We have been holding a series of events called “Find-Your-Role-Model” Sessions to provide students with opportunities to interact with alumni and global leaders in healthcare sciences. Through these roundtable-style, informal events, we hope students will find role models to help facilitate their career development and become future global leaders.
 

      We are pleased to welcome Dr. Ken Akimoto, an alum of the School of Dentistry of Science Tokyo’s predecessor TMDU, Diplomate of the American Academy of Periodontology, and Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, to speak at this FYRM Session. 
      After graduating from the School of Dentistry in 1989, Dr. Akimoto entered the Graduate Program in Periodontics at the University of Washington in the US in 1995, where he engaged in clinical training and research on implants and the tissues that compose the periodontium. He completed the program in 1998 and earned a Master of Science in Dentistry (MSD). In 2000, he became a board-certified periodontist by the American Academy of Periodontology.
      Dr. Akimoto went on to practice clinical periodontology and implant dentistry in Tokyo before moving to Bellevue, Washington, in 2003. Since 2007, he has served as an affiliate assistant professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Periodontology. In 2012, he relocated his practice to Issaquah, Washington, where he continues to provide clinical care. Alongside his clinical work, Dr. Akimoto delivers talks and presentations on periodontal disease and oral implantology both in Japan and around the world.

Topics

Career background
・Dr. Akimoto’s career to date; his vision of the future of healthcare; what motivated him to enter this field; key career decisions and influences

Current and upcoming activities
・Current and planned projects in the US and Japan

Dental care and education in Japan vs. the United States
・Perspectives on the differences in dental education in Japan and the United States, including the idiosyncrasies caused by their respective insurance systems and attitudes toward dentistry among students and the public