Traditional Medicine in China, Korea, and Japan: A Brief Introduction and Comparison

Table 1

National policies and medical resources/facilities related to traditional medicine in China (including the Taiwan region), Korea, and Japan.

Country (year of most recent data)	Mainland China (2010)				Taiwan region (2009)		Korea (2009)		Japan (2009)
Main therapeutic methods of TM included in national health care system	All				All		All		Some^a
Name	TCM				TCM		TKM		OM or TJM (recently proposed)
Administration structure	MOH				DOH		MOHW		MHLW
Legal definition of doctors	CM				CM		CM		CM
	TCM				TCM		TKM
	IM
Percentage of TM doctors in medical facilities (%, TM doctors/total doctors*100)	Ethnic medicine
	TM doctors^b 12.63; (TCM doctors 10.19; IM doctors 1.22; other ethnic medicine doctors 1.22)				TCM doctors^b 9.69		TKM doctors^b 15.26 (9.1% of; TKM doctors are specialist)		Kampo doctors^c 0.65 (2008)
	CM	TCM	IM	Ethnic M	CM	TCM	CM	TKM	CM	TJM
Hospitals (beds)	16,794	2,778	256	198	496	18	2,337	151	8,739	0^d
	(2,670,680)	(424,244)	(35,234)	(11,811)	(134,489)	(227)	(396,495)	(8,694)	(1,601,476)	(0)
Clinics (beds)	92,453; (7,981)	937; (596)	192; (185)	11; (4)	10,361; (20,381)	3,217; (1,524)	27,289; (91,762)	11,705; (944)	99,635; (141,817)	0^d; (0)
Total (beds)	109,247; (2,678,661)	3715; (424840)	448; (35419)	209; (11815)	10,857; (154,870)	3,235; (1,751)	29,626; (488,257)	11,856; (9,638)	108,374; (1,743,293)	0^d; (0)

CM: conventional medicine; DOH: Department of Health; IM: integrative medicine; MHLW: Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare; MOH: Ministry of Health; MOHW: Ministry of Health and Welfare; OM: oriental medicine; TCM: traditional Chinese medicine; TJM: traditional Japanese medicine; TKM: traditional Korean medicine; TM: traditional medicine.
^aIn Japan, most Kampo (galenicals or herbal mixtures) and some acupuncture are included in the national health care system.
^bIn China (including the Taiwan region) and Korea, TM doctors can practice all main therapeutic methods of TM, including acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, herbal medicines, and manual therapies.
^cIn Japan, CM doctors can practice any style of TM including acupuncture and Kampo. Acupuncture is mainly practiced by acupuncturists, moxibustion by moxibustion therapists, Anma and Shiatsu by Anma-massage-Shiatsu therapists, and Judo therapy by Judo therapists. Some CM doctors are Kampo doctors belonging to the Japan Society for Oriental Medicine.
^dIn Japan, all medical facilities called a “hospital” or “clinic” in Japanese are considered as CM facilities, even if TM is partially practiced there. Acupuncture clinics (“Shinkyu-In” in Japanese) are not regarded as clinics in Japan.