It is my great honor and pleasure to serve as the sixth Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dermatological Science (JDS), succeeding Professor Akimichi Morita. JDS is the official journal of the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology (JSID), which now comprises more than 1350 dermatologists and skin researchers from Japan and other countries. Beginning in 2005, I served as the Secretary-General of JSID under Professor Shinji Shimada, and I worked to organize the International Investigative Dermatology (IID) 2008 held in Kyoto.