training

Year family medicine established: 2006, established by the Japan Academy of Family Medicine (personal interview, 2018).

Type of Training: Residency Program (personal interview, 2018).

Length of Training: Post-Secondary Education, 3 year post-graduate training (Takemura, 2003).

Number of institutions that offer family medicine: Approximately half of Japan’s 80 medical schools have a department of general medicine (Takemura, 2003).

Number of family medicine residents graduating each year: Unknown.

practice

Number of family doctors: Unknown.

Physician to population ratio: 2.52 physicians/1000 (Statistics Japan, 2018).

QALY: Japan has one of the highest aged populations but has a great QALY due to the introduction of family medicine.

DALY: 10,170/100,000 individuals (due to all causes).

Life Expectancy:

• Females 2017: 87.0 years

• Males 2017: 81.0 years

Mortality rate 2017:

• Males: 68 per 1,000 male adults.

• Females: No data

Infant Immunization-HepB3: N/A

College of Family Physicians (Y or N):

• Yes: Japanese Academy of Family Medicine

training

Family Medicine is relatively new in Japan, recognized in 2006, and established by the Japan Academy of Family Medicine (personal interview, 2018). Japan has a residency based training program that requires  medical school, which can be entered after taken entrance exams. It lasts 6 years, with liberal arts and science as the focus in years 1-2, medical science and clinical medicine in year 3-4, and clinical medicine and clerkship in years 5-6, with general medicine didactic lectures and practical training taking place in years 3-6 (Takemura, 2003). Afterwards, there is 4-6-years of post-graduate training. Graduates from medical school must pass a national medical license exam to pursue residency training. A 4-6-year post-graduate program is offered, depending on the institution. Most programs have rotations in several specialties, including family medicine training in outpatient clinics. After completion of this residency program, students can enter a family physician residency program (Takemura, 2003).

Approximately half of Japan’s 80 medical schools have a department of general medicine (Takemura, 2003), although it is unknown how many graduates there are each year.

practice

The provision of primary care varies according to the population that is being served. Annual examinations and vaccinations are given by family physicians (Orynbassarova, 2015)  and they can also coordinate consultations and referrals to specialists (Takemura, 2003). Roles of other primary caregivers are currently relatively unknown.

Japan focuses on clinical or small community primary care (Takemura, 2003).