We set the language rule of this meeting as “Japanese&English mixture” by following the rules that were set in the previous meetings. There are pros and cons use Japanese and/or English at the meetings, and below are the summarized comments of previous organizers about the

rule(. Reprintedfrom“CallforparticipationtoʻFutureofthenematodesstudiesʼmeeting2019”)

In recent years, the Asia-Pacific worm meeting has been the important regional meeting, where C. elegans researchers in the area get together and exchange the latest studies. The value of the Asia-Pacific worm meeting will further increase, reflecting the rapid and tremendous growth of the scientific field in this area. Organizers of the Japan worm meeting, however, hope that the Japan meeting will compensate for lively communication among researchers in Japan, which Asia-Pacific worm meeting offers limitedly.

For success of the Japan meeting, the organizers have been discussing about the rules of language for presentation and discussion. One of the main purposes of this meeting is to provide the experience of active scientific discussion to early-career students. Thus, we would like to have them talk freely in their own language, which is Japanese for most attendees. We, however, realize that the number of researchers from other countries who works on C. elegans research in Japan is increasing. Considering the circumstances, we would also like to have the researchers from oversea to join the Japanese worm community by sharing scientific information and discussion. To achieve these goals, we tentatively made a guideline for presentation: provide essential information (e.g. titles, abstracts and slides) in English, talk and discuss in language of your choice, Japanese or English. Although this guideline may not be the best for everyone and may change in future. We ask the attendees for kind understanding.