Masui. The Japanese journal of anesthesiology
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An incorrect Japanese terminology of "Masuigaku [symbol: see text]" has been used widely to express "anesthesiology" or "anaesthetics" [symbol: see text] since the first Department of Anesthesiology was established in Tokyo University in 1952. The reason why the nomenclature "Masui-gaku" is wrong is as follows: Japanese nomenclatures for clinical medical sciences should include a Chinese character "Ka [symbol: see text]" such as "nai-ka-gaku" for internal medicine, "ge-ka-gaku" for surgery and "gan-ka-gaku" for ophthalmology. Accordingly the name "Masui-gaku" is erroneous to mean "Anesthesiology" and it should be "Masui-ka-gaku" [symbol: see text]. ⋯ Most people consider that "Ma [symbol: see text]" is originated from "[symbol: see text] (Hemp, Asa)" or "[symbol: see text] (Marihuana, Taima)", however, this is definitely incorrect and "Ma [symbol: see text]" of "Ma-sui" has no direct relation with the pharmacological effect of hemp. Thus the misuse of "Masui-ga-ku" might have caused serious academic and social confusions, such as misunderstanding of anesthesiologists as comedical technicians, leading to a poor social acceptance of anesthesiology and anesthesiologists for these fifty years in Japan. To correct this confused situation I would like to ask our colleagues to use correctly these nomenclatures.