Preface☆

Article Outline

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It was a great pleasure and honor for me to welcome a number of colleagues from Japan and Korea to the 12th Japan–Korea Symposium on Diabetes Mellitus held on 9–10 May 2003 in Nagoya Japan.

Clinical and pathological characteristics of diabetes mellitus, especially type 2, in Japan and Korea are not same as those in the western countries. As people in Japan and Korea has a similar ethnic background, it is very important to discuss diabetes mellitus in both countries each other.

In the 21st century, worldwide attention has been focused on the prevention of diabetes mellitus, and great advancement has been obtained. On the other hand, chronic diabetic complications including retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy and macroangiopathy are still serious problems and major factors determining the quality of life and prognosis of diabetic patients. Therefore, the main theme of this symposium, “New Insights into The Prevention of Diabetes Mellitus and Its Complications”, was timely and very interesting.

I really believe that this symposium was a fruitful meeting and contributed to the further advances in clinical and basic research on diabetes mellitus for all the participants.