Soma City: a microcosm of the future of Japan. Meeting the challenges of a disaster in an area with an aging population.
I was in my sixth year of medical school when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in early March of 2011. I happened to be in Australia for medical training at the time and returned to Japan at the end of March. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do anything to help people at that time. When I returned to Japan, life in Tokyo had returned to normal but the situation in Fukushima Prefecture was very unsettled due to the effects of the nuclear power plant accident.
Right around that time, professors in my research unit were scheduled to visit the disaster area in order to carry out medical examinations. I requested to go along on this trip. Two months after the earthquake and accident had occurred, I arrived in Iitate Village of Fukushima Prefecture. I assisted with the medical examinations of village residents shortly before they were all evacuated from the area. After that, while preparing for the national medical exam and my graduation exam, I continued to visit nearby Minamisoma City approximately once or twice per month to assist local doctors. The number of doctors at the hospital I went to in Minamisoma had gradually shrunk from 18 to only 4. Of course, doctors are people just like the rest of us, often with families to take care of. Therefore, it was up to each doctor to decide whether or not to leave the area. Nonetheless, I found the situation very precarious.
Although I was born in Osaka and went to medical school in Tokyo, this experience led to my present position as a physician at Soma Central Hospital of Fukushima Prefecture. Unlike many physicians, I don’t have a specialty such as gastroenterology, the respiratory system, cardiology, etc. Rather, I examine a wide range of patients. It’s only my third year as a physician so I’m still at the beginning of my career. I still have a great deal to learn. But to the patients that come to me, I am their attending physician and I take that responsibility very seriously each day I come to the hospital.
I have also retained an association with my alma mater, the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine, through which I aim to implement know-how that I have learned regarding the provision of medical services, both inside and outside of the hospital. Through research, I want to analyze data in a scientific manner and then share it with other localities and posterity. The theme of my research is on the types of problems that are encountered by localities with ageing populations, and I include the effects of the nuclear power plant accident in my research. I hope that this scientific analysis and research on medical services will lead to an overall improvement in medical care.
Since April of 2015 I have been involved in medical screenings to determine the nursing care level of individuals applying for nursing care in in Soma City. This research is quite important and is directly related to the other themes (the status quo for senior citizens in the disaster area and medical care in an aging society) that I have focused on at the Graduate School of Medicine.
Many younger people from the area affected by the earthquake and nuclear power plant accident have left and moved to other parts of Japan. The percentage of senior citizens (citizens 65 years old and older) has thus rapidly increased. This also means that the number of caregivers for senior citizens has fallen dramatically, leading to a very difficult situation. The percentage of senior citizens in Soma City is now 27%. Furthermore, by the year 2020 it is estimated that senior citizens will increase nationally to approximately this same ratio in the total population of Japan. I feel that my work here in Soma City will ultimately be of use in future efforts to deal with similar problems on a national scale.
How did Dr. Morita spend time when he was a child?
I was a fidgety child but my mother’s words planted the seed that made me think about becoming a doctor.
From an early age I aspired to play a useful role in society. When I was in elementary school I had a vague feeling that I wanted to become a doctor when I grew up. But at that young age I wasn’t sure exactly what a doctor does. My mother’s words, “Doctors save people’s lives. It’s a good job to do” might have had an influence on me. My father was an office worker and there were no other doctors in my family line. When I was in kindergarten, I would often say, “I want to be a bear when I grow up!” So you could say that the idea of someday becoming a doctor was certainly progress… (laughs)
However, my mother was not excessively strict about my education. When I became interested in insects, she let me raise some insects. She bought me a variety of books and provided me with frequent opportunities to learn new things. One of those early opportunities was when I began going to a Kumon Center. I started Kumon when in kindergarten. After exceeding school grade levels and becoming proficient at math, I suspended my Kumon study and switched to an after-school prep school in order to prepare for the junior high school entrance exam. Later, after entering junior high school, I restarted my Kumon study with a focus on English.
Looking back over my days at Kumon, I regret that I might have been something of a problem for the instructor when I was an elementary school student. My older sister, who went with me to Kumon, was quite a serious student but I was always rather fidgety and unsettled when I was in the Center. While doing the worksheets, sometimes I would fall asleep and other times I would walk around the Center. Yet, all the same, I was never bored by my study at Kumon or felt like quitting.
Now that I’ve become an adult, have I settled down? I’m not sure of the answer to that… Before graduating from university, I was already visiting Fukushima Prefecture many times, and immediately after finishing my internship in Chiba Prefecture, I awent to Fukushima Prefecture. I haven’t really been able settle down in one place. So in that way, my personality may not have changed all that much since childhood (laughs)
Why does Dr. Morita think repetition is important for children?
I don’t think the key to learning is inherent aptitude. Rather, repetition of study is essential to build up a solid academic foundation and real power.
Thanks to Kumon I was able to build up a solid foundation in the subjects of math, Japanese and English. I believe that a student begins to understand higher concepts after he or she has good fundamental academic skills. Kumon also allowed me to progress at my own pace and go beyond my school grade level. I felt very motivated because the harder I studied, the farther ahead I could go in the worksheets.
Through Kumon, I was convinced of the value of repetition and practice. For example, I became faster and more accurate in solving math problems through repetition. I also memorized Chinese characters and English words through writing them repeatedly. This type of study also helped me deepen my understanding of the meaning of the characters and words. Unless you are a genius, I truly think that academic growth is based on repetition and practice.
However, children won’t continue to practice something unless they find it to be interesting. With that in mind, I think that the Kumon program is very well designed. In general, children easily become bored. Therefore, like my mother, parents should give their children an opportunity to further explore areas in which they show an interest. Parents should strive to provide intellectual stimulation to their children.
I first began to think seriously about becoming a doctor in my third year in junior high school. I think that my mother’s words to me and her support probably had a strong effect on my decision. I had always wanted to play a useful role in society, and so I entered the medical faculty in university.
 | Interviews from the Second Part – Looking at social problems from a medical point of view |