Graduate School of Medicine

This doctoral program in medicine at Juntendo University, based in Tokyo, Japan, is taught in English, runs for four years, and begins with autumn enrollment in October. Juntendo University describes its guiding motto as jin, meaning benevolence, built on a principle of continuously moving forward, and a school culture summarized as sanmu shugi, or the three noes principle, referring to a commitment against discriminating on the basis of gender, nationality, or academic background. As a comprehensive health university, Juntendo is organized around seven undergraduate faculties, three graduate schools, and six affiliated hospitals, combining education, research, medical care, and the liberal arts. A doctoral program in medicine at this scale typically trains students for independent research within clinical or biomedical science, pairing coursework in advanced methodology with laboratory or clinical research supervised by a faculty mentor. Candidates generally develop and defend an original research project addressing a question in medicine or a related health science, working alongside faculty active in both patient care and ongoing research at the university's affiliated hospitals. The four-year structure gives doctoral candidates time to complete coursework, conduct sustained original research, and produce a dissertation suitable for peer-reviewed publication. Graduates of medical doctoral programs commonly pursue careers in academic medicine, biomedical research, hospital-based clinical research units, or public health, drawing on both the research training and the clinical environment provided by a university with a large hospital network. Studying in English lets international physicians and researchers pursue this doctoral track at a Japanese medical university without requiring fluency in Japanese for coursework, while working within a research and clinical environment shaped by Juntendo's stated principles of non-discrimination across gender, nationality, and academic background.