With medical education in Japan now undergoing a radical reformation, so too is education for the humanities and social sciences in Japanese medical schools. As an anthropologist, I have long used fieldwork as a method of research and education. In the present study, I argue that fieldwork is not only effective in nurturing perspectives based on the humanities and social sciences in medical education, but that it also contributes to the development of basic qualities required of medical professionals. Specifically, these basic qualities refer to "common values" existing among a group of people living in the same locality who share similar cultural characteristics when dealing with the everyday affairs of life. I show how these values are nurtured in the field through students' actual sense of presence in the world they share with various living creatures.