MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Hiroshi Ito
President

With the advent of the new century, the significance of 'uniqueness' in education has become the center of attention in Japan. Each medical university and medical faculty must attempt to develop their own individual programs to extend the ability of students to seek for answers and to develop their ability and must develop new research and education programs. I would like to emphasize that we must fully equip educational systems that can be operated in this fashion and to firmly establish methods for evaluation. We at Tokyo Medical University have also been continuously striving to improve the quality of education for our students. Medicine universities of today, need to develop medical students who have a firm concept of their future. Furthermore, since medicine is a combined science with a high level of specialization, it is essential that students have a very firm grasp of basic education.
The philosophy of our institution is that of fostering physicians who may contribute greatly to society through medicine, and educating them with the skills and knowledge needed and with a strong sense of humanity becomes absolutely essential.
Our school song quotes an ancient Chinese classic meaning that, to become a good physician it is necessary not only to study but to also mature as human beings through experiencing hardships in life.
Educating reliable doctors not only requires the acquisition of basic skills and knowledge and the ability of investigating topics but most importantly, highly-developed ethics and morals. In our university hospital we give further emphasis to clinical training and our location in the center of the metropolis is ideal for this. In order for our students to become active, not only in Japan but worldwide, the significance of mastering languages becomes even greater and we are currently creating an English language curriculum emphasizing this aspect and continuing through the years to graduation, in addition to enhancing our education in clinical medicine.
At Tokyo Medical University, we believe that not only is it important for our students to learn medicine, but also to broaden communications skills by interacting with people and exploring different cultures. Our teaching staff continually makes efforts to interact with our students to provide as fine and meaningful a student life as possible.