These days, traditional medicine is generally more featured than ever before and globalized. While traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is internationally established, there is still little known about the special features of traditional Japanese Kampo medicine. Although it originated from ancient China, it underwent a unique development in Japan. Today, the roles and positions of traditional medicine within the modern health care systems are completely different in China and Japan.

Currently in Japan, more than 90% of physicians prescribe Kampo medicine in their daily practice. Kampo is used in combination with high tech medicine like robotic surgery or chemotherapy. This kind of integration of modern medicine and traditional medicine may be the model of integrative medicine in the future worldwide.

However, the clinical values of Kampo medicine are not yet sufficiently visible. This special issue focuses on the integration of modern biomedicine and traditional Kampo medicine. We invite researchers to contribute to this issue by sending in a reviews or original articles addressing work integrating biomedicine and Kampo medicine.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Integration of modern biomedicine and Kampo in any of the following:
  • Cancer therapy
  • Neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer disease
  • Mental disorders
  • Surgical intervention
  • Painful diseases
  • Emergency disorders