[Study on analyzing the trend of employing pharmaceutical graduates in the past 19 years (1985-2003)]

The history of pharmaceutical education and research in Japan is quite limited compared to that in Western countries. The separation of prescription from dispensing did not become a general practice for many years in Japan, although it was already enacted by law in the Meiji Era. However, separation started to progress very rapidly in 1994 when the Medical Service Law was amended, recognized pharmacists as members of healthcare teams. This change has brought about a drastic change in the employment of pharmaceutical graduates. We analyzed changes in the employment of pharmaceutical graduates over the past 19 years (1985-2003) based on the "Report on the Trend of Employment of Pharmaceutical Graduates", published by the Pharmaceutical Education Council. Analysis by gender gave a number of interesting findings, showing a clear shift of female graduates from pharmaceutical companies to dispensing pharmacies since 1994. This tendency is shown in the three line graphs in Figs. 1~3.