Bribes And Extortion At Med School

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Yomiuri: 16 profs admit taking cash gifts - Med school postgrads threatened with nonissuance of degrees
Sixteen professors and associate professors at Yokohama City University's medical school have received a total of about 5.7 million yen from postgraduate students in cash gifts for obtaining doctorates, according to an interim report released Friday by a university degree screening committee. A separate investigation of students has also revealed the names of 17 teaching professors and other academics to whom students handed over a total of 3.2 million yen...The committee head, Norio Munakata, said the cases of tutors threatening to prevent two students getting their doctorates and demanding cash gifts were "malicious and bordering on extortion"...Some of the 17 tutors students said they had given cash gifts to admitted receipt of the gifts, but at least eight tutors have denied receiving anything...All of the tutors deny any kind of special treatment, and the committee quotes them as saying they accepted gifts "as a matter of custom" and that the receipt of money and valuables had "no effect" on the screening of doctorates...Munakata strongly criticized the practice of giving cash gifts as a custom far removed from the conventional wisdom of a medical school. "Society's faith in university degrees is likely to be shaken"...The lawyer explained that the tutors said the money "was used to cover items such as medical teaching materials," but as they were unable to produce any receipts, the lawyer said "there was not a shred of evidence" to back up this claim...more...

[kusai Jijii]

[floatl][/floatl]Yomiuri: 16 profs admit taking cash gifts - Med school postgrads threatened with nonissuance of degrees
Sixteen professors and associate professors at Yokohama City University's medical school have received a total of about 5.7 million yen from postgraduate students in cash gifts for obtaining doctorates, according to an interim report released Friday by a university degree screening committee. A separate investigation of students has also revealed the names of 17 teaching professors and other academics to whom students handed over a total of 3.2 million yen...The committee head, Norio Munakata, said the cases of tutors threatening to prevent two students getting their doctorates and demanding cash gifts were "malicious and bordering on extortion"...Some of the 17 tutors students said they had given cash gifts to admitted receipt of the gifts, but at least eight tutors have denied receiving anything...All of the tutors deny any kind of special treatment, and the committee quotes them as saying they accepted gifts "as a matter of custom" and that the receipt of money and valuables had "no effect" on the screening of doctorates...Munakata strongly criticized the practice of giving cash gifts as a custom far removed from the conventional wisdom of a medical school. "Society's faith in university degrees is likely to be shaken"...The lawyer explained that the tutors said the money "was used to cover items such as medical teaching materials," but as they were unable to produce any receipts, the lawyer said "there was not a shred of evidence" to back up this claim...more...

Considering 'doctorates' from Japanese 'DAIGAKU' are complete jokes, I find any form of payment a complete waste of brass.
One postgrad student recently came to me at work (daigaku, not uni), and said that her Japanese supervisor said there were to be - get this - NO QUOTES in her disertation, despite the fact that it was a textual annalysis of a famous American poet!
Way to go DAIGAKU!

[Western All Stars]

This sounds a lot like that reikin landlords demand a lot of times. If that ever comes up I just say thanks for your time, ciao, and take my pile of money elsewhere. Of course in this case it's a lot worse. Imagine spending 8 years working up to your doctorate then being pulled aside saying the last thing you must do is pay up. The money's better spent on a lawyer or at least a hidden recorder.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Doc exiled after blowing whistle on graft

A doctor at Yokohama City University's medical school who blew the whistle on the inappropriate practice of students giving cash gifts to faculty members to obtain doctorates has been transferred to a department where the doctor's skills cannot be applied, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. According to sources at the school, the university normally does not assign doctors or other medical experts to departments unconnected with their specializations unless they request such a transfer. "I haven't heard of such a case," one source said. The doctor informed the university's compliance committee in November 2007 that postgraduate students belonging to a research group of Hiroshi Shimada, former dean of the medical school, had been giving cash gifts to faculty and obtaining doctorates, the doctor told the Yomiuri. Shimada resigned as dean in late March. The doctor was subsequently given an informal notice of transfer in January. "I asked the committee for protection, saying that I might be transferred because my research hadn't finished," the doctor said. "But the committee didn't do anything about my request." The doctor was transferred to a department at a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture on April 1.

...The university's in-house regulations require those concerned to protect whistle-blowers who reveal illegal or unethical practices from being victimized. "We tried to provide protection for the whistle-blower in line with the regulations, but we can't say that we were able to protect him or her in the end," said Kimio Okada, vice president of the university and a member of the committee. Concerning the whistle-blowing activity, 11 members of Shimada's research group, including associate professors, submitted to the chairman of the university's board of directors and the university president in February a letter of complaint demanding that the whistle-blower be punished for "distorting" practices in the medical school "with malicious intent." Meanwhile, asked by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry to carry out a thorough investigation into the issue, the university set up a university degree screening committee headed by a former head of the special investigation squad at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. The committee released an interim report on May 2 that said 16 professors and associate professors received a total of about 5.7 million yen. "We can't protect a whistle-blower if we don't know who the person is. If we didn't transfer the person to other departments, it would be obvious to other people who has blown the whistle. It's possible for anyone to be transferred to a department or section that he or she doesn't wish to be transferred to," a spokesman for the university's secretariat said.

[Gilligan]

"We tried to provide protection for the whistle-blower in line with the regulations, but we can't say that we were able to protect him or her in the end," said Kimio Okada, vice president of the university and a member of the committee.

Yeah, right!!!

And the check's in the mail, etc., etc.

[kurohinge1]

Yomiuri: Doc exiled after blowing whistle on graft . . .

The doctor was transferred to a department at a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture on April 1

I guess he didn't get the joke.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: 3 more profs admit taking cash / 19 now implicated in taking money; 24 facing punishment

Three more academics from Yokohama City University's medical school, including a professor in charge of postgraduate degree screenings, admitted receiving cash gifts from students for granting them doctorates, the university degree screening committee said Wednesday. In May, the committee announced that 16 professors and associate professors admitted receiving about 5.7 million yen from postgraduate students. A committee reinvestigation revealed that three more professors had taken money, bringing the total to 19. The university will punish academics and university executives who had supervisory responsibility, including a former university vice president. Hiroshi Shimada, 64, former dean of the school of medicine, is one of the 19 academics who admitted taking money. He admitted receiving 3 million yen in bribes and will be suspended from work for three months. The former dean of the graduate school of medicine will see a salary reduction. Seventeen of the 19 who admitted taking money and two other academics who were involved in screening their relatives degrees will receive written warnings. Two professors who were in administrative positions, including a former vice president, will be reprimanded.

The university will severely punish an academic adviser and professor who has been accused by postgraduate students of threatening to withhold their degrees if they refused to pay him. He denies the allegations, and the details of his punishment are yet to be determined. However, two other professors accused by students of working with the adviser to receive money have admitted their transgression to the committee. Therefore, the committee judged the allegation against the adviser to be true, saying the behavior was unbecoming of a teacher. In total, the university will punish 24 academics involved in the scandal, some of whom have not yet admitted any wrongdoing. Official punishment will be decided after informing the 24 academics of the university's decision and giving them time to justify their actions. University Chairman Tsunetaka Honda, University President Tsutomu Fuse, University Vice President Kimio Okada and University Secretary General Katsuko Tanaka will voluntarily return part of their salaries and will not be punished by the university.

[Catoneinutica]

The reikin comparison made earlier in the thread is an apt one. The tradition of giving of a "gift" to one's professor seems to be ubiquitous here, and not likely to go away anytime soon.

Similar compulsory gift requirements seem to exist in some certification-conferring arts as well, such as tea ceremony and ikebana. TIJ. Or more likely, TIEastASia.

In defense of J-medical doctors, if not J-doctorate holders, a lot of them are able to obtain certification in other countries, including those famous for rigorous standards, and J-docs from national universities are often quite well-published in English-language journals (not just the comical J-journals).

A caveat, though: Never let yourself, family, or friends be treated by doctors from private J-medical schools. Private schools seem to be dumping grounds for rich, pinheaded kids who can't get in to national universities but whose parents are determined they'll be doctors at all costs. The private-school docs are lethal in their incompetence.

[dimwit]

A caveat, though: Never let yourself, family, or friends be treated by doctors from private J-medical schools. Private schools seem to be dumping grounds for rich, pinheaded kids who can't get in to national universities but whose parents are determined they'll be doctors at all costs. The private-school docs are lethal in their incompetence.

Specifically Aichi Idai, Kawasaki Idai Kanazawa Idai and St. Marianna.

[Charles]

..In defense of J-medical doctors, if not J-doctorate holders, a lot of them are able to obtain certification in other countries, including those famous for rigorous standards, and J-docs from national universities are often quite well-published in English-language journals (not just the comical J-journals)..

I'm not so sure about that. I used to work with Japanese exchange programs, one of the regular exchanges was doctors and nurses coming here to study at our State hospital. I regularly heard complaints from M.D.s that they could not obtain certification in the US so they were only allowed to be observers. Just imagine the griping from doctors who suddenly rank below every nurse in the hospital.