Present State of Acupuncture in the West and the Challenge in Japanese Acupuncture

Abstract

In the present paper, the author reviews acupuncture clinical practice and the research scene in Western countries, and discusses problems in Japanese acupuncture. The use of acupuncture is increasing in the West, but many more people have received this treatment in Japan. Although regulations on acupuncture depend on the country, many EU countries limit acupuncture practice to medical doctors. Regarding the style and theory of acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine is overwhelmingly dominant in the world. In recent years, the worldwide prevalence of the concept of evidence-based medicine (EBM) has facilitated randomized controlled trials on acupuncture in the West. However, there is a bigproblem in setting a sham acupuncture group. Pragmatic clinical trials should be considered more in the future. If the researchers of “Japanese acupuncture” pursue only reductionistic research methodology, they might lose something important that traditional medicine has brought for many years. Although we should employ the concept of EBM, we, at the same time, should discuss what Japanese acupuncture is and how we evaluate the aspect of the “art” of acupuncture medicine more intensely.