of the survey We sent out survey questionnaire forms to the departments of each category in all 1,914 institutions nationwide in early April 2008. The response rates in each category by the end of December 2008 were 95.2%, 91.1%, and 86.9% for cardiovascular, general thoracic, and esophageal surgery, respectively. This is the annual report by The Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery from the Committee for Scientifi c Affairs Y. Ueda Department of Cardiac Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan Y. Fujii Oncology, Immunology and Surgery, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan H. Kuwano Department of General Surgical Science (Surgery 1), Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg (2009) 57:488–513 489