Since its establishment in 2016, the Japan Society for Pharmaceutical Education (hereafter, the Society) has conducted various research activities on “pharmaceutical education and pharmacist education” and this year marked the 8th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Pharmaceutical Education. However, efforts from an international perspective have not been sufficient, and in order to further enhance and develop ‘pharmaceutical and pharmacist education’ in Japan, it is extremely important for the Society to promote international evaluation and verification of pharmaceutical education. For this purpose, an Internationalization Committee was established within the Society in 2021. With the aim of contributing to the enrichment and development of ‘pharmaceutical and pharmacist education’ by promoting initiatives that incorporate an international perspective, the committee started activities to collect information on overseas educational and pharmacist activities, mainly from members of the Society, and to transmit and share this information through the Japanese Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. As part of these, proposals and recommendations for quality assurance of Japanese pharmaceutical education from an international perspective were made at a symposium of the 8th Annual Meeting of Japan Society for Pharmaceutical Education to ensure that the Model Core Curriculum for Pharmaceutical Education (revised in 2022), which will be applied from 2024, is based on the needs of each university and ensures quality. This review presents an overview of the recommendations.

In 2024, a new model core curriculum for pharmacy education based on needs from society will be implemented. Many universities are focused on how to develop the qualities and competencies required for pharmacists in undergraduate education. However, the final goal of outcome in undergraduate education should be the spread to society and the world of the high level of expertise that pharmacy graduates should truly aspire to or demonstrate their competency to contribute to society. In fact, recently, International Pharmaceutical Federation indicates that “Making an impact on society” that is one of the pillars of qualities of pharmacy education is the final proof of it. And based on this, it should be necessary to reflect on undergraduate education and improve and review education. In this symposium, lecturers who have already contributed to society, demonstrated a high level of expertise and made an impact on the world gave lectures and discussed pharmacy education across fields. In particular, the lecturers gave an overview of current cutting-edge research from areas C, D, E and F of the current model core curriculum, from drug discovery to clinical practice. This was followed by a discussion on the future prospects of those areas and the points to be improved and expectations for future pharmacy education as perceived by the lecturers.

Nineteen years have already passed since the start of the six-year pharmaceutical education, and in line with the original intent of the transition from a four-year to a six-year education, the curriculum has been expanded to foster practical clinical skills (pharmacist training). On the other hand, the importance of basic pharmaceutical science and research should not be neglected in the six-year education curriculum. Students who graduate from the six-year pharmaceutical university are expected to play a wide range of roles, not only as clinical pharmacists in hospitals and dispensing pharmacies, but also as pharmaceutical researchers, administrators, and educators. In this article, we discuss the importance of the balance between “clinical training” and “basic research” in 6-year pharmaceutical education, as pointed out by new modality drugs such as nucleic acids-based drugs, with our recent research results.

The author consider that pharmaceutical science starts from “how to assure quality of crude drugs” and that in Japan it starts from quality assurance of drugs in Meiji era, then gradually includes drug discovery science and after transformation into six-year education system in pharmaceutical school focuses medical pharmacy much more on the basis of historical background. This report presents today’s importance of quality assurance and its management science including regulatory science in pharmaceutical science and then, the author’s opinion about pharmacist education to teach them efficiently.

Pharmacists are expected to identify and solve problems while performing their duties, build evidence through problem analysis, publish the results of their research activities, and make presentations at academic conferences. However, only a few clinical pharmacists engage in research activities and share practical knowledge from clinical settings. This study aimed to develop a pattern language for sharing this practical knowledge about research activities. A pattern language is created from verbalized evidence and shared knowledge using specific words obtained through mining interviews. After interviewing research-experienced pharmacists, twenty-nine language patterns across four categories and eight groups emerged. The categories were how to approach research, how to find research themes, how to develop a research environment, and how to interpret research results. The results of the pattern validity evaluation showed that the average percentage of individual patterns judged to be valid was 95.0%. This method appropriately supported verbalizing the pharmacists’ experiences from different work environments and ages into language patterns to encourage more research papers and presentations.

This study investigated pharmacy students’ knowledge of “Regulatory Science and Risk Management of Toxic Substances in Food”. Analysis of pre- and post-lecture surveys revealed improved students’ awareness of food safety and toxic substances, such as pesticides and pesticide residues. However, the results indicated that the understanding of risk assessment remained insufficient, particularly concerning the toxicity and intake levels of hazardous substances and their associated risks. The results also highlighted the need to improve risk communication. Therefore, pharmacy students should receive lectures on risk analysis in their early years of study. The study concluded that the inclusion of regulatory science in pharmacy education was an issue for the entire pharmacy field.

This study investigated the learning strategies employed by pharmacy students and their impact on academic performance, assessed through objective tests consisting of multiple-choice questions evaluating knowledge of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. A questionnaire survey and factor analysis revealed four learning strategies employed by the students. They were “Overview” of learning content, incorporation of “Daily-life” events, “Construction” of knowledge, and “Memorization” of discrete facts. Overview and Construction strategies align closely with the well-established deep-processing strategies, namely organizational strategy and elaboration strategy. Overview and Daily-life strategies positively correlate with Construction, while Memorization negatively correlates with the other three strategies. These correlations may reflect a difference between the deep-processing and shallow-processing strategies. The adoption of these learning strategies differed for the top performers and lower graders. The top performers exhibited a higher factor score in Construction than the lower graders, whereas the lower graders displayed a higher factor score in Memorization. Construction exhibited a weak but positive correlation with examination scores, while Memorization exhibited a corresponding negative correlation. Daily study hours were slightly longer for top performers; however, the difference was insufficient to conclude that learning hours were crucial for the differences in academic performance. These results underscore the influence of learning strategies on the academic performance of pharmacy students. Deep-processing strategies such as Overview and Construction hold more significant promise for improving their academic performance.

The 2022 revision of the Model Core Curriculum for Pharmacy Education called for a fundamental review of clinical pharmacy education. This study analyzed the contents of clinical pharmacy education at universities regarding prescription inquiries and the provision of passive information from the perspective of hospital ward pharmacists. The most typical inquiries concerning prescriptions were drug dosage and administration, drug selection, and test recommendations in that order. Regarding passive information, physicians consulted pharmacists about appropriate drug selection, dosage, and administration, whereas nurses consulted about compounding changes and administration methods. Previous studies reported that most inquiries were related to drug usage and dosage, but this study found many inquiries were also about drug selection and test recommendations. These findings suggested that pharmacists are viewed as professionals working for people, not only with objects. The results also reinforced the necessity of emphasizing medical terminology and communication exercises in the earlier years of study and strengthening education through case studies and interprofessional collaboration for clinical pharmacy practice in the latter years.

This study aimed to enhance pharmacy students’ ability to assist elderly patients through active learning by using an interactive simulation program at MP University. The 374 students who participated in the simulation experienced the roles of a “patient”, “caregiver”, and “observer”. The students first discussed methods of resolving potentially difficult situations with the elderly. Then, they used role play in various contexts involving posture, walking, vision, hearing, standing up, and walking up and down stairs. Based on these experiences, they described practical approaches to unexpected events that the elderly may encounter daily, especially if there are multiple disabilities or unpredictable behavior. This simulation activity, combined with active learning discussions and problem-solving, improved the pharmacy students’ skills in assisting and caring for the elderly.

In pharmaceutical education, the current practical training program to understand roles of pharmacists in the comprehensive community health care system and the uneven distribution of pharmacists is insufficient. We conducted an original educational program named “Practice of Community Health Care and Pharmacy I”, which included fieldwork, for 15 first-year pharmacy students at Wakayama Medical University aimed at understanding the uneven distribution of pharmacists. The overall satisfaction with the practice (0–100%) was assessed through a satisfaction survey. The usefulness of the practice was evaluated using a questionnaire based on the self-evaluation score (average of six questions, 1–4 points each) asking “Can you explain about community health care and uneven distribution?” The satisfaction was 78.0 ± 8.0% (mean ± standard deviation). After the practice, the self-evaluation scores increased significantly from 1.5 ± 0.3 points to 3.0 ± 0.3 points (mean ± standard deviation). In the students’ practice reports, words such as “pharmacy”, “medical care”, “pharmacist”, and “community” were found to be relevant. The results suggest that practice helps students to understand community health care and uneven distribution of pharmacists. Additionally, a fieldwork may be effective to bring awareness among students about the uneven distribution of pharmacists.