Wataru Shimizu, M.D., Ph.D.
President

Dr. Wataru Shimizu is Professor and Chairman of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Nippon Medical School. He is also Visiting Professor of National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Shiga University of Medical Science, Tokyo Medical College, and Saitama Medical College. His clinical interests focus on inherited arrhythmia syndromes such as long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome etc., atrial fibrillation, radiofrequency catheter ablation, and device therapy. He is a President of JHRS. He is also a Managing Director of Japanese Circulation Society (JCS), Director of Japanese College of Cardiology (JCC), and 1st Vice President (President elect) of Asian-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS).

Takashi Kurita
Vice President

Dr. Kurita is Chief of the Electrophysiology Department of Cardiovascular Center in Kindai University, Osaka, Japan. His research interests have been focused on the management of life threatening ventricular tachy-arrhythmias. He is a chairman of 2018 JCS/JHRS Guideline for non-pharmacologic management of patients with cardiac arrhythmias.

Haruhiko Abe

Dr. Abe is a Professor of Medicine, Department of Heart Rhythm Management, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan. His special interests of clinical and research areas are implantable cardiac device therapies and management of syncope. He is a board member and chair of implantable cardiac device committee in JHRS, and an executive board member of World Society of Arrhythmia (WSA). He is also a member of several practical guidelines in JCS, JHRS and Ministry in Japan.

Takashi Ashihara

Takanori IKEDA, MD, PhD, FACC, FESC, FJCS

Dr. Ikeda is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Toho University Faculty of Medicine and Director of Cardiovascular Center at Toho University Medical Center in Tokyo, Japan. In addition to Trustee of JHRS, he is appointed as President-Elect of the ISHNE, Trustee of the ISE, Governor of the ISCP, Trustee of the JCS, Vice President of the JCVS, and Trustee of the CVSS Japan. His current interests include risk stratification for sudden cardiac death, antithrombotic therapy for atrial fibrillation, and management of arrhythmias using catheter ablation or implantable cardiac devises. He has published numerous peer-review articles over 200 including Lancet, Circulation, JACC, Heart Rhythm, and so on. He has edited several textbooks related to cardiovascular diseases and also serves on the editorial board in several academic journals. He has received multiple awards in the field of cardiac electrophysiology.

Katsuhiko Imai, MD, PhD

Dr. Imai is Director of Heart Center of National Hospital Organization Kure Medical Center and Chugoku Cancer Center. He is a board surgeon of cardiovascular surgery and also serves as Director of Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of his hospital.
Dr. Imai earned his medical degree from Hiroshima University School of Medicine. He have been involved in the ‘arrhythmia surgery’ including AF surgery, VT surgery, device therapy using CIED and lead extraction in Hiroshima University Hospital and serves as visiting professor of Hiroshima University.
At JHRS, Dr. Imai has served on numerous JHRS committees and task forces, including chair of health-care insurance committee and a member of CIED committee, and is a member of the Journal of Arrhythmia editorial board. And he also serves as a member of Japan Test Translation Committee of International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners.

Koichi Inoue

Dr. Inoue is the director of Heart Rhythm Center at Sakurabashi Watanabe Hospital and Invited Associate Professor of Osaka University. He earned his MD and PhD degree from Osaka University. His major clinical interest is management of atrial fibrillation including catheter ablation. He has served on several Japanese Heart Rhythm Society committees and has been delegated Japanese Ablation (J-AB) registry.

Yosuke Ishii, M.D., PhD

Dr. Ishii is Professor & Chairman of Cardiovascular Surgery at Nippon Medical School. He is several international members of surgical societies, such as AATS, STS, EACTS, ISMICS, and also of AHA, HRS and APHRS. His specialties are arrhythmia surgery, valve repair and coronary artery bypass grafting. His team has performed over a thousand cases of maze procedure and surgery for VT with a collaboration with electrophysiologists since the first maze procedure was performed in Japan in 1991, serving as a leading hospital in arrhythmia surgery. He completed his cardiovascular fellowship training at Sakakibara Heart Institute, Tokyo and studied as a reserch associate with Dr. Damiano at Washington University in St. Louis, USA.

Ritsushi Kato

Jongkook Lee

Kengo Kusano

Dr. Kusano is the Chief Director of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan. He is also the affiliate professor of Okayama and Kumamoto University. His medical interest is cardiac clinical electrophysiology (devices, catheter ablation, inherited arrhythmias and cardiac sarcoidosis) as well as regenerative medicine using gene and cell therapy. He has published over 250 papers and 300 abstracts in peer-reviewed journals. After receiving his medical degree from Okayama University Medical School, he completed his cardiology training at the National Cardiovascular Center. At JHRS, he has served in multiple committee including chair of the Medical Safety Committee and vice chair of the IT/Database Comittee. He has delegated Japanese Ablation (J-AB) registry, Japanese Lead Extraction (J-LEX) registry and Japanese Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion (J-LAAO) registry.

Takaaki Matsuyama

Aya Miyazaki

Yukiko Nakano

Dr. Nakano is a Professor of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Hiroshima University. She graduated from Hiroshima University. Her research specializes in sudden cardiac death, especially focus on Brugada syndrome. Clinically, she performs catheter ablation and device therapy.

Takashi Noda

Yasuo Okumura

Tetsuo Sasano

Dr. Tetsuo Sasano is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. His research interest focuses on basic and translational research including the development of novel gene and cell therapy for arrhythmia. He also works on the precision medicine for atrial fibrillation utilizing genomic information, biomarkers, and novel analysis of electrocardiogram.

kazuhiro Satomi

Tsuyoshi Shiga

Morio Shoda

Dr. Shoda is Director & Professor, Clinical Research Division for Heart Rhythm Management, Department of Cardiology, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, and also Specially Appointed Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Shinshu University School of Medicine.

Kyoko Soejima

Dr. Soejima is a Professor and Chair of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Kyorin University, Tokyo. She specializes in the management of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death prevention, including catheter ablation of complex arrhythmias and device therapy.
Dr. Soejima earned her medical degree from Keio University School of Medicine.

Hiroshi Tada

Dr. Tada is Professor & Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Fukui. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Arrhythmia, Circulation Journal, and Journal of Cardiology Cases. He has served on several JHRS committees. His research interests are focused on catheter ablation, implantable cardiac devices, and cardiac imaging.

Masahiko Takagi

Naohiko Takahashi

Dr. Takahashi is presently Chair in Department of Cardiology and Clinical Examination at the Oita University. He is Associate Editor of Circulation Journal, Journal of Cardiology, and International Heart Journal. His research focuses on mechanisms of atrial fibrillation, particularly inflammatory atrial fibrosis. He also researches risk stratification of idiopathic ventricular fibrillation, including Brugada syndrome and early repolarization syndrome.

Seiji Takatsuki

Dr. Takatsuki is Associated Professor of Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory in Keio University Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. His research interests have been focused on the management of atrial fibrillation, especially catheter ablation. He has served for JHRS as committee member for catheter ablation, general affairs, public relations, international exchange, editorial committee of Journal of Arrhythmia.

Keiko Toyohara

Eiichi Watanabe

Dr. Watanabe is Professor of Cardiology at Fujita Health University School of Medicine. He has served on several JHRS committees. His research interests are focused on catheter ablation, implantable cardiac device follow up and biosignal monitoring through wearable devices.

Tetsuo Yagi

Dr. Yagi is the Vice-president of Sendai City Hospital, Miyagi. He is also the medical department manager and the director of cardiology. His major clinical interest is the management of atrial fibrillation and PSVT including catheter ablation.

Takumi Yamada

Teiichi Yamane

Dr. Yamane is a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine at the Jikei University School of Medicine. After completing the medical school at the Hamamatsu Medical University, his internship was at the Tokyo Welfare Hospital. He finished his EP fellowship in Tsuchiura Kyodo Hospital (1995-1997) and in Hôpital Haut-Lévêque in Bordeaux (1999-2001). He has been a Director of Electrophysiology at the Jikei University Hospital as well as the professor of Cardiology. His main clinical and research interests are catheter ablation for tachyarrhythmias including atrial fibrillation. At JHRS he has served in multiple committee roles including the Chair of the Catheter Ablation Committee and the Vice Chair of the Health Insurance Committee.

Ichiro Sakuma

Ichiro Sakuma received the B.S., the M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in precision engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1982, 1984, and 1989, respectively. He was a research instructor at Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine from 1990 to 1991. He was appointed as an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Electronic Engineering, Tokyo Denki University in 1992. He has been serving as a faculty member of the University of Tokyo since 1998. He is currently a Professor at Department of Bioengineering, Department of Precision Engineering, and Medical Device Development and Regulation Research Center in School of Engineering. He also serves as the director of Research Institute for Biomedical Science and Engineering, The University of Tokyo.　His research interests include cardiac electrophysiology, computer aided surgery, medical robotics, medical devises for minimally invasive therapies, and regulatory sciences.

Takeshi Yamashita

Dr. Yamashita is Director, The Cardiovascular Institute, Tokyo. He has written more than 10 text books on cardiac pathophysiology, electrocardiograms, and cardiac arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation. His research interests include basic cardiac electrophysiology, epidemiology and clinical trials regarding cardiac arrhythmias. He was one of the principal investigators of J-RHYTHM study, J-RHYTHM II study and J-RHYTHM registry planned by the academic society.