ABSTRACT
1) In Japan, an integrated curriculum for public health professionals and nurses was enacted in April 1997, as was as integrated curriculum for midwives and nurses. By April 2006, ten schools had been established to provide the former curriculum, but no schools had been established to provide the latter.<BR>2) In the integrated curriculum for midwives and nurses, there are few community health nursing units, and the very concept of the integration is problematic in that midwifery does not tend to involve illness or old age.<BR>3) The integrated curriculum seems to have been enacted without due thought as to its practicability. However, it may be desirable to use the system as a way to address the chronic shortage of midwives in Japan today.