150th Anniversary of the Founding of Keio Juku: If You Lived 150 Years Ago, What Would You Be Doing? | Shohei Onishi (Dean, Graduate School of Health Management)

2008.12.11

Every Thursday at 8:00 a.m., I hold a study group on the concept of health with students from the Ph.D. program at the Graduate School of Health Management. In fact, I hold study groups with graduate students at 8:00 a.m. three days a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I feel bad for making them wake up early, but we continue this practice as the morning is the only time we can reliably set aside. I myself wake up at 5:00 a.m., which is my daily routine.

During our discussions on the concept of health, the topic of health disparities arose. Health disparities refer to how factors such as educational background (e.g., junior high, high school, or university graduate), occupation, and economic status are related to one's level of health. A current topic is how the EU is strategically implementing policies to address these disparities. The Netherlands is at the center of these pioneering efforts in Europe. This raised questions among the graduate students as to why the Netherlands, and we felt the need to examine the country more closely, which led to the topic of, "Wait, do we have to study Rangaku (Dutch studies)?" Studying Rangaku at this stage? It was something I had never considered. Yukichi Fukuzawa studied Rangaku before concluding that English was more important. While we won't go as far as studying Rangaku, information on health initiatives in various European countries, unlike that from the United States, is extremely valuable to us. This makes me keenly aware of the need for information in the native languages of the EU, such as French and German. I myself have studied in line with the advancements in American medical sciences, but I feel that the future of health policy in Japan—specifically, the principles and ideals upon which it should be based—will be greatly influenced by developments in the EU. With that in mind, we in Japan must decide our own course of action. It seems that this situation is no different now than it was 150 years ago. I remind myself that the attitude of learning from advanced examples, reflecting on our own path, evaluating our progress, and then moving forward is always necessary.

(Posted: 2008/12/11)