The ISPE's 5th ACPE meeting in Tokyo follows the 4 previous ACPE meetings in East Asia held with the full support from ISPE (and now recognized as one of the formal activities of ISPE); the 1st meeting held in Shang­hai/Lu­shan in China in 2006, the 2nd one in Tokyo in 2007 held mainly as an educational activity, the 3rd one in Seoul, Korea in 2008 as the new full-scale inter­national scientific meeting with the components of scientific presen­tations, symposiums and educational activities and the 4th one in Tainan, Taiwan, as the big full-fledged scientific meeting with 48 oral presen­tations and more than 100 poster presentations.

The 5th ACPE meeting in Tokyo in 2010 will be held as the joint meeting with the 16th annual meeting of Japanese Society for Pharmaco­epidemiology (JSPE) (or as the 5th ACPE/16th JSPE joint meeting) with the theme of "Activities and Co-operation for Drug Safety in Asia" where "Asia" (as well as "Asian" in "ACPE") means "Asia-Pacific". As represented by this theme, the 5th ACPE and 16th JSPE joint meeting will have a new feature of Asian Pharmaco­epidemiology Network (AsPEN). The concept of AsPEN was proposed by Professor BJ Park in the 3rd ACPE meeting in Korea to address the drug safety issues and other related problems specific to Asia. The 5th ACPE and 16th JSPE joint meeting will be the first step toward realizing the AsPEN concept where the same problem is addressed by the researchers in different countries in Asia.

The 5th ACPE and 16th JSPE joint meeting will also provide the chance to present the scientific achievements done by the researchers mainly in Asia-Pacific region in the session for the oral and poster presentations. Projected sympo­siums may cover the database and other resources for pharmaco­epidemiology in Asia, the regulatory activities toward drug safety in Asia, therapeutic risk management in the world and Asia. It will also provide plenty of educational sessions which will give the chance to learn basic and advanced topics of pharmaco­epidemiology from well-known pharmaco­epidemiologists.

The 5th ACPE and 16th JSPE joint meeting will be held in the central Tokyo or Shinjuku area with new skyscrapers buildings. Though the place may be known as that with many buildings, it is not difficult to find "green" areas like Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (shown in the current home page). In the area which can be reached by less than 1 hour from Shinjuku, you can find a couple of Japanese gardens as well. Importantly, Tokyo is no longer very expensive.

We hope as many people in Asia and other area interested in pharmaco­epidemiology as possible will come to Tokyo to join the 5th ACPE and 16th JSPE joint meeting and also enjoy Tokyo and other area in Japan.

See you in Tokyo in October, 2010.