Impact of Japan's 2024 Physician Work-Style Reform on Pediatric Hematology-Oncology: Educational…

Cross-sectionalPediatric blood & cancer· Aug 2026

Impact of Japan's 2024 Physician Work-Style Reform on Pediatric Hematology-Oncology: Educational Implications in a 2-Year Survey.

Kiyohiko Kaizu, Masaharu Akiyama, Toshikazu Itabashi … Takahiro Ueda

Pediatric Hematology & OncologyCross-sectionalClinical practiceQ1IF 1.7

More than a third of pediatric hematology-oncology units reported education or research affected

Impact of Japan's 2024 Physician Work-Style Reform on Pediatric Hematology-Oncology: Educational Implications in a 2-Year Survey.

Kiyohiko Kaizu … Takahiro Ueda

Pediatric blood & cancer · Aug 2026 · Q1 in Pediatrics

Background

Japan's 2024 physician work-style reform introduced legally binding limits on physicians' working hours, but its impact on education and workforce sustainability in pediatric hematology-oncology (pediatric hematology-oncology) remains unclear.

Methods

We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study with structured quantitative items and free-text responses.

37.1%

Results

37.1%

over a third of programs said research or education suffered

More results

In 2023, 15/27 (55.6%) participants anticipated that medical services would be affected by the 2024 work-style reform; in 2024, 4/35 (11.4%) participants reported services were affected (29/35, 82.9% not affected; 2/35, 5.7% unsure).

More results

In 2024, the main implementation problems were physician shortages (28/35, 80.0%) and limited task shifting or sharing (23/35, 65.7%).

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Although the reform was perceived to have limited immediate disruption of clinical services in 2024, a substantial minority of institutional representatives reported adverse effects on research or education and pervasive structural barriers.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

These perceived impacts on this specialist educational field warrant monitoring to safeguard future workforce capacity.

Impact of Japan's 2024 Physician Work-Style Reform on Pediatric Hematology-Oncology: Educational Implications in a 2-Year Survey.

Impact of Japan's 2024 Physician Work-Style Reform on Pediatric Hematology-Oncology: Educational Implications in a 2-Year Survey.

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