Iwate town to put Vietnamese student through medical school in Japan

Sounds like a good idea. I wish her well.

Sounds like a good idea to me too, but I just wonder why THIS girl? Were there no candidates in Japan? Why Vietnam? Did she enter some kind of competition for a scholarship and win? Good for her, but I am just wondering what the connection is.

I love how a place with 14,000 people is a small rural town. Are you populated enough yet, Japan?

why not a japanese person?

Sounds like a good idea to me too, but I just wonder why THIS girl? Were there no candidates in Japan? Why Vietnam? Did she enter some kind of competition for a scholarship and win? Good for her, but I am just wondering what the connection is.

I'm assuming - and prepared to be shouted down however - that an Asian-faced candidate would be a safer option for dealing with the elderly here than, say, a Kenyan or a Bangladeshi. Which is a shame, but sadly many of the old people in these rural villages have never seen a non-Japanese. Anyhow, best of luck to the kid - I really hope she succeeds and is accepted - and that it paves the way for more non-Japanese doctors working here.

RecklessJun. 18, 2012 - 02:09PM JST

makes no sense to me. I am sure thousands of japanese would do this if they were offered the opportunity. weird.

They can't make a Japanese an indentured slave.

Were there no candidates in Japan?

No. As they explained in the articles. Japanese youth, particularly doctors don't want to live in the sticks. They hope foreigners are different.

Very good news, and I hope Ngoc can live up to the task, and then stays on in Japan to help 'repay' the gift she's been given. Getting studying that Japanese language first and foremost!!

I'm sure that, if they wanted, they could have found a JN to "live in the sticks" in return for an education of this sort.

This sounds like a great opportunity for this young Vietnamese young lady. I am happy to hear that this community is willing to invest and give her a chance to become a doctor. I know they are in desperate need, but this is better than hearing news about Japanese being so prejudice. There is hope for change.

Wait till she spends a winter or two there. The snow lingers well into April. I would have thought a Tibetan candidate would have made more sense but I hope this works out well for the town. Hopefully the young doctor will open a restaurant as well.

sunhwak:

why not a japanese person?

Because most Japanese just aren't interested. There was a program a while back where they showed a clinic or hospital in the Tohoku region trying to recruit nurses. Only one or two turned up for interviews.

DogJun. 18, 2012 - 02:42PM JST

They can't make a Japanese an indentured slave.

Under the present Japanese constitution they can't regardless of nationality. Although they can place a clause within the contract that if and when the person wishes to relocate the person is required to pay back the financial support in full plus interest to retain them as long as possible.

It's hard to imagine there isn't a bright kid of modest means in or near Ichinohe who wouldn't have jumped at this opportunity.

great news ! I really hope this goes well so that other rurals Japanese cities will try the same thing. There are many cities that are in need of doctors and nurses and i'm sure there are bright people outside of Japan who might not have financial means to go to a medical school by themselves.

Why are there no Japanese? because the cost of education is so expensive. If they are willing to shoulder the cost and announce it in the news, there will be more than a thousand people applying for the position. And what will prevent the Vietnamese girl to move to the US or other countries once she finished schooling?

"Why are there no Japanese? "

First of all, just because someone is Japanese doesn't qualify him/her to be a doctor. And those with good grades who go through everything they need to be a doctor don't want to live in a rural area surrounded by old people as the article says.

Hide SuzukiJun. 19, 2012 - 02:21AM JST great news ! I really hope this goes well so that other rurals Japanese cities will try the same thing.

Big deal. One town in Japan does this to one girl from Vietnam. What about other 9999 towns in Japan that will not do anything to help the communities become more diverse. The Japanese would rather starve then help foreigners, especially from Southeast Asia. In comparison, U.S. helps 100,000 foreigners a year in Universities and College, advance training and over 75,000 in H1-B1 working visas fro professionals to work in U.S.

SamuraiBlueJun. 18, 2012 - 11:18PM JST

Under the present Japanese constitution they can't regardless of nationality.

There's this great 'get out' clause in the Japanese constitution called Kokumin,

"Why are there no Japanese? "

From what I've heard, only children from rich Japanese families could ever attend medical school in Japan which probably also means that they're so used to a luxurious life, they could never get used to living in a small rural town. In many cases, they are the children of doctors and are supposed to carry on their parents' practice. Rare are those who are altruisitc enough to give of themselves for the good of the needy, whether they be financially poor or just living in a small country village with too few accesses to any medical care.

There would be fair number of people in Fukushima who jump at the opportunity as they currently in limbo.

I wonder if she'll have to treat the same Oyajis who gave her the shita-uchi on the way to work?

I'm also wondering the same... why her? What's the deal? What's stopping her from leaving Japan once she qualifies?

I am sure that many Japanese students are getting scholarships but those would be stories "without legs" and wouldn't even make it to the back pages of a publication like this one let alone the major media.

@sfjp330

Yes, Japan is way behind compared to American in terms of accpeting non-Japanese in various professions. But we have to make a start somewhere, and I hope this will open up the path for many people like her in the future.

Sometimes it takes only one person to do it, look at what happened to Hideo Nomo. After him, suddently so many Japanese baseball players started going to the Major league. But before, most players didn't even think of the possibility, it just wasn't an option.

It seems to me that they are taking a bit of a gamble with this person. First, she's only 18. What if she finds that being a doctor really isn't her calling? What then? Is there going to be some sort of contract with her? What's to stop her from either returning to her home country once she's become educated? What's to stop her from moving to another place within Japan?

I'm just wondering why they don't just hire someone to work there who is already a doctor?