University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan

The University of Occupational and Environmental Health (UOEH), Japan is a private university in the city of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture.

It is the only medical university that is specifically geared towards training occupational physicians and occupational healthcare physicians.

UOEH was founded in 1978 under the enactment of the Industrial Safety and Health Act of 1972, which ruled that every company over a certain size is obliged to appoint a physician to manage worker healthcare.

UOEH trains occupational physicians and conducts research related to medical science, nursing science and other healthcare sciences, as well as promoting the medical, nursing and healthcare sciences that are relevant to the working environment and workers’ health.

The university consists of undergraduate schools of medicine and health sciences, and the graduate school of medical science.

There is also the Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences. the Facility for Education and Research Support and two hospitals. Other centres include the Centre for Gender Equality Promotion, the Occupational Health Data Science Centre, the Centre for Stress-related Disease Control and Prevention, the Animal Research Center, the Radioisotope Research Center, and the Headquarters of the Academic-Industrial Alliance and Intellectual Properties.

The International Center, established in 2012, aims at “leading the global community adhering to university principles and promoting its functions”. This involves organising internal exchanges and includes 16 students of the graduate school of medical science, as well as seven faculty and staff. The majority of these people are from China.