[Details and Background on the Origins of Modern Female Doctors in the Meiji Era: Research on the Minutes of the Central Board of Health (see text) in Hosokawa Junjiro's (see text) Monographs Goen-Sosho (see text) and Materials of the Bureau of Hygiene (see text)].

Abstract

This research is based on materials of the Bureau of Hygiene (see text) and the minutes of the Central Board of Health (see text) contained in Hosokawa Junjiro's (see text) monograph Goen Sosho (see text). It showed that the movement toward allowing the qualification of modern female doctors in Japan was going on in various parts of Japan from 1881 or earlier. This history shows the presence of many female doctors in the Edo Period. At an extraordinary meeting of the Central Board of Health, an advisory body of the Bureau of Hygiene, the qualification of female doctors was approved of in 1881. This was based on an article in the yororyo law (see text) about female doctors contained in the ancient laws of Japan. As a result, the Department of the Interior allowed female doctors in June, 1884. At this time, five females took the national examination for medical practitioners. The following year, Ogino Ginko (see text) became the first modern female doctor in Japan. Owing to the yororyou law about female doctors, and the efforts of many other females who wanted to become doctors, the first modern female doctors in Japan came into being.