We proposed the term 'Lewy body disease' (LBD) in 1980. Subsequently, we 
classified LBD into three types according to the distribution pattern of Lewy 
bodies: a brainstem type, a transitional type and a diffuse type. Later, we 
added the cerebral type. As we have proposed since 1980, LBD has recently been 
used as a generic term, including Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's disease with 
dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. LBD has neuropathological 
characteristics whereby numerous Lewy bodies are present in the central and 
sympathetic nervous systems, and it is a type of alpha-synucleinopathy because 
the main component of Lewy body is alpha-synuclein. In this paper we explain the 
most recent concept of LBD from the historical viewpoint.