Chronic inflammation appears to underlie most, if not all, the chronic diseases of today, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. We have demonstrated that obesity induces chronic local inflammation in adipose tissue. We also found that chronic inflammation is crucially involved in the development of heart failure and chronic kidney disease. In this article, I review recent findings reported by my group and others regarding the mechanisms underlying the chronic inflammatory processes commonly observed in adipose tissue, heart and kidney. I then discuss the key features of the chronic inflammation seen in chronic diseases. (Circ J 2011; 75: 2739-2748)