Japan has more than 80,000 female doctors for the first time

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare revealed that at the end of December 2022, the country had more than 80,000 women practicing medicine. This is the highest number since 1982, when the government began surveying the method it uses today. The number has grown by 4.6% since the previous survey in 2020.

According to the Ministry, the total number of doctors in 2022 reached 343,275, an increase of 1.1% over the previous study and the highest number in history. Among them are 81,139 women, representing 23.6% of the total. The percentage of male doctors was 76.4%, so the gender gap is still large.

The Ministry believes that the increase in the number of female doctors is due to the fact that the percentage of women in medical colleges has been increasing year after year since 2008.

The number of female dentists increased by 1.9% to 27,413, and the number of female pharmacists increased by 0.9% to 199,507, both record numbers.

Meanwhile, the audit took place nippon.com Basic school survey data published by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology showed that the percentage of women enrolled in medical courses in national, public and private universities reached 40.4% in the academic year 2023. The number of students enrolled in medical colleges in the fiscal year 2023 reached 9,007, of whom 3,640 were female students.

A detailed study of 1957 data shows that the proportion of students enrolled in medical schools remained between 30% and 35% in the 1960s and 1970s; It began to increase in the 1980s and finally exceeded 20% in fiscal year 1986; It exceeded 30% in fiscal year 1994, but remained below 30% for nearly a quarter of a century.

Admission of women to medical schools became a social issue in 2018, when an investigation into a corruption case involving the Ministry of Education and Tokyo Medical University revealed irregularities in medical school entrance examinations at various universities that treated female applicants unfairly in entrance examinations to encourage the entry of more men.

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