Kagoshima: Young Doctor Return to Work on Home Island; Aims to Support Islanders at Home of ‘Dr. Coto’s Clinic’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:26 JST, May 31, 2025&

SATSUMA-SENDAI, Kagoshima — A doctor started working at a clinic on Shimokoshiki Island, which lies off the western coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, in April.

The clinic, Shimokoshiki Teuchi Shinryojo, was the model for a medical facility in the popular manga “Dr. Coto Shinryojo” (“Dr. Coto’s Clinic”).

Shin Hashino, 34, comes from the island, which is one of the Koshiki Islands. When he was in junior high school, he realized he wanted to work to support medical care on the island.

The Satsuma-Sendai municipal government in 2008 established a financial aid program with the aim of ensuring there are health care professionals working on the Koshiki Islands. The scholarship provides the recipients with up to ¥150,000 per month as a loan. If a recipient becomes a doctor, he or she is exempted from repaying the loan if they work at a medical facility on the Koshiki Islands for at least three years.

Hashino used this system and studied medicine at Kagoshima University. After receiving clinical training, he became the first recipient of the scholarship to return to the Koshiki Islands as a doctor.

The Koshiki islands contains three inhabited islands — Kamikoshiki, Nakakoshiki and Shimokoshiki. Combined, there are four clinics with only five resident doctors, including Hashino, on the islands. Since there is not enough medical equipment, high-level medical procedures, such as cardiac catheterization and brain surgeries, cannot be performed at those clinics.

Hashino is determined to encourage his fellow islanders to take good care of themselves and prevent disease so that their health problems will not grow more severe.

“I’ll find out what I am lacking and become a doctor that people on the island find it easy to talk to and receive consultations from,” Hashino said.