[Postgraduate education of neurology (PGEN) in Japan]

PGEN in USA consists of a 3-year well-organized program. This includes 18 months' in-patient service, and 12 months' rotation to various electives, also providing various conferences and lectures. Residents are salaried, so that they are able to concentrate on learning neurology. After completing the residency, the majority of the residents appear to enter their private practice. In contrast, PGEN in Japan does not have a determined period of training, and residents here are not salaried enough, so that they have to do part-time jobs to make their own living. This prevents our residents from concentrating on learning neurology. A rotation system is also difficult to be established in Japan because of the lack of manpower and subspecialists, and tight time schedule partly because of the part-time jobs. Although an affective domain as one of the educational objectives has been ignored in Japan, we should pay more attention to this domain to educate residents to good neurologists. It is also important to encourage staffs to be actively involved in the postgraduate education. In order to do this, we should evaluate their teaching achievements for their promotion appropriately, and senior staffs are required to organize the educational environments.