Modern society is a late capitalist society, and its structure continues to change. Therefore, if situational awareness is based on the premise of specific social structures, it will become meaningless over time. As a challenge for modern medical education, it is necessary to develop students' skills required to respond to social changes and modify their awareness of the world. It is not important for students to memorize principles as knowledge and apply them in practical settings. Medical educators in the 21st should help medical students develop attitudes required to understand life culture in practical settings.

　In the 21st century, the life culture of patients will be supported by placing emphasis on settings for clinical practice. In the 20th century, or the era of hospitals, it was important to implement homogenized and standardized medical procedures and make decisions modeled after those for inpatients. However, in the 21st century, medical technologies and techniques will be integrated in the life culture of patients. In other words, medical education in the 21st century shall be implemented based on behavioral science education to understand the diversity of people's life culture.

The Consensus of this Committee is:

1) To change the name of the present committee from "Premedical Education Committee" to "Committee on Behavioral and Social Science" ; accordingly to discuss theoretical foundations, clinical application, learning objectives and outcomes of behavioral and social science in Japanese medical schools.

2) To collect actual case studies of teaching behavioral and social sciences in Japanese medical schools and create a database for such practices.

3) To develop behavioral and social science curriculum content in Japanese medical schools.

4) To organize training courses for teaching methods for behavioral and social science curricula and develop standardized teaching methods and materials.