Nordic-Japan Forensic Cardiology Understanding Symposium (NJ-FOCUS)

Tokai University European Center held its first Nordic-Japan Forensic Cardiology Understanding Symposium (NJ-FOCUS) on December the 5th 2025. It was launched by Dr. Shotaro Isozaki (Associate Professor at Tokai University, School of Medicine) who is currently a Guest Post Doctoral Fellow at the Copenhagen University Hospital’s Cardiovascular Center working as a part of the Research Unit of Sudden Cardiac Death.

The Symposium was co-organized with the Copenhagen University Hospital’s Cardiovascular Center and the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Copenhagen and supported by the JSPS Stockholm Office.

Aiming to create a network between researchers in the fields of Forensic Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine in Japan and the Nordic countries, this Symposium had presentations by researchers from Denmark, Finland and Japan. It was attended by a physical audience as well as an online audience with participants from Japan and various Nordic countries resulting in a total of around 80 attendees.
 
The event began with a welcome address from our Director Jakob Skyt Jensen, followed by an opening address from our Executive Director Seiko Oyama. In the first session, Professor Jacob Tfelt-Hansen - Isozaki's Host Professor at the Copenhagen University Hospital - gave a lecture on epidemiological research of sudden cardiac death and hereditary arrhythmias. Professor Christian Torp-Pedersen from University of Copenhagen then spoke about the Danish registry system and its use in epidemiological research. In the second session, Docent Katja Porvari from University of Oulu in Finland gave a presentation on the effects of hypothermia on the cardiovascular system, followed by a presentation on cardiomyopathy and sudden cardiac death by Doctor Rasmus Bork-Dinesen from the Copenhagen University Hospital.

In the third session after a lunch-break, Professor Yu Kakimoto from the Department of Forensic Medicine at Tokai University School of Medicine spoke on proteomic analysis of sudden cardiac death cases. Associate Professor Takuma Yamamoto from Hyogo Medical University then presented his genetic analysis and animal models of a RBM20 cardiomyopathy sudden cardiac death case. Finally, Professor Akira Hayakawa from Akita University talked about a sudden cardiac death case in Eosinophilic Coronary Periarteritis. In the fourth session, Associate Professor Isozaki presented his research on physical activity and sudden cardiac death during leisure time, and Doctor Deepthi Rajan from the Copenhagen University Hospital described atrial fibrillation and sudden death in young patients. Lastly, Maria Brun Nielsen, a student at the University of Copenhagen School of Medicine, presented a risk analysis of hereditary cardiac disease in first-degree relatives of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients.

In closing, Professor Jakob Tfelt-Hansen thanked all the speakers and concluded: “We would like to further strengthen the collaboration between Japan and the Nordic countries in Forensic Medicine, sharing knowledge and continuous support in the future.”