Shigeaki Hinohara Chairman of the Board of Trustees

The nature and delivery of medical care has changed dramatically over the last hundred years, and we are proud of the contributions St. Luke’s International Hospital has made to improve public health.

St. Luke’s International Hospital began in 1902 as a small clinic in Tsukiji, Tokyo, founded by Rudolph Bolling Teusler, a missionary doctor sent by the American Episcopal Church. It has since grown into one of the premier general hospitals in Japan.

The general hospital was built in 1933 as the finest in Asia, and included at that time an intern program. In 1920, a nursing training school was established in affiliation with the hospital, which eventually became St. Luke’s Nursing School in 1927, the only school in Japan to provide nursing education. After World War II, the nursing school was turned into a junior college, then later, a four year college in 1964. This institution ultimately became St. Luke’s College of Nursing, which is accredited to provide graduate studies.

St. Luke’s International Hospital provides holistic care for every patient under the Christian spirit of compassion, and is a model facility for training post-graduate interns and nurses, as well as for training other medical professionals. The current hospital, in which all rooms are private, was built in 1992. In cooperation with the Emergency Medical Care Center, the Center for Preventive Medicine and the Clinical R&D Center of St. Luke’s Life Sciences Laboratory, a special public service foundation, the hospital practices clinical medicine as well as nursing research and education, and is expanding toward its ultimate goal of becoming the "Mayo Clinic of Japan".

We have come a long way, and we anticipate even greater contributions in the future. We hope this Web site provides a glimpse of the vision and spirit that continues to guide our journey of service.

Tsuguya Fukui, M.D., M.P.H. President

Our ultimate calling as medical professionals is to care for each patient. We endeavor to alleviate the pain of those who are ill, prolong their lives and to minimize or eliminate the incidence of preventable diseases whenever possible. All of us engaged in this profession strive to continuously study and research ongoing innovations in order to enhance our clinical competencies and offer the highest level of service to our patients.

For over a century, St. Luke's International Hospital has spared no effort in our commitment to this call of service and to contributing to the development of medicine in Japan. Our contributions include the hospital's integrated, leading-edge medical practices provided by specialty and subspecialty departments.

We offer professional development with post-graduate clinical training for doctors and graduate-level education for nurses. Additionally, St. Luke's has pioneered the field with specialized technical services and hospital administration focusing on individualized care.

Our actions give concrete form to the mission statement expressed by Dr. Rudolf B. Teusler, the founder of St. Luke's: "This hospital is a living organism designed to demonstrate in convincing terms the transmuting power of Christian love when applied in relief of human suffering." By sensitively responding to the emerging changes in patient needs and social trends, the hospital itself is dramatically evolving and growing into its mission.

The entire staff at St. Luke's is a collaborative team. We are dedicated to directing our collective energy and resources to providing each patient with holistic, advanced and evidence-based medical care in a compassionate manner.