With the shortage of doctors and other medical professionals acutely felt nationwide, especially in rural regions, a panel at the health ministry has proposed greatly increasing the national quota for medical school students.
Although this is an appropriate response to the crisis, the government should seriously consider how the implementation of the proposal will be financed. With an increased number of students, it also needs to consider how it will maintain and improve the quality of medical education. In 1982 the government decided to limit the number of medical students to prevent a rise in the nation's total medical spending. It wasn't until June this year that the government accepted the reality of a doctor shortage. Departing from traditional policy, it decided to increase the medical student quota, now at about 7,900, back to its past peak of about 8,300.
In an attempt to raise the number of doctors per 100,000 people in Japan to the per capita average for member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the health ministry panel calls for increasing the quota to about 12,000, about 1.5 times the current quota, without specifying a target year.