Digestive Disease Week-Japan (DDW-Japan) was held successfully in Yokohama April 15-18 1998 under the management of Prof. Yoshiki Hiki Chairman of the Steering Committee. DDW-Japan was carried out with the cooperation and participa- tion of gastroenterological societies in Japan. Because the participat- ing congresses each dealt with topics characteristic of particular fields all participants could enjoy a rewarding experience and could gather relevant up-to-date information about a wide variety of subjects in basic and clinical medicine. Prof. Rikiya Fujita Chairman of the International Relations Com- mittee planned and conducted the International Symposium working together with researchers from foreign countries thus making DDW- Japan in 1998 a great success. The symposium provided a fascinating insight into the global situation and the papers that were present- ed are being published in this monograph Recent Advances in Gastroenterology. As we all know the world soon is going to enter the third millen- nium. Therefore treatments and medicines should not be limited to any single country or small area; instead medical knowledge must be shared as a global resource without regard to nationality way of life or social system. I hope that this monograph will playa useful role in the develop- ment of gastroenterology all over the world and I very much appre- ciate the tremendous contribution of all authors for this publication.