Issei Komuro

Issei Komuro

Japan

Statement of motivation

I, Issei Komuro, MD, PhD, FAHA, FESC, FAPSC, FISHR, FJCS, FJCC, am now Vice President of the International University of Health and Welfare, and Professor of the Department of Frontier Cardiovascular Science at the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

I graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1982 and after my clinical residency, I performed basic research on mechanisms of heart failure, and clinical research using big data of the Japanese and other Asian populations, while doing clinical work. I have published over 1400 papers on various cardiovascular diseases and treatments in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Cell, Nature Medicine, Lancet, JAMA, Circulation, JACC, and Eur Heart J. I was an invited speaker at many national and international conferences such as WCC, AHA, BCVS, ESC, APSC, OCC, Keystone symposia, and the Gordon conference. I have received many awards, including the American College of Cardiology/Merck Award, the Outstanding Investigator Prize of the International Society of Heart Research, and the Gold Medal from the European Society of Cardiology. I became a professor and chairman of the cardiology department at three national universities in Japan including Chiba University, Osaka University, and the University of Tokyo. I was also a visiting professor at Fudan University of China. I was the president, director, and congress chairperson of many national and international academic societies such as the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS), the Japanese Medical Science Federation, the Japanese Onco-Cardiology Society, the Japanese Heart Failure Society, and the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology. I newly established the Japanese Circulation Association to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease and work with patients.

My background and experience in the World Heart Federation is as follows. In 2015, I decided that the JCS became a Sustaining Partner of the WHF as the chair of the International Exchange Committee of the JCS. I attended the WHF Networking Meeting and Retreat in Toronto in 2015 and the 138th Session of the WHO Executive Board Meeting in Geneva in 2016 as the chair of the International Exchange Committee of the JCS, and WCC2016 in Mexico as a symposium speaker. In 2018, I attended WCC2018 in Dubai as a symposium speaker, and the WCC2021 bid was decided in Japan, but due to COVID-19, the WHF Round Table Discussion was held during the JCS2021 meeting. In 2024, I attended WCC2024 in Shanghai as a symposium chairperson. I have been participating in the activities of World Heart Day since 2020 and conducting educational activities via Twitter.

Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world and part of the reason for this is the development of medical care. On the other hand, the aging population rate is the highest in the world, and new problems are arising. Japan can be a role model for many countries as they continue to age in the future.

I would like to contribute to WHF by taking advantage of the many valuable experiences mentioned above and sharing the Japanese experience with other countries.