Japan Press Weekly

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2018 August 8 - 14 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Medical workers’ union protests against medical university’s discrimination against women

The Japan Federation of Medical Workers' Unions (Iroren) on August 7 issued a statement protesting against Tokyo Medical University’s discrimination against female applicants.

The university recently came under fire after the media revelation that it has unjustly manipulated the entrance exam scores of female applicants.

Iroren in its statement pointed out that doctors should be fair and impartial and stressed that it is “quite unforgivable” for the medical university to discriminate against women students who hope to become medical professionals.

The Iroren statement referred to the tendency for hospitals to be reluctant in hiring female doctors on the commonly-held belief that they are likely to quit their jobs after getting married or pregnant. The statement points out that the point of this issue is that doctors are forced to work excessively long hours, which makes it impossible for them to balance work and life. Iroren demanded that the government take the necessary measures to increase the number of doctors and improve their working conditions.

The Japanese Medical and Dental Practitioners for Improvement of Medical Care (Hodanren) on August 5 also published a statement criticizing Tokyo Medical University for unfairly treating women applicants and urging the government to address the root causes of the problem, such as the shortage of physicians.

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The Tokyo Medical University’s internal investigation team on August 7 published its report acknowledging that the university’s exam score manipulation began as early as 2006.

The report states that concerning the reason for the sexual discrimination, former university president Usui Masahiko in the investigation team’s hearing said, “Women doctors become less active when they get older.”