Noriko Katayama

The Oxford Uehiro St Cross Visiting Programme (2025)

Joining us from: Japan

​Recognised Student - Philosophy (2025)

I am originally from Japan and am currently pursuing a PhD in Death and Life Studies and Practical Ethics at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, the University of Tokyo.

I am a registered nurse with experience in psychiatric and intensive care, and I have also worked at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and at the Japanese Nursing Association.

This year I am spending time in Oxford as a Uehiro Scholar at St Cross College and as a Recognised Student at the Uehiro Oxford Institute. My doctoral thesis examines how violence by patients against healthcare professionals comes to be recognised – or overlooked – as a social and ethical problem in contemporary Japan, and what this reveals about changing ideas of patients’ rights, professional responsibility, and the ethics of care.

I hope to develop a relational account of responsibility in healthcare that protects both patients’ autonomy and the safety and dignity of staff. Given that this issue has become an international concern, I also wish to understand how the Japanese situation compares with that of other countries. In this regard, the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford, where cutting-edge work in practical ethics and related fields is taking place, is truly unparalleled.

I am deeply grateful to the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education for making it possible for me to spend this year in Oxford. The Scholarship has enabled me to learn from and engage closely with international experts in practical ethics and broader interdisciplinary fields, and to lay the foundations for an English-language doctoral thesis and future publications that can connect Japanese debates with global discussions. In the long term, I hope this work will help to improve working conditions in healthcare and to sustain compassionate, trustworthy relationships between patients and those who care for them around the world.