Mr. Osamu Watanabe, who is President of the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. and Chairman of the JCMT Council Board, contributed an article entitled “Toranomon Mafia” to the series “Topics for Tomorrow” which ran in Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic Times) from January to June of 2008. Mr. Watanabe’s article was published on May 8, 2008. The article, shown in its entirety below, introduced the JCMT Project, the Fellows, and Mr. Watanabe’s impressions of the JCMT Program.

The Toranomon Mafia

Every year for the past 25 years, six or seven promising young doctors from developing counties, mainly in Asia, have been invited to take part in a two-month medical technology training course at Tokyo’s Toranomon Hospital.

Under the program, teams of doctors provide training in various fields of medicine, allowing ample opportunity for the young doctors to gain knowledge in medical devices and systems, as well as to observe treatments and operations. During this time, the Fellows also participates in academic conferences and go on study tours to places such as Kyoto. Over 200 Fellows have completed the course in the project’s 25-year history, and many have gone on to become central figures in their country’s respective medical fields, achieving great success.

As I happen to be involved with this program, over 40 former Fellows and their partners gathered together one night during a visit of mine to Indonesia. There were many eminent members present, including the Minister of Health and the Director of the National Cancer Center, all of whom sincerely praised the training program and expressed their wish that it continues, They became overjoyed at my greeting in which I said that, like the “Berkeley Mafia”, referring to those who studied at the University of California, Berkeley and now play a key role in shaping Indonesia’s economic policy, I hoped that the “Toranomon Mafia” would play a vital role in the country’s medical field. Before I knew it, the term had caught on, and now it is used widely by former Fellows from Indonesia and now other countries as well.

Fellows write assessments at the end of the program, and I remember one in particular from last year. It spoke of the gradual shift from his initial envy at the state-of-the-art medical equipment, to when he became deeply impressed by the high caliber skills of doctors, the deep level of doctor-patient trust, the doctors’ high motivation for improvement, and also the professional pride of staff and impressive teamwork of everyone involved. I could also feel his stirring emotions as he took sight of the gap between medical care in Japan and that in his home country, and contemplated how he could contribute to his country’s future. I have the highest hopes for his success, and cheer on all the Fellows with heartfelt sincerity.