On Sept. 7, IMSUT hosted an afternoon visit by a delegation of 35 young healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, medical university lecturers etc...) from China. This delegation was one of 8 youthful delegations simultaneously visiting Japan under the auspices of the21st Century Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths Programme (JENESYS Programme). The visitors were all born between 1970 and 1985, and can all be expected to take on positions of higher and higher responsibility as time passes. The delegates visit to IMSUT was part of longer (Sept. 6~13) study tour. During their three-hour visit to our institute, they toured the Biobank facilities, and then went to the hospital 8th floor hall where they heard talks by Vice-dean Jun-ichiro Inoue, Hospital Director Kozo Imai, and the head of our Research Center for Asian Infectious Diseases, Prof. Aikichi Iwamoto. Following these talks, a panel of young IMSUT hospital physicians, nurses and one Chinese post doc researcher answered probing questions posed by the visitors regarding patient care, nurse training, research funding, hospital administration etc...

　 Although the visit lasted altogether over three hours, and communicating through interpreters was sometimes a struggle requiring concentration, there seemed to be a feeling among the visitors that the visit was too short. During the good-byes, they repeatedly expressed their warm wishes to come again, and also for us to visit them in China.