9th International Orthodontic Congress (IOC) 2020

Written by
Dr Keiji Moriyama
President, The Japanese Orthodontic Society
Executive Committee Member, Asian Pacific Orthodontic Society
Past Executive Committee Member, The World Federation of Orthodontists

JOS/LOC Members

The countdown of the opening ceremony of the 9^th International Orthodontic Congress (IOC) / the 12^th Asian Pacific Orthodontic Conference (APOC) / the 79^th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Orthodontic Society (JOS), the first-ever completely virtual-formatted internationally sponsored orthodontic event, started at 3:59 pm JST on 4^th October 2020 on the congress website. Congress Chairman Dr. Takashi Ono, the local organising committee (LOC) members, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief as we watched the streaming video of the opening ceremony projected on the screen in the originally planned congress venue, Pacifico Yokohama.

It was back in May 2012 when JOS won the bidding for the 9^th IOC in 2020 at the WFO President’s Breakfast during the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) Congress 2012 in Hawaii. This was the beginning of our long journey. Years later, we were given a chance to plan the 12^th APOC in conjunction with the 9^th IOC in 2020 with the approval of the Asian Pacific Orthodontic Society (APOS) Executive Committee Members (ECM) in September 2016. In 2018, all the WFO ECM and the APOS Office Bearers gathered in Yokohama for the site inspection of this joint meeting and since then, the preparations were proceeding very smoothly.  

I, on behalf of all the members of the JOS, would like to extend our special gratitude to all the APOS members who provided cooperation and support for the 9^th IOC / 12^th APOC / 79^th JOS. I would also like to wish a great success to the fellow organisers on the upcoming of the 13^th APOC in Seoul, Korea in 2022, as well as the 10^th IOC in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2025.