Abstract

Until late 19th century, Japanese health care was closely tied to medical practices that migrated from China. Herbal preparations and poultices, external physical manipulations, moxibustion, astrology, divining procedures, shamanism, and appealing to ancestors and deities were all methods for dealing with illness. The focus on preventive care left the Japanese population with little help in times of severe trauma. To solve this problem, the Japanese government advanced Western emergency medicine as the model for health care and medical practice in Japan.¹ More recently, the Japanese propensity to resolve health and spiritual concerns with multiple religious and medical approaches has allowed the re-incorporation of traditional practices. Japan is now experiencing rapid technological, social, economic and demographic changes that affect how the government funds and how clinicians provide, medical care. Western medical technology and practices are the norm in Japan but the early religious influences remain. The concepts and world views that are strong in the population are affiliation with the spirit world; regard for family and ancestors; concepts of a vital life force and pollution; diffuse location of self and personhood in relation to the body and the social structure; and karma, life, and death as a process rather than a set of events. These ideas will be a part of Japanese experience of health care in the foreseeable future.