Biography

Dr. Norihiro Kokudo is the President of Japan Institute for Health Security (JIHS: so-called Japanese CDC). He earned his M.D. in 1981 and then his Ph.D. in 1988 at the University of Tokyo. From 1989 to 1991 he stayed at Department of Surgery, University of Michigan as a visiting research investigator. After 6 years at Cancer Institute Hospital, Tokyo, as a senior staff of GI surgery, he joined the Department of HPB Surgery in The University of Tokyo and became a professor and chairman in 2007. He became the president of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo in 2017, and then the president of JIHS after a merger with the National Institute for Infectious Diseases in 2025.

Dr. Kokudo has been conducting a number of research projects on surgical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), colorectal liver metastases, and living donor liver transplantation. As the chairman of the guideline committee, he compiled 3rd and 4th version of Japanese clinical practice guidelines for HCC in 2013 and 2017. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he led a variety of NCGM countermeasures, including cluster control, PCR testing site, intensive care, patient registry, prediction of exacerbation, and development of convalescent plasma therapy, vaccines, or new antiviral agents.

Dr. Kokudo is the past president of Japan Surgical Society, International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA), Asian-Pacific Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (A-PHPBA), Asia-Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert Association (APPLE), and Japan Liver Cancer Association (JLCA). He is also a fellow of American College of Surgeons (past Governor) and Royal College of Surgeons of England. He is a Co-editor-in-Chief for Global Health and Medicine, and an associate editor for Liver Cancer. He was on the editorial board of Annals of Surgery, Surgery, Journal of American College of Surgeons, World Journal of Surgery, and Journal of HPB Science.