Medical Pharmacy, as an objective of pharmaceutical education, was the driving force in the reform of the Japanese pharmacists? education carried out in 2004.　On the website of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, it states that we must extend the pharmaceutical education term with the objectives of developing medical technology and promoting the separation of the dispensary from the medical clinic. However, these objectives are not explained sufficiently. There are four main contentions with this reform of education.　First is whether students should study this area in a bachelor's or a master's course. Second is what pharmacists should be. Third is when and whom should receive the examinees' qualification. Fourth is whether pharmaceutical education equals education of pharmacists or not. These contentions had been discussed for a long period, but medical pharmacy was more important than these contentions. In other words, the basis of the reform was medical pharmacy, and answers to these contentions were decided by achievements of medical pharmacy. What is medical pharmacy?　It was an ideology of the pharmacists' action group of United States origin, and it came under the influence of trends of medicine, for example, patient-oriented care and cooperation among medical staff. Verification of the contribution of medical pharmacy to the reform of the Japanese pharmacists' education may suggest factors of change in pharmacists in recent years.　Moreover, it will provide a clue to solve the social meaning of the pharmacist.