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Nationwide probe launched after Tokyo Medical University scandal

23 Comments
By Kazuhiro Nogi

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The ministry has asked all 81 private and public medical schools to check their admission procedures for possible discrimination against female applicants

Why limit it to medical school? Many of the medical schools are connected with national universities and I'll bet there are other areas where women were discriminated against!

Blow it wide open, but MEXT can't because they are just as guilty of discriminating as well.

11 ( +14 / -3 )

No matter what the situation is, women should never be discriminated against unfairly

「いかなる場合も女性が不当に差別されることはあってはならない」seems to be the quote. This begs the question of 'what is their definition of 'fair discrimination' (正当な差別)?

4 ( +7 / -3 )

"If their answers are judged as not reasonable "

So you're just so you're just going to ask them and take their word for it what a waste of our time

2 ( +6 / -4 )

“Turn the lights on and watch the roaches scatter!” The paper shredders will be busy this week.

This enquiry does not not go deep enough. It needs to go into the whole education system from junior high upwards. Too many students are gifted their graduations and school averages fudged for the sake of reputations. However, this enquirer will only be addressing those who failed unfairly, not those who were gifted graduation.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

The alterations ... apparently aimed to keep the ratio of women in the school at 30 percent or lower.

If they also included what percentage of applicants were female, that would give us a better idea of the level of discrimination.

Authorities said they would also check the gender ratio of successful applicants for the past six months,

I am all for equality of opportunity, but I hope they are not aiming for equality of outcome.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

It's a start. Let's give it that, and hope it filters out across the entire educational system in the country. Just hoping.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

It will be forgotten in a year.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

What exactly were they doing till now? Oh, you know. Silently ignoring these disgusting acts. Time to pretend to actually care about the plight of ladies.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The administrators all need to be fired immediately, and the women who were rejected need to have their results reviewed. If they are still available to enter, they should be allowed, at the expense of the school. If not, like if they went elsewhere after rejection, they should be compensated and/or be allowed to file lawsuits against the medical school. On top of that, on all current students have been grandfathered our of the program, Tokyo Medical School should lose its accrediting for no less than 10 years, and it should also lose all rankings both domestic and international.

There need to be REAL consequences for this kind of thing, people; not just a bow, apology, and one guy retiring to an Amakudari position elsewhere.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

"The case was extremely regrettable"

uh huh

5 ( +5 / -0 )

It costs a fortune to pay for the six years of education at a private medical school like Tokyo Medical U. Only kids from wealthy families can afford it. Why should we care about discrimination among the privileged?

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

@Meiyouwenti

Because however privileged they are, they are people too and deserve the same protections and freedoms you do.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Why limit it to medical school? Many of the medical schools are connected with national universities and I'll bet there are other areas where women were discriminated against!

I believe that the perverse incentives that led to this scandal are peculiar to medical schools. In other faculties students aren’t relied on as a source of future labor like they are in medical schools, so all the stated concerns about women leaving mid career aren’t an issue.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This begs the question of 'what is their definition of 'fair discrimination' (正当な差別)?

@nitpickyned - 'fair discrimination' is when you use the fairly marked entrance test results to discriminate between the stronger and weaker candidates.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

According to local media, other instances had been discovered where individual entrance test scores were revised upwards, suggesting potential favoritism.

If they really want to improve the medical system, they also should look into the donations of doctors (who's children study at those schools) and even better into the links of med schools, doctors, hospitals and bureaucrats to the pharmaceutical industry. But of course that won't happen. They are just fishing in shaloow waters.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

THEY NEED TO GO TO JAIL, AND A 50/50 QUOTA AT SCHOOL

°

When men are that bad in a work field, there is only on answer : quota. Fifty percent of places are reserved to women and 50% percent to male. This way, there no more gender problem.

Women correct males; and males will correct women.

They have difficulties to believe female surgeon can be good ? Female favors women for child birth so we will take the rick. Let's put a 50% female quota on surgeon school recrutement.

For gender mixity, there is only one long terme solution : gender quota at 50% percent on all key formation spot, and if this is not enough, on key jobs.

This is truly shaming for Japan. Occident use to believe only chineese where liars. Apparently, both country share some ancestry.

°

NCM

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

nitpickynedToday 06:48 am JST

「いかなる場合も女性が不当に差別されることはあってはならない」seems to be the quote. This begs the question of 'what is their definition of 'fair discrimination' (正当な差別)?

AFAIK, it is a phrasing that puzzles Japanese as well, but I think what he's shooting for is a zone of discriminations that are unworthy but might just have societal pluses that outweigh the negativity.

It isn't something like test grades, or really high strength requirements for a job that indeed requires them, because the word 差別 implies unworthiness.

It is something like a women's only car. Now, it is undoubtedly a favorable measure for women at the expense of men (how big or small aside) and implies certain negative assumptions about men as a whole, but do you support them? Would your answer be the same regarding trains in states other than Japan?

As to whether this case is justifiable, I'll side on no, but I do feel the problem is a bit more multi-faceted than just a hard No. The raw statistics are indeed that women leave more than men. The causes are complex and theoretical. Not every cause is under the control of the school or hospital, and even if every humanly soluble cause is handled, as long as we have families in our current mold it's likely more females than males will leave their jobs once the baby comes out.

To take an extreme example, suppose that 100% of women will statistically leave at age 30. So accepting women, regardless of their grades will mean you get a doctor who works for less than 10 years, making them significantly less worthy as Return on Investment and may make them completely useless in roles that require a lot of experience. Will a quota then be justified? If yes, then at some point of difference between female and male retention you will have to allow for some discrimination.

And if you won't even in such a circumstance, then there is also a negative consequence involved here in that you are knowingly putting money into people who won't stay. To knowingly ignore such statistics also has a certain cost.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Fifty percent of places are reserved to women and 50% percent to male.

Quotas are never the right answer. What you have between your legs should be completely irrelevant to one's ability to practice medicine.

And nobody seems to even know what percentage of applicants are female. Is it 50%, 20%, 70%?

And I haven't read anyone proposing how to solve the shortage of doctors.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Almost everyone knows "Woman" make better Doctors than Men!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And if you won't even in such a circumstance, then there is also a negative consequence involved here in that you are knowingly putting money into people who won't stay. To knowingly ignore such statistics also has a certain cost.

I can definitely understand your argument or at least partly understand your argument. It is both consistent logic and highly flawed.

Youra rgument is that of the school's: women drop out of the profession sooner than men so it is logical to treason fewer of them.

An alternative view is that because if the deeply ingrained sexism of Japan which forces women out of the workforce prematurely, we need even more sexism to stop them being in the workforce in the first place That is not really going to help acieve sexual equality is it?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And nobody seems to even know what percentage of applicants are female. Is it 50%, 20%, 70%?

And I haven't read anyone proposing how to solve the shortage of doctors.

If women had heard that it is hard to get into medicine, it should be less than 50%. But if sexual discrimination is removed it should be 50% or so.

In the UK, nationally 60% of medical students are female.

A solution to a shortage of doctors is to train more. Fairly obvious I would have thought.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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