In October 2002 we at the Bioinformatics Center of Kyoto University and the Human Genome Center of the University of Tokyo initiated a bioinformatics education program, "Education and Research Organization for Genome Information Science", supported by the special coordination fund of the Japanese Ministry of Education. This graduate education program is based on a new curriculum laid down by the Japanese Society for Bioinformatics earlier that year, which aims at defining bioinformatics as a well-structured discipline integrating not only biological science and computer science, but also parts of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Since then advanced courses have been given twice a week using the video conferencing system between Kyoto and Tokyo, and they are also available as a video library accessible over the Web. This advanced education has produced highly trained specialists who are now working at international locations.
  Since 2004 we have expanded our education program to meet the needs of non-specialists, first as the bioinformatics minor in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Kyoto University, then as practical courses that are open to public, and eventually as a revised curriculum of the Japanese Society for Bioinformatics. Even in such non-specialist education our aim has been not simply to give a practical guide to the databases and computational tools currently available, but also to offer a conceputal guide to understanding life as an information system. In April 2007, after the current funding ends, the education program for both specialists and non-specialists will be continued and expanded as a joint venture between the Bioinformatics Center and a new Division to be established in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Kyoto University.