The 80th annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Hygiene was held this year in Sendai. The authors hosted a symposium entitled “Perspective for molecular epidemiologic cohort study of lifestyle-related disease,” at which four guests served as panelists. Through the courtesy of Editor-in-Chief Dr. Ohtsuki, space in the current issue has been devoted to a “mini feature” on the symposium to provide briefings by two panelists, Dr. Kurokawa and Dr. Hata. Here, the authors provide an introduction to the briefings, describe the current status of research and state their expectations for the future.
