Practicing Physicians

In the MHLW's statistics, the number of physicians is categorized into "total number" and the nnumber engaged in medical facilities. The total number is the total number of physicians with medical licnese, of which those working in hospitals and clinics are counted as the number working in medical facilities. Other categories are "those working in healthcare facilities for the elderly," "those working in facilities other than medical facilities and healthcare facilities for the elderly," "others," "unemployed" and "unknown."

In short, "those working in medical facilities" can be understood to be practical physicians who examine patients in hospitals. It will serve as the base data for comparing the number of physicians.

In terms of the number of physicians:

Total number of physicians: 277,927
Number of practicing clinicians: 263,540

According to Wikipedia,

"Clinical" is a term used mainly in medical practice such as medicine and dentistry, and is used to mean "medical practice" or "(site) (area) where medicine is practiced."
In other words, it refers to the actual practice of medicine and this area of study is called "clinical." It is an academic field in which patients are actually treated. In comparison, fundamental studies are handled in the "fundamental" area.

The distribution is practically the same as the Number of Physicians. Please refer to Number of Physicians for the reasons for the high-west low-east distribution.