In 2019, a team composed of medical and health economics educators and a family medicine trainee from the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, and the School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, embarked on a study tour to Toronto, Canada, a leading country in family medicine education and training. During this tour, the team visited the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and affiliated hospitals to observe family medicine training in practice, which included video review and feedback for trainee development. In addition, they visited a practice attached to a legal clinic, with subsequent learning about the medico-legal interface and responsibilities of Canadian family doctors. The team gained first-hand insight into family medicine training along with an understanding of a healthcare system that values primary care.

Every year, we tour a leading country for family medicine with new trainees and staff who join the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Fukushima Medical University. This time we visited Denmark. In Denmark, General Practitioners (GPs) see their patients by a list system. GPs work as a gatekeeper and solve many kinds of health problems. GP training is a 5-year program, and the training system is well established. It is usual for both GP trainees and their partners to work and raise their children during the training.

In February 2017, general practitioners (GPs) from the Department of Community and Family Medicine of Fukushima Medical University in Japan visited Australia for a study tour where the tour participants met with local GPs, GP registrars and researchers. During this tour, we visited public hospitals and observed multiple GPs providing community-based health care. We also attended a new GP registrars' orientation where the two authors gave a presentation about the current status of primary care in Japan. We then visited an Aboriginal health research center, and learned about the cultural values of the Aboriginal people and the challenges of implementing large-scale cohort studies.