Looking to
the Future of
Paediatric Dentistry

On behalf of the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry and the Japanese Society of Pediatric Dentistry, it is our great pleasure to invite you to the 31st IAPD Congress in Osaka, Japan, from 2 to 5 June 2027. We feel immense pride in taking up the baton passed down by the thirty cities that have hosted previous congresses, their respective national societies, and all those involved. At the same time, we keenly feel the weight of responsibility this entails.

Now, the Japanese language has many proverbs composed of four kanji characters, each containing profound meaning or lessons. One such proverb is "十年一昔" (junen hitomukashi), which in English might be expressed as "ten years could seem like a million years ago". The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, profoundly changed the world. Yet, paying close attention to daily news, one realises that even before this, and continuing to this day, each country we live in and the whole international community have been in a state of constant change—politics, economics, people's lives, and healthcare, which touches upon all these. Paediatric dentistry also continues to generate new challenges and achievements daily in research and practice. We are all living in a world different not just from ten years ago, but even from ten days ago. In such a world, people tend to be captivated by mere novelty, which is anything different from what they have experienced or seen before.

Prof
Kazuhiko Nakano

IAPD 2027 Congress Chair

However, Japan has another proverb concerning the value of time: "温故知新" (onko chishin), which translates as "warm up the old again to know the new". It means revisiting old knowledge, past discoveries, and the practices built upon them by our predecessors, examining them anew from a contemporary perspective to gain fresh insights. This act of reflection generates even greater value when it transcends not only eras but also national borders. We have set the theme for the 31st IAPD Congress as "Looking to the Future of Paediatric Dentistry", emphasising the spirit of "onko chishin" as its core. We aim for these three days to be an occasion where as many participants as possible share their own established knowledge, gain diverse new insights from one another, and together pioneer new horizons in paediatric dentistry. We are making thorough preparations to ensure this.

Moreover, this congress theme resonates with the host city of Osaka. Osaka has flourished for centuries as Japan's political and cultural centre. Even after the capital function moved to Tokyo 500 years ago, it has remained a commercial hub where numerous major corporations still maintain their headquarters. Osaka is also Japan's only city to have hosted two World Expositions, in 1970 and 2025, embodying a spirit brimming with cross-border intellectual curiosity and pioneering ambition. Incidentally, the people of Osaka, the mecca of Japanese comedy, genuinely love to laugh heartily. Precisely for this reason, it is also a city where maintaining healthy teeth and sound oral hygiene from childhood onwards is of paramount importance.

Osaka is a city where reverence for the past and ambition for the future converge in administration, business, academia, and dental healthcare. We sincerely hope that at the 31st IAPD Congress, your knowledge, insights, and experience – your assets – will illuminate the path forward and guide the dental hygiene and health of future generations to even greater heights.

Matte Masse! (We await you with the utmost anticipation and excitement!)