From June 18 to 21, 2018, the 19th International Coherent Lidar Conference (CLRC 2018) was held in Okinawa, Japan, representing the highest level of research and application of coherent lidar. The conference was hosted by the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology (NICT) of Japan. It gathered the latest theory, device technology, measurement technology and application of coherent lidar in the fields of atmospheric detection, target recognition and imaging. Participants included some of the world's top coherent lidar research institutes, such as NASA, NOAA, ONERA, DLR, China Ocean University, and other internationally renowned coherent lidar companies such as Loma, Mitsubishi, Leosphere, and ZephIR Lidar.