A private advisory body for health minister Yoichi Masuzoe has urged the government to increase its quota for medical students. The recommendation comes amid reports that pregnant women, children and rural residents are having difficulties getting medical treatment. The government should implement this and other recommendations in earnest.

In 1970, the quota on freshman medical students was about 4,300. It roughly doubled to 8,360 in 1981. Fearing a future oversupply of doctors, the government decreased the quota to about 7,700. In June 1997, the Cabinet decided to maintain the quota at this level. Officially this quota is still in force.

Even with the quota, the number of doctors is expected to grow by 3,500 to 4,000 every year. But the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's report "Health Data 2007" shows that Japan had two doctors per 1,000 people as of 2004, ranking it 27th out of the 30 member nations. Hospital doctors are in short supply, especially in remote areas and at obstetrics, pediatrics and emergency medical services departments.

Because increasing the quota for freshman medical students will only start to have a real effect a decade later, additional measures are needed that can produce faster results. For example, the panel calls for reviewing the current internship system. After it went into effect in fiscal 2004, many interns chose to work at urban hospitals, shunning university hospitals located in more provincial areas. That led university hospitals to start recalling doctors they had dispatched to rural hospitals, leading to a shortage of doctors in such places.

The health ministry should review the internship system with an eye on increasing the number of doctors at rural hospitals and at obstetrics, pediatrics and emergency medical services departments. It must also conduct aggressive budgetary negotiations with the Finance Ministry to secure the necessary funds.