Future of Kampo

Young, Jaqueline Text

The awareness of Kampo medicine has risen recently and is now being incorporated into the curricula in many medical universities.  The presence of Kampo medicine continues to be an effective treatment for patients with various diseases and illnesses to restore the balance of ki.  Some examples include women with premenstrual symptoms (also known as oketsu or suidoku) and patients with stress disorders (kiroshi).  In addition, the contribution of TCM has been influential to Kampo because it has helped to find what part of the body needs treatment and to find what type of herbal medicine works to treat symptoms.  However, one of the disadvantages to Kampo treatment is due to the fact that it is based from a traditional approach and cannot be decided by modern medical diagnosis. There is a need for further research to investigate Kampo medicine by using appropriate research strategies and methods.  In one case study, participants recruited had a wide range of diseases or disorders.  This meant selectively choosing prescription formulas based on the traditional method.  The results demonstrate that there needs to be many kinds of placebos prepared because it differs from western medicine (Yamada 2006, 802).  Kampo is increasingly being integrated within Japanese health-care and in the West.  Kampo is a very complex and individualized, with a long traditional history that suggests that further research is needed. 

In order to understand Kampo medicine, we must understand the concept of efficacy within traditional medicine.  According to James B. Waldrom, professor at the University of Saskatchewan, he argues that there is no singular way to look at efficacy and that restrictive definition and the blind application of biomedical standards damage our ability to comprehend both traditional medicine and the healing aspects of biomedicine (Waldrom 2000, 604).  Meaning there is narrow-mindedness about using different approaches to heal illnesses and diseases especially within the construction of determining efficacy.  Defining efficacy also associates to our construction with the word traditional medicine.  Traditional may often be vulnerable to colonizing influences with biomedicine and labeled as “ethnomedicine” (Waldrom 2000, 603).



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You will notice that there are changes to Kampo “traditional” healing rituals after adapting to TCM and modern medicine.  Waldrom argues that “we need to better conceptualize how these various measure of efficacy relate to and affect each other within both cultural and temporal contexts,” and also be aware “that the definition of efficacy itself is not fixed” (Waldrom 2000, 619).  In other words, efficacy can be seen as fluid or shifting.  Kampo is efficacious in the sense that it has slowly changed its ritual healing in order to adapt to cultural and social changes to help treat patients.  As a result, there are advantages and disadvantages to a specific type of treatment which suggests that it may be best to incorporate a multiplicity of medical systems.

Tsumura, Akira Text

Clinical efficacies of TCM and Western medicine have been influential due to evidence-based medicine.  “Evidence-based medicine is the integration of the best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values” (Yu 2005, 235).  Between TCM and Kampo, both have different characteristics between evidence-based medicines.  TCM emphasizes on the experience combination with evidence while Kampo emphasizes from clinical and laboratory studies.  They both value differently to prove that their therapy is effective.  Because traditional medicine is more focused on the “healing” process rather than “curing” the patient, the “golden” standard has influentially expanded the use of traditional formulas by studying them more closely in clinical and laboratory studies.  Healing is a process “[that] is best understood as involving a possible myriad of phases or stages through which varying determinations of efficacy may be made, perhaps with ever changing criteria and definitions of efficacy” (Waldrom 2000, 611).  Therefore, it is a challenge to understand the efficacy of Kampo medicine because it is so individualized and complex.



Young, Jacqueline text

 Kampo represents a complementary alternative to modern medicine because of its distinct focus of the “whole body.”  The ancient system of Kampo was using herbal teas as its main traditional healing practice (Rister 2002, 99).  However, Kampo formulas in Japan are now tested in the laboratory and sometimes controlled in clinical studies.  Kampo formulas are now available as patent medicine such as tablets, powders, and instant drinks (Rister 2002, 11).  They are also manufactured to specific standards that symbolize purity, quality, and safety.  This suggests that Kampo is recognized as a “high class medicine” within Japanese health-care (Rister 2002, 100).  Many people use Kampo products because of their trust and safety of its manufacturing.  In addition, “the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare must certify every Kampo product manufactures in Japans as safe and effective” (Rister 2002, 102).  The control and use of Kampo formulas lies in the hands of the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare and no one else.  Their decisions will reflect the future of Kampo.




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  The awareness of Kampo formulas within Japanese health-care system has fundamentally influenced the treatment for diseases and illnesses.  This system reflects to the historical ideals of TCM and the relationship between the mind and the body.  Ultimately, the future of Kampo includes educating physicians to popularize Kampo therapy in Japan and in the West.  In Japan, there is currently no systematic programme exclusively to teach Kampo medicine and no license course for Kampo physicians (Yu 2005, 236).  Although allopathic (conventional) physicians may practise medicine, there is no standardized process nor are there any restrictions to the types of procedures that they may use (Yu 2005, 236).  Many universities have begun to incorporate Kampo medicine along with Western medicine into their curricula.  This suggests that there is a growing interest to Kampo medicine.  Furthermore, research on Kampo is a high priority within Japanese health-care because it has proved to be a “better” cure for many years.