[Compulsory postgraduate clinical training and surgical education]

In April 2004, a new training system for physicians and surgeons will take effect in Japan. All medical graduates, after passing the National Medical Practitioners Examination, are to complete a two-year compulsory clinical training program, which includes rotations to the clinical services of internal medicine, surgery, emergency medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and regional primary practice. Hospitals offering training programs must be approved by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor. The trainees will be provided with reasonable stipends. In accordance with the introduction of new system, the current surgical training system is to be renovated and the terms for surgical trainees to be eligible for surgical specialty boards must be reviewed.