[Study on the history of exchange in pharmaceutical science between Japan and Korea after the Modern period: focus on Korean students sent to Japan with expenses funded by the Japanese government].

According to an old historical text, Nihonshoki [Chinese and Korean characters: see text]), there are records of medical doctors ([Chinese and Korean characters: see text]) and herbal pharmacists ([Chinese and Korean characters: see text]) being dispatched to Japan as early as 554 A.D. ([Chinese and Korean characters: see text]). More recently, a clinic ([Chinese and Korean characters: see text]) for Japanese residents in Pusan was established in 1877. Advanced modern pharmacy from Japan began to be introduced to Korea after 1909. Based on an agreement between the Korean and Japanese governments, Korean students sent to Japan with expenses funded by the Japanese government became a systematic program after 1965. As a result, Koreans who earned Ph.D.s from Japanese universities became a majority in the faculties of Korean schools of pharmacy. However, this trend drastically shifted in the years after 1990, at which time the primary nation for earning Ph.D.s became the United States; the number of students studying in Japan has become very low recently. In this study, six ex-students who studied in Japan were interviewed and the results were analyzed. Furthermore, the past, present and future perspectives of Korean students in Japan were discussed while focusing on the system of Korean students being sent to Japan with expenses funded by the Japanese government.