Background: Although there is a growing momentum in Japan to expect residents to play an educational role, the guidelines are still unclear. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics and contents of teaching roles for residents in the new curriculum of each specialty program and uncover current issues. Methods: Two researchers independently searched for and determined the wording related to teaching in the program for all 19 specialties. The research team extracted the relevant issues. Results: Seventeen of the 19 programs included a statement on educational roles for their residents, but almost all of the programs did not include educational competencies and any specific strategy to achieve it. Discussion: The definition of educational competencies and the development of methods to acquire the competencies are issues for the future. It is necessary to develop and expand programs for the Residents-as-Teachers program in Japan.

While there is an emphasis on fostering the next generation of medical educators, it is difficult for the younger generation to find opportunities to deepen their knowledge of medical education regularly amid their busy clinical work. Using journal clubs is a strategy for lifelong learning in the professional field; yet, it is difficult to operate and maintain one. We established an online journal club for medical education and research with 9- to 12-year post-graduates from different institutions across Japan. While it is generally said that even face-to-face journal clubs are difficult to sustain, we were able to hold more than 40 online meetings in one year. We discussed why our approach was feasible, citing social congruence theory and self-determination theory.

Residents have teaching roles in clinical practice, and the importance of these roles has been pointed out. This is due to their proximity to learners as Near-Peers. There are two aspects to consider: cognitive proximity, which allows them to share what learners don’t know, and spatial proximity, which allows us to share time and space for an extended period. Residents-as-teachers programs, which aim to improve teaching skills for residents, are being developed all over the world, but are still rare in Japan. We are conducting research to determine what teaching competencies residents should have. We are running a one-year fellowship based on the results of that research. The scale of the program has gradually increased, and in 2020, due to COVID-19, the fellowship went online. We restructured the fellowship in terms of Study/Workload, Enhancing Engagement, and Technical Issues. We received high satisfaction ratings for the online implementation.