Dr. Hiroshi Date, M.D., Ph.D. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kyoto University, was founded in 1941 and involved in a leading international thoracic surgery program from one of the earliest such programs in Japan. For increasing lung cancer surgery, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and robotic-assisted surgery have become a standard approach in our department. Since 2010, the Kyoto University lung transplant program has become the most active one in Japan and has performed 112 lung transplants until now. We have accepted a number of foreign visitors for observing such an operation. Thoracic surgeons trained in our department are practicing in affiliated hospitals mainly in the west part of Japan. Over 7,000 cases of thoracic surgery (about 10% of cases in whole Japan) are performed annually by our group.