Hikaru Hashitani has been Professor of Cell Physiology at Nagoya City University since 2010.  He received his medical degree from Kyushu University, completed his PhD at Nagoya City University, and then studied at Melbourne University and University of Oxford.  His research interests have primarily focused on cellular mechanisms underlying spontaneous electrical and calcium signalling in smooth muscle of the genitourinary, gastrointestinal and microvascular systems. Richard Lang received his PhD at Monash University in 1979. He was an MRC Research Officer and Fellow at St George’s Hospital Medical School, London. He returned to Monash University as a Research Fellow and has continued as a Senior Research Fellow. Throughout, he has been interested in the role membrane ion channels and calcium play in pacemaker and tone generation in both gastrointestinal and urogenital organs. Hikaru Hashitani and Richard Lang have collaborated for over 20 years, exchanging a number of graduate students for short term visits and one PhD graduate on a  JSPS Fellowship. Over this time, we have together published 20 papers and numerous conference abstracts on the electrical and calcium signalling properties of the renal pelvis, urethra and prostate.  This collaboration is a continuation of a long-held tradition of international collaboration between British, Japanese and Australian smooth muscle researchers that originated by our mentors in Oxford University in the 1960s.