Ruling barring Chinese man from taking medical exam quashed

Asian Economic News, June 18, 2001

TOKYO, June 14 Kyodo

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a Chinese man who demanded that it nullify a lower court ruling rejecting his request to take a state-run medical examination.

Overturning a lower court ruling, Presiding Judge Masaru Moriwaki said the then Health and Welfare Ministry failed to describe the reasons why it dismissed the man's request and to make public a standard for judging whether applicants are qualified to take the medical examination.

Moriwaki said the ministry dismissed the request without taking important procedures, which he said violated the administrative procedure law.

According to the ruling, the 38-year-old Chinese man came to Japan in 1987 after qualifying as a doctor in China. He graduated from a medical university in Shanghai.

The man studied at Fukui Medical School and at Osaka City University's medical department. He now lives in Osaka.

He filed a request with the ministry in 1995 to take the medical exam, but the ministry rejected it, telling him it was appropriate for him to take a preliminary examination.

The man filed a suit with the Tokyo District Court, claiming it was unfair that he was not allowed to take the exam, given his ample education in China.

His lawyers argued that people from Europe or the United States who are qualified as doctors are allowed to take the exam. But Japan has told most such Chinese people to take a preliminary test first, they said.

Around early 1999, the district court dismissed the man's claim, saying it acknowledged the ministry's discretionary power to judge the man's request.