Supporting Students Aiming to Become Perinatal Care Specialists

Babies are part of everyone’s everyday life

Supporting Students Aiming to Become Perinatal Care Specialists

Japan

Given Japan’s declining birth rate, preserving and increasing the availability of obstetric and pediatric medical care is an important challenge. Establishing a social environment where anyone can give birth and raise children with peace of mind is an urgent necessity.

On Japan’s medical frontlines in particular, the grave shortage of doctors specializing in neonatal, pediatric, and obstetric care has become a major issue for society.

Establishing the Pigeon Foundation to Support Doctors Involved in Perinatal Care

To address these issues, Pigeon established the Pigeon Foundation in 2014 (reincorporated as a Public Interest Corporation in July 2016).

Since its establishment, the foundation has provided scholarships to medical students aiming to specialize in obstetric, neonatal, or pediatric care.

Beyond Financial Support: Building Lifelong Networks

Not only does the Pigeon Foundation offer financial support, it also holds social gatherings for scholarship recipients.

Because there are only a few medical students choose to work toward these specializations, it can be hard for them to find others with similar aspirations in their university, leaving them with no one to exchange information with. The Pigeon Foundation’s social gatherings are a valuable opportunity for scholarship recipients to build their network—both horizontally, with students at other universities who share similar professional aspirations, and vertically, with doctors already involved in perinatal care and serving as foundation trustees and judges, as well as graduates from the Pigeon Foundation’s programs now working as residents in perinatal care. The networks that members build today will serve them well in the future.

We believe that this activity will help resolve the shortage of perinatal care specialists, one of the causes of Japan’s declining birth rates, and eventually help create a society where anyone can give birth and raise children with peace of mind. We will continue working toward the goal of “Babies are part of everyone’s everyday life” outlined in our Vision of a Baby-Friendly Future.

2024.04