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Working as a doctor/ in medical field

Jitrachote

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17 Apr 2015
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Hello,
I am a newly graduated doctor and am about to start my junior doctor internship for 2 years in London.

I was hoping that after I finish my initial training in the UK I could spend some time in living in Japan (6 months-1 year). I understand to work as a doctor in Japan would require me passing the national exams which is in Japanese etc. .. However, I was wondering if there is any other options where I can use my medical knowledge? For example, to work in a hospital for foreigners etc. If working as a doctor without passing this national exams is completely impossible, does anyone know if there is any other medical fields that I would be able to work in? ...Or if all else fails, for me to teach medical English/ proof read scientific papers?

I really love Japan and my partner is Japanese and would love to somehow live there for a short period of time. It does, however seems a bit of a waste to not use any of my medical knowledge and just to teach English in schools!

thank you very much!

ps. My Japanese level is basic conversational. I have been able to get by in Japan. I can't really read/write though. Hopefully, I will get a bit better after another 2 years, but at the moment it is quite basic!
 
ps. in addition to my medical degree, I also have another bachelor degree as well as a master degree in neuroscience... so even some scientific fields would also be great. I have been to Japan multiple times and am sure that I want to try living there for a bit, so if nothing else is possible, of course I am willing to just teach English in a school!

thank you very much everyone!
 
I apologize for the assumption of which of you were the female partner.

Others can answer the visa question better than I, but if you're here as his dependent then your options widen in terms of opportunities to teach medical English, offer lectures, etc. There are definitely opportunities for a variety of interesting medically related things to do, though I don't know if you could fill a full time position out of them.

I highly doubt you can practice... Consider whether in England they would allow a physician without any licensure recognized by the state to practice. Some allied health professionals are in a strange boat legally, and can practice outside of the Japanese system without Japanese licensure on non-Japanese patients, but I'd be astounded if physicians could do so as well.

What is your clinical specialty or interest?

Where in Japan are you planning on going?
 
Was your Masters research-based?
There are some UK-Japan initiatives (e.g. JSPS, Daiwa-Anglo Foundation) for encouraging research links so if you are thinking of going into research/academia rather than clinical there may be opportunities there.
 
Thank you very much for your replies. I have yet to choose my specialty. Although my background is towards research in clinical neuroscience.

If I was going to do lectures/ teach medical English etc as you suggested, where would I be able to look for these jobs? To be honest, I pretty much know I won't be able to practice medicine there, but I would like to look into any jobs that I could use some of that knowledge! But I don't really know where to look. Most job advertisements for teaching english/ teaching in general tends to be more towards school children. Let alone other medically-related jobs. Any ideas where I should be looking?

I have never heard of Daiwa-Anglo foundation before. They seem quite interesting. Do you know of any other UK-Japan initiatives that you would recommend I look into?

Thank you very much again for all your advices!
:)
 
I've lectured at hospitals and at a school which trains OTs and PTs, but I got all those opportunities through contacts at my work.

I never taught medical English, though I imagine you would contact medical schools, universities, etc. Same for lectures.
 
There are many people in Japan who have non-teaching degrees (and many with experience working in their fields) and who teach business English. Your statement "It does, however seems a bit of a waste to not use any of my medical knowledge and just to teach English in schools!" is pretty condescending towards those people. Do you think it's not all that important to teach a foreign language? Or to teach it to professionals in engineering, marketing, pharmaceutical, etc. fields? That's surely how it sounds.

Look up "business English companies in Japan" in Google. But just because you have a medical background like some of the potential customers, that doesn't mean you have any idea how to teach the language of your field. It's...another field! I strongly urge you to think about some training first, even an online certification program.

proof read scientific papers?
This is a huge market here, meaning everyone and his brother seems to think they have the ability to do this. Just because you have a medical degree and science background doesn't mean you can do proofreading. Reading, yes, but proofreading, maybe not. How much experience do you have doing that? Many do it on the side, some work for places like Forte (with spillover work or full-time, depending on what's available). Pay is meager, like that for an entry level eikaiwa teacher, if it makes any difference. It's not necessarily something you can rely on to pay the bills when you just start out.

Look up SWET for some pointers.
 
If I were a freshly-minted medical doctor curious about my opportunities here I would contact the JMA....
 
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