68^th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS
OF MEAT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
AUGUST 22-25, 2022

Good evening. Now I send each of you my sincere greetings from here in Kobe, Japan. I am Ryoichi Sakata, the chair of ICoMST2022. The congress has now come to an end. It is very deeply emotional state of mind. I should like to offer my thanks again to you on behalf of our organizing committee.

We had initially planned to hold this congress in a Face-to-Face manner in Kobe, but this notion had to be abandoned, owing to COVID-19 pandemic wave. Thus, the online mode was adopted with the deepest heartbroken thoughts, as I told at the opening ceremony. Let me say again, but your participation on this occasion is deeply appreciated. The particular location for this congress imposed a time restriction of 4 days for its duration. But on Wednesday, you might have been treated to a virtual reality life-like tour of Kobe beef production site, and the beautiful scenery of countryside or Kyoto culture.

All sessions of this convention were conducted as planed and each was followed by a question-and-answer period via chat, fortunately without big problems. Several keynote speakers were invited to this Kobe Conference Center to make informative presentations. Dr. Troy Declan, international secretary of ICoMST, was also on hand and assisted in the broadcasting of the congress lecture. We deeply appreciate their efforts to lead a successful congress.

More than 300 participants including distinguished speakers, sponsors and “Meat Science Award” judges from 27 nations enrolled at this congress. As many as 205 poster entries were received from the members of this congress, we greatly appreciate.

This congress was primarily financed by the registration fees and many sponsorships. The support of the Kobe city government and Hyogo prefectural officials is all very much appreciated, and we also thank from the bottom of heart to a secretariat of the congress which is JTB Corp. Western Japan MICE Branch, and Kobe International Convention Bureau. 

All the preparations for this congress were carefully and painstakingly made by the organization committee, which we call the “Team Japan”. It was really hard work for us, but we got through the work!! It's been a long road to this day.

Thank you again for your kind attention. And finally, we are rooting for the Team Italy to hold the ICoMST2023!!