Bias found in medical schools

Report: Nine institutions excluded women and older candidates in Japan

TOKYO: At least nine Japanese medical schools manipulated their admissions systems to exclude women and older candidates, and prioritise entry for the children of alumni, a government report said.

Four months after a scandal emerged over Tokyo Medical University’s rejection of female applicants in favour of less qualified men, the Education Ministry issued the report on its investigation of the country’s 81 medical colleges. Nine schools were found to have inappropriate admissions procedures and a 10th school is suspected.

The findings highlight complications facing a campaign by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to get more women into management as part of a solution to the “national crisis” of Japan’s rapidly ageing population and shrinking labour force.

While more women are working outside the home in Japan, they are struggling to gain promotion to senior positions.

Some universities already had come forward to acknowledge discrimination following third-party investigations.

Juntendo University, attached to a Tokyo hospital known for treating politicians and celebrities, was the latest to hold a press conference this week.

It followed an investigation of admissions procedures that showed rigging of results against women and older students had unfairly excluded 165 candidates over the past two years.

Only about 20% of Japan’s medical doctors are women, compared with an average of 46% for member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 34% in the US and more than 70% in Latvia.

Government data in Japan has long indicated that male applicants tacitly receive priority for entry to some medical schools.

The proportion of female medical students in Japan swelled between the 1970s and the 1990s, only to level off at about one-third – where it has remained for two decades.

That’s despite the fact that female applicants are more likely than men to have successful college applications in general.

Juntendo said in a statement on its website it had manipulated results to make up for the fact that women tend to be more mature and better communicators than men at university entrance age.

It also discriminated against candidates who took the entrance test repeatedly, according to the statement.