Dr. Hirokuni Arai is the Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Medical and Dental University and President of Hokushin General Hospital in Nagano Japan. From 2007 to 2022, he served as the Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. He is recognized as one of the leading surgeons in Japan, as he was the president of 71st annual scientific meeting of JATS in 2018, program director of 1st AATS/JATS Mitral Conclave in 2022 and has been president of Japanese Association for Coronary Artery Surgery for 7 years till 2023. He also contributed to the development of cardiac surgery as an inventor of various innovative devices and operative procedures.