About｜Department of Community and Global Health, The University of Tokyo
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About

Introduction and Overview

Since its inception in 1993, the following four professors have led the Department of Community and Global Health: Professors Gen Ohi (April 1993- March 1996), Som-Arch Wongkhomthong (June 1996-March 1999), Susumu Wakai (August 1999-March 2006), and Masamine Jimba (June 2006-2023).

Keywords in this department are both community health and global health. To improve health at these levels, we need knowledge, wisdom, and grit. In a frequently changing world with unexpected emerging health challenges, our knowledge based on academic research often needs to be revised. To overcome the lack of knowledge, wisdom is necessary, which can be gained through the experiences of the people who live in the communities. However, wisdom is not sufficiently helpful during difficult periods of time. It is grit that can make a breakthrough in such a situation. We can strengthen community action by mobilizing available knowledge, wisdom, and grit. We then seek to link grassroots efforts within communities with national and global policies that affect these communities, empowering the citizens to improve their lives. Our goal is to narrow the health gap at the community and international levels.

Moreover, we need to go beyond the health target. Good health is one aspect of life; most people seek something more. We must ask ourselves: how can we go beyond health to help people lead better lives? This question is intrinsic to our education and research. Students and staff members must always maintain sight of it.

As of January 2024, the department members include 2 assistant professors, 3 secretaries, 12 visiting lecturers, 6 doctoral students, 6 master's degree students, and 38 visiting researchers. More than half of the department's students are international students. A new professor is under election.

Education

The main objectives of our teaching activities are

  1. To train researchers who understand and complement the wise activities of practitioners in the field.
  2. To train practitioners who can also wisely carry out research in the field.

Our goal is to nurture a new generation of global health leaders who are open to conventional approaches to community and global health issues. We want them to be able to integrate their knowledge and experience with what they learn from people who live and work in communities in resource-limited settings. We want them to develop their inner voice to guide them as they face the challenges of protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of the world's most vulnerable people. We want to help our students become compassionate global health leaders, having long-term perspectives beyond 50 or even 100 years later.

The department's graduate school offers a selection of advanced community and global health courses, which involve theoretical exercises and practical activities. All curricula focus on community health. We will teach qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods throughout the year. We have also started to use AI for new research. Beyond the core subjects, our primary educational activities include technical assistance writing master's and doctoral theses. We encourage students to publish their theses in international journals. In addition, we encourage students to gain field experience to understand the reality of global health in a resource-limited setting. We address the following areas of competency in the curricula:

  1. Understanding health policy, disease patterns, and the determinants of health in resource-limited settings
  2. Impact of culture and social structure on health
  3. Global health governance and leadership
  4. Project management
  5. Research ethics and human rights

Click on the link to download the list of the courses offered in the department (PDF).

More than half of the department's students are international students. Therefore, we use English for all lectures, practices, and discussions. For those without a health/medical background, we provide a wide variety of courses that cover critical health topics from a basic to an advanced level.

We also train young international leaders by offering a range of specialized lectures at different universities.

Research

The primary objectives of our research activities include:

  1. To promote research that has a significant social impact on global and local communities.
  2. To promote research that contributes to endogenous development.

Our goal is to carry out community-based research that will generate data that is directly collected from the field. Therefore, we place significant importance on fieldwork. At the same time, our department aims to contribute to policymaking and promote actions to improve health and wellbeing outcomes by making the best use of community-based research. We conduct research by working with different research institutes, international organizations, JICA, NGOs, and universities.

Major topics of current research include the following:

  1. health, nutrition, and development;
  2. health, human rights, and human security;
  3. migrant health,
  4. infectious disease control;
  5. health promotion at schools and communities;
  6. disaster and health;
  7. human resources for health;
  8. maternal, newborn, and child health.

We have conducted our research in various countries, including Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, East Timor, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Haiti, and Peru.

International Cooperation

Primary objectives of our international cooperation activities include:

  1. To promote domestic and international cooperation that supports endogenous development.
  2. To promote asset-oriented development models.

International cooperation is one of our activities. Just as staff of clinical departments/laboratories work on both education/research and clinical activities, our staff members engage in various international cooperation activities, including working as consultants. We are mindful that our cooperation activities should be culture-sensitive and avoid a top-down approach. We would ideally encourage and "wait" for counterparts/countries' endogenous development efforts to solve their problems. Therefore, we focus on the positive deviance approach and asset model approach. With that in mind, we have engaged in international cooperation activities.

Ph.D. and master's theses

Ph.D. Theses（博士論文）

Master's Theses（修士論文）