HUAP Networks
Gen Kato
President, Daktari Animal Hospital
Affiliate Faculty Member and Ambassador to Japan, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University
Ever since my graduation, I have noticed a lack of both the clinical sciences and organized veterinary medicine throughout Asia due to poor education and training methods, but a substantial amount of interactions among 17 veterinary colleges here in Japan. To help reduce this gap, over the last half century I visited major veterinary colleges, veterinary related facilities, and outstanding veterinary practices in the world to establish curriculums, methods, and layouts for state-of-the-art veterinary medicine, established human-human bonds with faculties and veterinarians, founded the Japanese Animal Hospital Association following the standard of American Animal Hospital Association, and organized CE seminars through the Japanese Animal Hospital Association. I also introduced U.S-style veterinary medicine to Japan and the Asian region by translating a number of American veterinary textbooks in each veterinary discipline, particularly “Kirk’s Current Veterinary Therapy Ⅳ” and “Bojrab’s Current Techniques in Small Animal SurgeryⅠ”. At the same time, I advocated the importance of honoring the Human-Animal-Nature Bond, which includes preserving the Earth’s environment.
Now, as I have reached a certain age, I have begun to think that I must contribute something for the rest of my life to my alma mater HU, where I became DVM. As a result of my work, in March and July 2017 an MOU signing ceremony between HU, Osaka Prefecture University, and internationally -known veterinary college CSU was concluded with support from the Gen Kato Fund. The fund was established to construct an ‘open and fair to everyone’ training program to foster real specialists following the AVMA-standard veterinary medicine in Japan, and to give learning opportunities for American-standard veterinary medicine to Japanese and any Asian undergraduates, graduates, and junior and senior faculties, who should be responsible for the future of global veterinary medicine as ‘One Health, One Medicine’.
The title of an Ambassador was consequently an honor for me that I have always wanted. I will work to deserve this title by implementing and expanding mutual opportunities for education and research not only for veterinary medicine, but also to human medicine, engineering and other disciplines to create a global veterinary society.