Philipp Franz B. von Siebold was sent to Nagasaki in 1823 to act as a physician on Dejima. A graduate of the University of Würzburg, he is credited with bringing Western medicine to Japan and also sent many plants and animal specimens to Leiden, where they are currently held at many institutions in, including the Japan Museum SieboldHuis and Leiden University. Due to a shared history through Siebold, the University of Würzburg, Japan Museum SieboldHuis, and Leiden University are all partner institutions of Nagasaki University today.

Based on this history and the agreements which were signed with these organizations, the Nagasaki University School of Medicine has established the “Nagasaki University Medical Research Fund” (NUMF) scholarship since 2020 to host researchers in Nagasaki in order to further promote exchange among researchers.

After the coronavirus outbreak, the NUMF began accepting researchers in 2022 and has accepted Ms. Yuan Boonacker of Leiden University for 2024. Her research, conducted with supervision from Professor Nagata, included the “analysis of biological, psychological and social models using health check-up data and long-term care insurance receipt data in remote island areas.”

From left: Prof Nagata, Ms. Boonacker and Prof. Ikematsu, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine

Visit to Dr. Takeshima, Director of Goto General Hospital, where the University’s Institute for Remote Islands Medicine is based

Prof. Nagata and Ms. Boonacker on a house call