Yukiko Nakatsu
Q1; Describe your education in your country. /For example; how many years do you study, how long are you on rotations, do you have a hospital in the vet school, do you specialize in a species?
We study veterinary medicine for six years in Japan.
The rotation term of my school was only half a year, but the system has just changed recently.
Our juniors will have rotation for a whole year.
All the vet schools in Japan have their own animal hospitals on each campus.
In Japan, we have a unique system. All of us “belong” to laboratories in the latter half of our school life. There are various kinds of laboratories that we can choose from. If someone wants to learn about clinical training, he/she can join labs in animal hospitals and work as a staff of the hospital except when he/she has classes.
As for me, I'm in the public health laboratory and doing research into some bacteria.
Q2: What are some of the struggles being a vet student in your country? Where do you see room for improvement?
I think we should have more experience on different kinds of practical training.
Many students are not skilled enough just after their graduating from vet school.
Also, I think it is another problem that we have very few opportunities to use English in Japan.
Most of us undergraduate students, neither learn veterinary medicine nor do any presentations in English, while many students in other countries have such classes.
That's why Japanese students have very poor English communication skills and are less knowledgeable about English medical terms.
English skills are very important, and is the biggest problem for any Japanese person.
Q3: Why is being a vet student in your country awesome?
As mentioned above, we have a system which allows us to focus on specific fields in great depth, in the various different laboratories.
All of us must submit graduation theses about our own research.
In addition, we can attend academic conferences and do presentations during the conferences.
It is great experience for us to have such opportunities.
Q4: Do you have any plans for when you graduate?
I'm in the sixth grade now, so I will graduate next March.
I'm going to work at a pharmaceutical company. I'm very interested in their department of overseas business development.
Q5: Describe your experience/feelings towards IVSA in 1 to 3 sentences
I was the Exchange Officer (EO) of IVSA Japan for several years, and hosted an IVSA international event as the president.
All the IVSA activities I joined made me more interested in global issues and taught me a lot of things that I cannot learn in my country.
Furthermore, the friendships I made through IVSA activities will be useful even after my graduating from school, I believe.
“All the IVSA activities I joined made me more interested in global issues and taught me a lot of things that I cannot learn in my country.”
IVSA Journal/Fall, 2015
29