The 31st General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress along with its affiliated Scientific Exhibition and public Expo took place in Tokyo in April 2023. Congrès Inc. was the PCO in charge of both the congress and scientific exhibition, which together drew a total of approx. 40,000 attendees, far and away the largest medical meeting in Japan. It is nicknamed the “Doctors’ Olympics,” as it is convened every 4 years. The primary venue was Tokyo International Forum, with related events taking place all over the Marunouchi area in downtown Tokyo.
This is one of Tokyo’s major business and commercial areas, comprising the Otemachi/Marunouchi/Yurakucho districts in the heart of the city, located between Tokyo’s central railway station and the imperial palace. Marunouchi is home to some 4,000 diverse offices of both Japanese firms/organizations and multi-national companies, and the daytime worker population is about 280,000. In recent years, the area’s commerce and DMO organizations are seeking to promote the potential of “Area-wide MICE*” in inviting and operating international and domestic meetings & events in Tokyo, not only to enhance the offerings to meeting organizers/participants, but also to enable the entire area to benefit from convening meetings & events there. Furthermore, this connects to vitalizing communication between businesses, workers and the local community.
*Area-wide MICE: A style of holding business event programs that is not limited to simply utilizing a conference hall building, but rather covers an entire area using all the various facilities and resources available there.
One example of street events is the “Otemachi/Marunouchi/Yurakucho Nakadori Street ‘Tsunahiki’ Tug of War Festival” a participatory type of event using a traditional Japanese “tsunahiki” rope, which aims to activate communication among workers in the Otemachi/Marunouchi/Yurakucho area and promote a healthy life style. 2023 marks the event’s 7th year, and every year the scenes of office workers battling it out in the spring weather during lunchtime attracts tremendous interest.
This year, the preliminary matches took place on April 18, where 48 teams with a total of 288 members participated. As the 31st General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress’ public Expo opened on April 15, following their debut last year the “General Assembly JMC” team of doctors once again took part! The doctors in white coats taking on teams representing corporations/organizations in the Otemachi/Marunouchi/Yurakucho area made an impressive scene. The result was 2 wins/2 losses, regrettably precluding them from advancing to the finals, but the spirited atmosphere with the competing teams also rooting for each other drew a big gallery and lots of excitement. Even tourists from overseas passing by were surprised and delighted.
The 31st General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress is one of the co-sponsors of this “Tug of War Festival” and contributed a “Special Prize” to a participating team.
The 31st General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress is not simply a meeting for medical professionals. During the congress period, various events and programs on themes related to health, medicine and wellness took place as part of the affiliated “Japan Medical Congress Expo,” geared for the general public, across multiple venues and open spaces around the Otemachi/Marunouchi/Yurakucho area from April 15 to 23. Congrès was also the PCO in charge of this Expo. The Expo’s aim was to offer approachable spaces and fora for learning more about “Health and Medicine” and featured the latest information as well as experiential programs. Admission was free of charge and some 540,000 people attended. Even after the physical Expo and related events had finished, the organizers continued to provide Expo-related content for about 1 month online, open to all.
Congrès has a wealth of experience in operating past General Assemblies of the JMC. We were in charge of the overall scientific meeting operations for the previous congress, “30th General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress 2019 Chubu,” for which we delivered a “smart convention,” fully utilizing cutting-edge IT technology such as our facial recognition system.
This time, Congrès also planned and managed the series of online public lectures that featured discussion by medical experts on current themes in health and medicine. An archive of these lectures is available to anyone via the official website.
Congrès looks forward to working closely with clients and associations to delivery “Area-wide MICE” meetings & events into the future, as part of our corporate commitment to delivering quality meetings while simultaneously striving to contribute to vitalizing communities.
