Abstract
Sociology has been peripheral to the field of medicine in Japan. This paper is largely based on the author's experience of teaching sociology in a medical school in Japan. The paper analyzes why the two disciplines are irreconcilable and discusses how sociology can be involved in medicine and medical education. The discussion in this paper will be threefold. First, the paper will point out the incongruence between the medical sciences in medical school that are extremely biomedicine oriented and sociology that largely deals with the social construction of disease. How and to what extent the conflict between the two disciplines can be resolved will be discussed in the paper.
Second, the paper will focus on how medical school education is institutionalized as well as controlled by the government, which might leave little room for sociology. Given this, the paper will consider how sociologists can become more involved in the education of medical doctors. Third, the paper will examine how and to what extent sociologists are able to deal with the sovereignty of medical doctors.
