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2020.10.14 Successful Bid - Hiroshima to Host the 15th International Conference on Copepoda Japan in 2024!

The 14th International Conference on Copepoda (ICOC) South Africa, scheduled for June 2020, has been postponed to 2021. Due to COVID-19, there was no opportunity for candidate host cities for the next conference to perform an onstage presentation. Therefore, a decision on the next venue was made online. The consistent promotional efforts of the Japanese organizing team, including the preparation of the eye-catching and informative bid paper, were rewarded by the decision to hold the 15th ICOC in Hiroshima.

Copepoda represent a group of small crustaceans that contribute considerably to seawater and freshwater productivity. Free-living copepods are essential food organisms for fish, while in contrast, parasitic copepods cause significant damage to aquaculture. This scientific and industrial importance of copepods led to the establishment of the World Association of Copepodologists, and the first International Conference on Copepoda was held in Amsterdam in 1981. The conference is organized every three years in a different location. ICOC 2024 Hiroshima will be the second to be held in Japan, 34 years after the 4th ICOC held in Karuizawa in 1990.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has cooperated with the Hiroshima Convention & Visitors Bureau on supporting Professor Susumu Ohtsuka of Hiroshima University, the leader of the ICOC 2024 promotional activities and also one of the JNTO MICE Ambassadors.

JNTO has been involved in the promotional activities since Hiroshima was chosen as a Japanese candidate city for the conference in 2018, which include:
● Consultation for the bid proposal preparation
● Support letters issued by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

We are proud to announce that some 300 delegates from 20 countries are to meet in Hiroshima for ICOC2024.

We'll be waiting for you in Hiroshima!