high blood pressure was signed at the ISH Scientific meeting in 2006. Since the number of ISH members from the Japanese Society of Hypertension (JSH) has increased to 135 (12.2% of the total number), JSH has made a commitment to contribute more to the ISH activities for global hypertension care and education.

The Hypertension Summit 2016 was held on May 31 at Hotel Granvia, Kyoto, Japan. Prof. Hiroshi Itoh (Keio University School of Medicine), Chair of the Hypertension Summit, organized this meeting to strengthen the collaborations and interactions between the ISH and JSH. Kyoto was chosen by the JSH because it is an ancient capital for more than 10 centuries, traditional artisan techniques and cultural, and an academic city of Japan that has gained worldwide renown for 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 9 Nobel laureates. In addition, Kyoto has been ranked the most popular tourist destination worldwide, and is one of the safest cities in the world.

The following ISH committee members attended the Hypertension Summit 2016.

ISH Executive Council members: Rhian Touyz (President), Louise Burrell (Treasurer and Corporate Liaison Officer), Masatsugu Horiuchi (Secretary), Dorairaj Prabhakaran (Ex-Officio - International Development), Agustin Ramirez (Vice President), Ernesto Schiffrin (Immediate Past President), Alta Schutte (Chair, Membership Committee and New Investigators Liaison Officer), Ji-Guang Wang (Global Outreach and Promotion Officer)

ISH Scientific Council members: Guido Grassi, Cheol-Ho Kim, Yoshihiro Kokubo, Basden Onwubere, Markus Schlaich, Naftali Stern, Roland Schmieder, Maciej Tomaszewski, Richard Wainford

Ex-Officio Members of the Scientific Council: Trefor Morgan (APSH Representative), Fadi J Charchar

JSH: Dr. Satoshi Umemura (Yokohama Rosai Hospital), President of the JSH, most of the core members and leadership of the JSH, as well as young Japanese investigators attended the summit. The total number of attendees was approximately 100.

In order to decide the next mission of the JSH under the leadership of the ISH, the meeting sought to understand the global activities of both these organizations and discuss their future collaboration. In addition, young investigators attended this meeting to present their outstanding research activities to the ISH core members.
The program was comprehensive as outlined:

Opening remark and the aim of Hypertension Summit: Hiroshi Itoh

Session-1: Ongoing JSH activities and challenges after the FUKUOKA statement in 2006

Salt and Hypertension ~From Bench to Clinic~: Toshiro Fujita (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
The Japanese Guideline for Hypertension: JSH2009/2014 and Next: Toshio Ogihara (Morinomiya University of Medical Sciences, Japan)
Current potential of the JSH (members, conferences, etc.) and ongoing global activities: Satoshi Umemura
Hypertension Society of upcoming generation: Tatsuo Shimosawa (The University of Tokyo, School of Medicine, Japan)
Strategies for promotion of research on hypertension: Masatsugu Horiuchi (Ehime University, Japan)

Session-2: Recent outstanding research by Japanese young investigators

Novel adrenocortical zonation visualized by CYP11B2 immunohistochemistry opens up primary aldosteronism: Kuniaki Mukai (Keio University School of Medicine, Japan)
Clock Genes and Salt-Sensitive Hypertension: A new type of aldosterone synthesizing enzyme controlled by circadian clock and angiotensin II : Masao Doi (Kyoto University, Japan)
Regulation of mineralocorticoid receptor signals in the kidney: Shigeru Shibata (Teikyo University, Japan)
Cardiovascular reconstitution from pluripotent stem cells: Jun K. Yamashita (Kyoto University, Japan)
Significance of self-measured home blood pressure in management of hypertension: Kei Asayama (Teikyo University School of Medicine, Japan)

Luncheon Seminar: Disaster and hypertension

Disaster Hypertension and Hemodynamic Biomarker-Initiated 'Anticipation Medicine': Kazuomi Kario (Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Japan)
Lessons from the Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016: Masashi Mukoyama (Kumamoto University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Japan)

Session-3: Regional activities of ISH: past, present and future

International Society of Hypertension Activities in Europe and Middle East
Hypertension in India
Regional activities of ISH: past, present and future - Activities in China
ISH Activities in Africa
Regional activities of ISH in Australia - past, present and future
The activities performed in Central and South America (CSA)
ISH Activities in the USA

Session-4: ISH: Where are we going?

Vision of the International Society of Hypertension and new initiatives
Membership, New Investigators and Future Leaders
International Society of Hypertension, global engagement, funding and future meetings

Session-5: Workshop: Brain storming for future collaboration between the ISH and JSH: Council members of the ISH and JSH.

The brain-storming session was especially important and was an interactive dialogue between the panel members and audience. After much discussion a number of activities were highlighted for future JSH-ISH interactions and action points were defined so that JSH and ISH could work together to achieve the mutual mission of reducing the burden of hypertension globally.

These are summarized:

The JSH will encourage increased membership from Japan to ISH, so that Japan has greater visibility and will be more proactive in ISH activities at the membership and leadership levels.
Young investigators and trainees in Japan will be encouraged to join the New Investigator Network of theISH, where they will benefit from a great network of international young hypertension researchers and also from mentoring schemes within the Society. To further strengthen collaboration, JSH was encouraged to invite the ISH New Investigator Committee to join the national JSH meeting with a specific Symposium or joint session with JSH New Investigators (similar to the invitations from ESH and the AHA).
The JSH will work with ISH to grow the mentoring scheme and will encourage senior mentors from Japan to engage in the mentoring scheme through ISH.
At the research level, the JSH and ISH will interact more to promote collaborative efforts between ISH and JSH researchers. In particular, i) joint sessions at respective scientific meetings will be organized, ii) advertising and promoting student/professorial exchange programmes between members of ISH and JSH will be encouraged, iii) creation of new fellowships/scholarships to support young members/new investigators for short research visits between international and Japanese labs, and iv) travel awards for Japanese young researchers to attend the biennual ISH meeting; v) joint participation to strengthen the Women in Hypertension Research initiative that will be launched by ISH at the 2016 meeting in Korea.
The JSH will participate more in the Asia-wide activities of the ISH and will work closely with the Asia Regional Advisory Group (RAG) of ISH. As an example, Japan should participate in scientific meetings together with China and Korea, where ISH has some participation.
The JSH has been very successful in improving diagnosis and management of hypertension in Japan, has successfully campaigned to reduce salt intake nationally and has created comprehensive guidelines. Approaches for such successes will be shared with ISH through educational seminars, workshops, etc. to help improve the global challenges of hypertension so that the mission of the Kyoto declaration can be addressed.

After the meeting, the participants adopted a joint declaration, the Kyoto Declaration 2016, which was signed by Drs. Touyz and Umemura, as shown in the image.

Fourteen young investigators (under 40 years of age) presented poster presentations, which were scored by ISH members. Drs. Hiroyuki Inoue (Keio University School of Medicine) and Akiko Tanino (Ehime University, Graduate School of Medicine) were selected for the Young Investigator Award. Notably, Dr. Tomaszewski, who is Chairperson of the ISH New Investigator Committee, offered to feature the award winners in the ISH NIC Spotlight features. Both winners will become "the faces of ISH" for the whole month and will receive certificates awarding the title of "ISH NIC Investigator of the month" by post. Dr. Tomaszewski also suggested that the JSH Young Investigator committee members should join the New Investigator Networking event in the Scientific Meeting of the ISH2016 in Seoul as a start to global collaborations for promoting the Young Investigators' activities between the ISH and JSH.

Following the official day of the meeting (June 1), the JSH invited the ISH participants to a city tour, which included a number of beautiful temples, the iPSC Center, Kyoto University, the Miyako Messe and Kyoto International Conference Centers.

Accordingly, the 2-day 2016 Kyoto Hypertension Summit was a great success. It provided a wonderful opportunity for the leadership of the ISH and the JSH to share thoughts about common missions of the respective Societies and it provided a great opportunity for young investigators and trainees in Japan to learn more about the New Investigator activities and programmes of the ISH. Finally, the Summit provided a platform for the signing of the Kyoto Declaration between the ISH and JSH, the goal of which is to conquer hypertension globally through education, awareness, prevention and better diagnosis and management.