Abstract
With the progress of highly precise radiotherapy such as IMRT, IGRT and charged particle radiotherapy, the number of the patients has markedly increased since the late 20th century. A disproportionate number of radiation oncologists to radiotherapy patients has therefore been a serious problem. To resolve the shortage of radiation oncologists, the departmentalization of radiation oncology is primarily important because professors have administrative rights and powers for education and recruiting of medical students. At present there are only 16 out of 79 medical schools in which department of radiation oncology exists. I do hope that taking every occasion, JASTRO will appeal the importance of department of radiation oncology to the organizations relevant to this subject such as Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and medical schools which do not have yet that department. Only when Department of Radiation Oncology is established in every medical school, radiation oncology will be recognized as a distinct medical specialty.
