Intraoperative awareness is the explicit recall of sensory perceptions during general anesthesia.I presume the epidemiology and characteristics of intraoperative awareness from these surveys in Japan.A questionnaire survey was conducted via the Internet.The first survey was conducted in 2008.Our survey showed 17%of anesthesiologists experienced definite or possible awareness.The second survey was conducted to evaluate the first survey in detail in 2008.A total of 172 anesthesiologists answered.The total number of reported anesthetic cases was 85156.Twenty-four cases of definite or possible awareness were reported by 21 anesthesiologists.The most surprising finding was total intravenous anesthesia(TIVA)was used in 21 of the 24 cases.The third survey was conducted in 2011 as a continuous survey.Six cases of definite or possible awareness were reported by six anesthesiologists(7%).Two cases were maintained by TIVA,and 2 cases were sevoflurane.The survey showed 76%anesthesiologists routinely use bispectral index(BIS)for TIVA,but for sevoflurane only 27%anesthesiologists routinely use BIS.The incidence of intraoperative awareness decreased in the third survey.The continuous survey revealed the current status of daily anesthesia and the results might be used to prevent the awareness during general anesthesia.