Corresponding to the international trend toward a reform of higher educational institutions and a structural reform of universities of Japan, a tota 89 national universities were incorporated in 2004. Each university is making its way in accordance with the 6-year interim plan.Analyses were made of the background and framework of university incorporation, its effect on community medicine, the international trend of agricultural medicine and problems to be addressed by the JARM from the viewpoint of reconstruction of community care in rural areas, especially in out-of-the-way villages and on solitary islands throughout this country.University reform is aimed at separation of education from management, clarification of the responsibility for students, independence from the educational administration, and guarantee of higher education. Behind the incentive of the reform is internationally common recognition that the society in the 21st century will be “knowledge-based society.”The surge of high education reform kicked off in the U.S. and Britain in the 1980s was closely related to their intention to continue economic and cultural development steadily, a market mechanism, intensified competition, and the grouping for the best way to create a new social system.In order to create and maintain healthy rural community, the JAPM has to grapple with various tasks strategically. They include:a comprehensive approach to health care, welfare and higher education; collaboration of rural residents and related governmental agencies with the former acting on their own initiatives; combination of health promotion and other local policies in remote rural areas; participation in agricultural policy making with international cooperation taken into consideration.
Universities ; Higher education ; Japan ; educational ; Community