5. Medical Professionalism of and for Japanese Physicians / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

<p>　Bushido is the so-called identity of the people of Japan, which was "invented" during the "official nationalism" movement in the Meiji era when the state of Japan pursued a policy of increasing wealth and military power. After the defeat of the second world war, nationalistic Bushido almost disappeared, while Nitobe's Bushido has been revived after a long absence. However, Nitobe's Bushido was originally described in English to explain peculiar conduct by samurai worriers, such as hara-kiri (self-immolation by disembowelment) and kataki-uchi (redress) .</p><p>　Descriptions of Bushido were written mostly in the Meiji Era as a professional code for the worrier class of samurai. Nitobe's Bushido is one of them, in which he focused heavily on Care/harm, Fairness/cheating, Loyalty/betrayal, and Authority/subversion among the moral intuitions of human beings. On the other hand, Care/harm, Fairness/cheating, and Liberty/oppression are the moral intuitions expected of physicians. This difference is large enough to potentially lead to serious ethical misconduct if physicians act the under Bushido code of professional ethics.</p>