Research Ethics

Establishing research ethics as a focus of scholarly research and putting research ethics into practice

The Research Ethics group conducts research and develops educational programs regarding the ethics of biomedical research involving human subjects. Current research topics include (1) ethical use of human materials, (2) methodology for assessing risk/benefit ratios in research, and (3) ethical issues raised by randomized controlled trials. The section also provides training programs in research ethics for students and researchers working in biomedical science, and gives advice to those engaged in research involving human subjects.

Clinical Ethics Consultation

Establishing clinical ethics consultation as an area of scholarly research and putting it into practice

The Clinical Ethics Consultation group works to train personnel able to give advice on ethical, legal, and psychosocial problems that arise in clinical practice settings. For the purpose of solving various ethical problems, our staff aims to establish “clinical ethics consultations” as an integral component of applied clinical ethics, and engages in various educational and research activities including (1) research on clinical ethics and clinical ethics consultations, (2) development of educational programs on clinical ethics consultations (e.g., running seminars on regular basis), (3) practice of clinical ethics consultation in collaboration with Patient Relations and Clinical Ethics Center inside the University of Tokyo Hospital.

Public Policy

Creating a think-tank that contributes to the development of public policy in biomedical ethics

The Public Policy group responds to the various ethical, legal and social issues that arise as policy problems in medicine and the biosciences, and considers them in their international and historical context. “Public policy and biomedical ethics” is a new field in public policy, still in the process of development in Japan. The field reflects upon and learns from past events and cases, and aims at the maintenance of social order as well as the sound and sustainable development of science and medicine. The group tries to make contributions to policy developments both in Japan and abroad, by disseminating information and providing professional knowledge and opinions on issues which we think the larger society needs to be aware of.

GABEX (Global Alliance of Biomedical Ethics Centers)

Collaborating with the world’s leading centers of biomedical ethics

GABEX is an international network of the world’s major research institutions in the field including the Hastings Center, National Institute of Health, University of Pennsylvania, and Case Western Reserve University (USA), the University of Oxford (UK), University of Bergen (Norway), Monash University (Australia), National University of Singapore (Singapore), and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany). GABEX aims at the establishment of an international standard of education and research in biomedical ethics, and promotes study abroad research opportunities for promising young researchers.

International Fellowship Program

Our international fellowship program is part of the GABEX project. We provide young scholars at the University of Tokyo with an opportunity to study abroad and conduct research under the guidance of leading experts at GABEX associated research centers. We also accept young researchers from foreign countries as project researchers here at the University of Tokyo.