Press translations [Japan]. Social Series 0066, 1945-12-06.

Summary:

A private inquiry office was opened two months ago in the Public Prosecutor's Office and attached to the NAGASAKI District Court in order to settle various local appeals and complaints. It is interesting to note the type of matters which have been dealt with there during the past two months.

According to the investigation made by the Public Prosecutor UEDA, the majority of complaints were civil cases, and very few criminal cases. Among the various cases were complaints regarding the procedure in family inheritance. These were most numerous, amounting to 50 per cent of all cases. It was also noticed that oral complaints outnumbered written ones. Here are some examples:

A woman complains that "my husband was killed in an air raid, However, I don't want to leave the insurance money at the disposal of my daughter-in-law, lest she misuse it. Yet I want my daughter-in-law to receive the interest from the insurance money. What shall I do about it? All questions are given proper replies.

In regards to criminal cases, the complaints against the Heads of Neighborhood Group Association and Neighborhood Association, demanding clarification in the disposal of distributed goods, are the most prominent. Against such criminal cases, the judicial authorities are taking immediate action. On the whole, in the majority of the cases handled there were many cases in which the people, while not willing to take legal action, would accept a suitable settlement. In this connection the official in charge stated his opinion, thusly, "We don't want the people to make any false charges or slander, but we welcome those who seek our advice to settle their problems."

Summary:

The present system of the National Health Insurance Association is far from being satisfactory for elevating the standard of national health for JAPAN. The TOKUSHIMA SHIEBUN has collected some comments from provincial people concerned on the improvement of the Association's management. The members of the Association, including village heads and provincial city authorities, complain of the unfair treatment to patients by doctors.

A certain member says that one is [illegible] [illegible]med to present the insurance certificate to the information office of a hospital because the

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nurses are scornful of the insured person. The patients should all be members of the Association.

Another says that he never hesitates to see doctors and to present the certificate because he thinks that it is the aim of the Association to help one another regardless of economic status.

Town mayors and village headmen, as members of the Association, propose the nationalization of the Association's s management. As the first step in this regard half the amount of the expenditure should be subsidized. An extreme opinion of some members is that this present Association is so inefficient and mismanaged that it should be totally abolished and replaced by a completely new Association in accordance with the democratic trend of the time. The medical employees of the Association deny the unfair treatment or unkindness by doctors and say that the present capitalistic system of the Association is to be blamed. For instance, the price of medicines, 22 sen per item, was officially decreed about the time when one koku of rice cost only 20 yen. Although the price of an operation was officially limited to 50 yen, a 20 yen bundle of charcoal and a 10 yen bottle of alcohol are necessary. Gauze must be bought at black market rates. There is no special food ration for the unusual length in working hours, extending through night and day. With all this, doctors have to be content with only the patients' gratitude.

Provincial Affairs Office (CHIHO JIMUSHO) states that, in order to provide a perfect medical institute, several towns or villages commtined should establish a co-operative hospital, and the medical fees should be raised, according to the increase shown in present prices.

TOKUSHIMA Prefectural Welfare Section has sent a man to the Welfare Ministry to discuss improvement and to ascertain the official decision, not yet published, of raising the prices of medicine from 30 sen to 35 sen per item.

The Prefectural Sanitation Section, which is responsible for the distribution of medicines and medical materials, states that complaints by doctors against unfair distribution are groundless. Unusual efforts have been made to obtain for TOKUSHIMA Prefecture an allotment valued as much as 1,000,000 yen, out of 10,000,000 yen for the whole of JAPAN.

The allotment as made not only to doctor a but to all pharmaceutical stores, and there is no help for the fact that the allotment to each individual doctor naturally does not amount to much. The proposal of some sectors is that the allotment should, be made according to the amount a doctor uses, regardless of the number of patients. However, it is more reasonable to think that the more patients a doctor has, the more his need for the medicine.

Full Translation:

Dr. UCHIDA, Syozo, president of the TOKYO Imperial University, desiring to aim in the reconstruction of the University, which must be reformed along democratic lines under a new president formally

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expressed his intention of resigning at the faculty head conference held on 24 November. University authorities then decided to nominate MINAMIHARA, Shigeru, head, professor of the Law Department, NASU, Hiroshi, professor in the Agricultural Department, and Professor Emeritus TERAZAWA, Kanichi, ex-head of the Science Department, as candidates for president at the Presidential Candidates Recommendation Committee meeting, held on 4 December. This is the first election of a president since President [illegible]was elected in 1934.

The presidential election of the Imperial University has been abolished long since the time of Militaristic Education Minister ARAKI, and from that time on the freedom and independence of the University has been restricted. Both Dr. HIRAGA and Dr. UCHIDA had been appointed president, of the TOKYO Imperial University by the directive of the Education Minister who, for the sake of formality, consulted the University's professors concerning the choice. But how, the election of the president will be performed along independent lines by the University. The result of the current election will be influenced by the vote of the Engineering and Medical Departments, which hove a majority of professors in the Universi[illegible]. Among the three candidates, Professor MINAMIHARA, it is said, will be selected because he is a man in tune with the times. Meanwhile, the four universities, excepting these of TOHOKU, OSAKA and NAGOYA, will be able to go on with their reconstruction under the guidance of the new president.

Summary:

The SEO Surgical Section of the CHIBA medical University, which was awarded the 1944 ASAHI Prize for their history-making artery injection, has now completed another research into the effective treatment of sporadic necrosis (TN: gangrene), asthma, angina pectoris (TN: stricture of the heart), and high blood pressure, by extracting the carotid artery.

The carotid artery, as small as a fraction of one grain of rice, had caused some attraction as a part of internal treatment, having been considered as a safeguard in chemically adjusting respiration and blood circulation, but surgically, it had never been considered very significant. Professor SEO, who has experimented with the extraction of this small organ from a patient with an adventitious (sporadic) gangrene, discovered quite unexpectedly a marvelous method for relieving the violent pain. There have been further definite discoveries that the operation cures 100 per cent of all gangrene cases, 70 or 80 per cent of high blood pressure, heart stricture, neurosis and some asthma cases. Professor SEO said that the artery was regarded as an organ which had some function in blood circulation only. His experiments aimed at the therapeutic effects, and the results showed some very unusual phases, which had never come to the attention of Western medical scholars.

On every occasion of this interesting operation, the medical officers of the UNITED STATES at CHIBA went to the University for observation and have already made reports to their medical circles at home. The University people ore not yet satisfied with the success they have attained, and they are still working on the further details of the cure.

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