We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the individuals who participated in the survey. We thank Dr. Norihiko Ikeda, former President of the Japan Surgical Society, and other members of the Japan Surgical Society U-40 Working Group who also contributed toward the survey: Yoko Azuma, Tomomi Abe, Keisuke Arai, Sonoko Ishida, Asuka Ishiyama, Momoko Ichihara, Ken Imaizumi, Toshitaka Uomori, Hiroki Uchiyama, Masateru Uchiyama, Daisuke Eriguchi, Kako Ono, Atsuko Kataoka, Yuta Kikuchi, Kensuke Kudou, Takashi Kohmura, Daisuke Koike, Ryosuke Kowatari, Yudai Goto, Yuzuru Sakamoto, Kengo Shibata, Chiaki Suda, Tomoyuki Suda, Shogo Seo, Kosei Takagi, Koji Takada, Shinkichi Takamori, Wataru Takayama, Aya Tanaka, Atsushi Tanikawa, Atsumi Tamura, Takanori Tsujimoto, Koichi Tsuboi, Keita Nakatsutsumi, Mai Nakamura, Akihiro Nagoya, Takeshi Nishimura, Shoko Noguchi, Mariko Fukui, Yuki Fujieda, Atsushi Fushimi, Satoshi Fumimoto, Hideyuki Furumoto, Eisuke Booka, Takahiro Masuda, Tomohei Matsuo, Yutaka Matsubara, Yuichiro Miyake, Yosuke Mukai, Junko Mukohyama, Yuta Murai, Takahisa Yamaguchi, Yoshiko Yamaoka-Fujikawa, Haruhiko Yamazaki, Kyohei Yugawa, Shinichiro Yokoyama, Shiho Yoshida, Kazuki Wakizaka, and Takaaki Watanabe. We would also like to thank the Japan Surgical Society Education Committee members, Japan Surgical Society secretariat staff members, and Katrin Beate Ishii-Schrade (Juntendo University), who provided English language editing services.