About
Yuji Kumon is a physician, public health researcher, and interdisciplinary artist based in the Kansai region of Japan. His work explores how health, society, and everyday life intersect through medicine, public health, and art. After training in medicine, an encounter with art in New York led him to begin his artistic practice, which later developed through graduate study in painting and drawing in Chicago. He later pursued public health, focusing on social determinants of health and health equity. Working across artistic production, clinical practice, and public health, Kumon’s recent work explores everyday life, social isolation, dignity and indignity, and the tensions between individuals and society, often revealing contradictions and the ways vulnerability and resilience coexist in everyday life. His practice brings together clinical experience, public health perspectives, and artistic inquiry to reflect on the conditions that shape human life, care, and well-being.
Research
Kumon is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Social Epidemiology at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine. While continuing to practice as a physician and pursue his work as an artist, he is enrolled as a working student, building on research he began during his master’s studies. His research focuses on social prescribing — an approach that connects people experiencing social isolation to community-based activities and resources — with a particular interest in both domestic and international evidence. He also examines health disparities and healthcare access among older adults and foreign residents in Japan, situated within the broader framework of the Social Determinants of Health (SDH). Drawing on his background in clinical medicine and artistic practice, he approaches these questions through both empirical research and lived experience.