==JAPAN: Miyazaki==

In September 1997 I asked second-year students at Miyazaki Medical College, young doctors-in-training, to read materials related to the world population's well-being, that is, clinical and therapeutic data from developed and developing countries worldwide. These data were in reports published by the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO). I asked my students to imagine the significance of the WHO reports in their own terms. I suggested they write in response to the reports as follows: (a) identify at least two significant challenges and, more, (b) offer ways medical professionals from Japan and other developed countries might contribute to meeting these challenges.
In October, Professor Koju Fujieda of Fukui Medical School invited me to send him some of my students' work for possible publication in "The Kuzuryu Memoirs." Since this is a collection of writing by young professionals from around the world, I thought Professor Fujieda's invitation was particularly well-timed and quite generous. Included here, then, is a sample of student writings that address world issues from the perspective of new entrants in the Japanese medical community as well as serious thinkers and writers in the English language. I hope you enjoy them.