During the past three decades, the participation of women in medicine has increased from 10. 6% (1986) to 19.7% (2012) in Japan. However, women continue to be underrepresented in the top tiers of academic medicine. We highlight gender inequality and discuss the difficulties faced by female surgeons in Japanese academic surgery. Using anonymous and aggregate employment data of medical doctors at Kyoto University Hospital from 2009 and 2013, and a commercially-published faculty roster in 2012-2013, we compared gender balance stratified by a professional and an academic rank. The numbers of total and female doctors who worked at Kyoto University Hospital were 656 and 132 (20.1%) in 2009 and 655 and 132 (20.2%) in 2013, respectively. Approximately half the men (n = 281) were in temporary track and the rest (n = 242) were in tenure track, but only one fifth of women (n = 24) were in tenure track compared to 108 women in temporary track (p < 0.0001) in 2013. There were three female associate professors in basic medicine (8.1%), two female professors in clinical non-surgical medicine (3.9%) and one female lecturer in clinical surgical medicine (2.3%) in 2012. Fewer female doctors were at senior positions and at tenure positions than male doctors at Kyoto University Hospital. There were no female associate and full professors in surgery. The status of faculty members indicates the gender differences in leadership opportunities in Japanese academic surgery.

No abstract

The 2018 Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) survey revealed discrimination against women in the admissions process of four Japanese medical schools, although it is not known how unusual the trend is for entire medical schools to enroll men and women. Therefore, this paper aims to examine how women are disadvantaged when they take entrance examinations for medical schools in Japan, compared to other academic disciplines. A null hypothesis that the average enrollment rates by gender in each academic discipline from 2015 to 2020 are the same was used to test the population ratio, and p-values were calculated. The results showed that no significant gender differences were found in the other disciplines, but the male enrollment rate was significantly higher only in medical schools (p < 0.01). This could be because the academic performance of men exceeds that of women in admissions. However, the percentage of women who passed the national examination for medical practitioners has been consistently high since 1997, suggesting that women were subjected to more difficult admission standards than their male counterparts or may have performed better during their years at medical school. As university entrance examinations in Japan are conducted in a closed environment, further information is expected to be disclosed as the matter continues to attract social attention for a better admission system.

No abstract