The selection of a primary care career by Japanese medical students is said to be increasing however there are no studies to support this belief.In order to fully understand the alleged increase in the number of medical students choosing primary care we believed that an examination of the factors influencing medical students' decision-making would be helpful.
1) We distributed questionnaires to two hundred ninety eight medical students in 2004 who would graduate in four months from three Japanese medical universities.
2) Questionnaires included demographic factors, career choice, important career choice factors, interest in community medicine, willingness to engage in community medicine, thinking community medicine is useful, and satisfaction with curricula.
3) There were significant associations between a primary care choice and social experience, lifestyle preference, interest in community medicine, willingness to engage in community medicine, and contact with primary care faculty.
4) Using a logistic regression model, lifestyle preference, male gender, social experience before entrance to a medical university and contact with primary care faculty were four significant factors.
5) It might be important to consider those factors in addition to curriculum reform to increase primary care career choice among Japanese medical students.

Community medicine clerkships are said to be an important element of current undergraduate medical education. However, little is known about what medical students actually learn from them.Therefore, we performed a study by means of significant event analysis to examine what medical students had learned from 2-week community medicine clerkships.
1) Students in 2006 took part in 2-week community medicine clerkships and then in sessions at the end of their clerkships to review their experiences.
2) The review sessions were recorded, and the students'impressions were extracted and categorized.
3) The depth of their impressions was categorized into 4 depth levels (describing, commenting, generalizing, and planning).
4) Students gave their impressions of the medical system, the role of physicians, patient-centered care, role models, and clinical ethics, and the impressions of most students were at the levels of commenting and generalizing.
5) Medical students learned system-based practice and medical professionalism during their community medicine clerkships, and significant event analysis was a valuable tool for understanding their experiences.

 In Horokanai town, Hokkaido, the policy of full subsidies for voluntary vaccinations against influenza, haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), varicella, mumps, pneumococcal for children and human papillomavirus (HPV) was introduced between 2008 and 2010. A campaign for community education about vaccination was initiated.
 Vaccination coverage improved after the subsidy as follows : influenza vaccination increased from 57.4% to 60.1%, Hib from 2.9% to 52.2%, varicella from 0% to 30.0%, mumps from 2.8% to 38.2%, pneumococcal for children from 1.3% to 50.6%, and HPV from 0% to 81.3%.