ABSTRACT
Background: We investigated how undergraduate medical curriculum handles the question “what is medicine” , which Yonezo Nakagawa raised in a field of study called “Igaku-gairon” . Method: We analyzed the content, the amount, the methods, the assessment, and the teachers using syllabi that are accessible on the Internet as resources. Results: In 69 schools, the total number of hours of instruction in “philosophy of medicine and medical ethics” , “sociology of medicine and medical anthropology” and “history of medicine” was 1066 h 20min, 213 h 5min, and 192 h 5min, respectively, representing 72%, 14%, and 13% of the total instruction. Analysis: We found that their were classes which address the question “what is medicine” without using the word “Igaku-gairon” can be sporadically found in medical curriculum.