The meeting for the researchers who are in charge of tuberculosis (TB) molecular epidemiology in Japan, China and Korea was held. When the databases of IS6110 RFLP in each country were analyzed, the unique K-strain, which constitutes ca. 4% among total TB cases in Korea, was also found in the TB clinical isolates in Japan. Thus, it is very likely that the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is characteristic in each country, have already spread out into surrounding nations. It is expected that each country should facilitate the molecular epidemiological research in a concerted way.