the orig. art. wrote:The city judged "mammary gland" to be the name of a diagnosis and treatment department and denied permission to use the name on the grounds that it was not among 27 diagnosis and treatment department names approved for advertising.
I can somewhat understand, given that 乳]proctology & gastroenterology (肛門科・胃腸科)[/url] and gynecological problems & orthopedics (婦人科・整形外科).
Thus, I guess the Court is saying that the hospital - as regards the 乳腺 part - should bill itself using standard [Japanese] medical nomenclature: oncology if handling cancer, plastic/cosmetic surgery if handling cosmetic breast work, etc.
Update: after a bit of checking, I'm apparently right on the last part:
判決などによると、この医療法人は０１年９月に名称変更を申請。しかし市は、「乳腺」について、「内科」や「眼科」などと違い、広告が認められていないため病院名には使えないとして認可しなかった。
Update part deux: found some of the hospital's claims:
「乳房にしこりや痛みを感じた時の本来の診療科は乳腺科。乳がんの専門医がおり診療機器も備わっている」
Apparently, there's a push in more modern J-med to move away from the traditional nomenclature.
According to the self-described "レディースセンター（乳腺科 and 婦人科）"[note they had to resort to katakana] of 癌研有明病院:
当科は乳がんをはじめとする乳腺の様々な病気の診断と治療にあたっています。有明の新病院では、従来分かれていた乳腺外科と化学療法科が、「乳腺科」としてひとつになり、さらに放射線治療が必要な場合には、放射線科医が乳腺科に加わって診療することにより、様々な分野の医師がいつでも話し合いながら、乳がんの総合的な治療をよりスムーズに行えるようになりました。
With all that said, I'm still extremely curious about the case (and not just its subject matter
). The lower court ruled in favor of the hospital, and the city's appeal took the case to the Supreme Court. Why would the Court bother with such a seemingly trivial case?And I have noticed a bit of the J-news about the case popping up on J-sites for women (like this). I'd be curious to hear what women think about the decision.
[Sorry for the bizarre approach to comments here, with updates and what-not. I originally got the impression the hospital was a scam, dealing with liposuction and breast augmentation, and even went as far as to put hospital in sneer quotes. My tone changed, however, as I unearthed a bit more about the staid nature of J-medicine (and specifically its nomenclature in this case)]
