The 37th ICMART World Congress on Medical Acupuncture (ICMART) was held on Jeju Island, South Korea, from September 27 to 29, 2024. The theme of the congress was "Future of Integrative Healthcare, Convergence of Acupuncture, Medical Science, and Technology," and the event was organized by the Society of Korean Medicine (SKOM), which officially became a member of ICMART in 2019. During the ICMART General Assembly on September 28, 2024, the formal membership of our society was officially approved. This article provides an overview of the process leading to our society's membership in ICMART, and the proceedings of the ICMART General Assembly. It also summarizes the ICMART 2024 Congress and highlights a joint session between our society and the Korean Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine Society (KAMMS) focusing on facial nerve paralysis.

Following the Japan-Korea Symposium at the 37th ICMART World Congress in Jeju, Korea, September 27-29, 2024, another international symposium was held in Daegu on November 17, 2024, by three countries, including not only Japan and Korea but also the Chinese Medical Association of Acupuncture in Taiwan. In addition, a Korean domestic symposium was held by three societies under the Society of Korean Medicine.　Korea has been actively inviting such international symposiums in recent years, and international exchanges in the field of acupuncture and moxibustion has been progressing further than ever before. Academia of traditional medicine in Japan needs to respond actively to this trend, including human resource development.

The Japan-Korea Symposium, which was held face-to-face for the first time in three years, was held at the 72nd Academic Conference of the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Kobe (June 10, 2023). The theme of the symposium was " The Current status and the Safety of Moxibustion" and four representatives from Japan and South Korea each gave presentations on the current status of moxibustion treatment in their countries, and a lively discussion took place. This paper provides an overview of the symposium.

The Korean Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine Society (KAMMS) celebrated its 50th anniversary with a commemoration ceremony and a Japan-Korea Symposium held in Seoul in November 2023. This report outlines the participation and highlights from the commemoration ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of KAMMS on November 11 (Saturday), along with insights shared during the Japan-Korea Symposium held as a special session within KAMMS' Fall Academic Conference 2023 on November 12 (Sunday). The summary includes presentations delivered by four speakers during the symposium. The Korean session focused on "Collaborative-Based Integrated Healthcare," discussing endeavors in integrated medicine involving Western medicine and Korean medicine. Meanwhile, the Japanese session titled "Introduction of Acupuncture Clinics in Japanese University Hospital" highlighted efforts in acupuncture and moxibustion education within the Tohoku University Hospital in Japan.

The 2023 World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies (WFAS) annual conference was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from Thursday, November 16 to Sunday, November 19, 2023. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, we, the members of the International Affairs, had to participate via web in 2020 and 2021. Therefore, this was our first on-site participation in four years. The first session of the 10th executive committee (EC) meeting was held in the afternoon of the first day, the 16th. In this article, we report the EC meeting and the scientific conference entitled "Inheriting the Essence and Promoting the Innovative Development of Acupuncture-moxibustion of TCM". The EC reported with emphasis on the steady progress being made in building relationships with WHO and other international organizations. In the academic exchange, WFAS President Liu Baoyan, in his keynote speech, consistently conveyed his intention to promote high-quality acupuncture and moxibustion research throughout his talk. Abstracts of the conference were distributed on-site, but only 35 abstracts (49%) of the 72 total presentations were published.

The Japan-Korea Symposium was held on Saturday, May 25th, 2024 as a special program in the 73rd Conference of the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Miyagi. The topic of the symposium was "The Collaborative Education and Treatment utilizing Acupuncture", which was introduced previously at the Korea-Japan Symposium during the 50th Anniversary Ceremony of the Korean Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine Society (KAMMS) in Seoul, Korea in November, 2023. In this article, we summarize the overview of the symposium.

The World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (WFAS) General Assembly and International Conference were held online in combination with on-site administration in Singapore on 18th-20th, November 2022. Members of the new Executive Committee (the 10th EC) were elected and future host cities were discussed in the General Assembly. Activities during the 9th EC term including collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), activities in the standardization working committee, financial report and proposals from EC members were reviewed in the 9th EC meeting which was held prior to the General Assembly. In the present article, we report the results of the EC meeting and the General Assembly and key topics from the International Conference.

The 2022 International Conference for Global Cooperation in Traditional Medicine was held in a hybrid meeting at the Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotel in Seoul on the 1st and 2nd of November 2022. This international conference was hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea, organized by the National Institute for Korean Medicine Development, and supported by The Society of Korean Medicine. At this conference, a bilateral exchange of acupuncture and moxibustion therapies between Japan and Korea was held at the Republic of Korea-Japan Symposium I. The aims of the symposium were to combine conventional and traditional medical knowledge of frailty and sarcopenia and to share possible ideas to develop proper treatment for frailty and sarcopenia.

A commemorative lecture meeting on the inclusion of a new chapter of traditional medicine in ICD­-11 was held in Tokyo in February 2020. The head of the Collaborating Centre for WHO­-FIC in Japan explained the process of the project, which started in 2006 to increase WHO's data collection from developing countries and expressed gratitude to the concerned persons who made efforts to obtain consensus with China and Korea. WHO promoted integrated coding between traditional medicine and Western medicine. In the field of acu­puncture, meridian and collateral patterns proposed by Japan were adopted and research activities have begun. In the field of Kampo medicine, the prescription content is often used in a fixed form as a representative for­mula pattern in Japan, so clinically high­-level research will be possible under this new classification. In the field of medical information, it has been pointed out that there are high hurdles for medical information man­agers to understand traditional medicine. It is expected that the progress of mutual understanding of both medi­cines. From now on, activities in research, translation, education and dissemination of this new classification should be promoted.