WFC Biennial Congress & AssemblyCOUNTRY REPORT 2013 Durban South Africa
April 8th 2013
12th WFC Assembly Country Report
Hello everyone. My name is Kei Takeyachi, executive director of Japanese Association of Chiropractors (JAC).We have about 400 members including student members in JAC.
At the last Assembly in Rio it was only a month after Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami happened in 2011. Thank you for all the support we have received from colleagues all over the world. JAC members have done every possible way to help afflicted people as a chiropractic profession by sending donations through the Japan Red Cross, and sending volunteer chiropractors to Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures. We are continuing to do this. In the afflicted areas electricity and gas supplies had been disrupted so that some medical services using those supplies had a problem in treating patients. On the other hand we just brought tables in and started treating people without any inconvenient situation. We realized primitive care is the most powerful and useful way to help people in case of disasters.
On November 23, 2012 the Tokyo College of Chiropractic received accreditation from the Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia (CCEA) and its first independent graduation ceremony was held on March 26, 2013. Tokyo College of Chiropractic was formerly known as RMIT University Chiropractic Unit – Japan, was an affiliate of RMIT University of Melbourne, Australia and received its accreditation in that context in 2005 as the first chiropractic school in Asia. Currently Tokyo College of Chiropractic is involved in a project team of establishing a government recognized integrative medicine university to start a chiropractic program.
Recent good news is that the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan (NCAC), an independent administrative agency under the Consumer Affairs Fundamental Act, has appointed the Japanese Association of Chiropractors (JAC) as the chiropractic representative group to set up Japanese chiropractic guidelines on safety and advertising. These guidelines were released through the NCAC to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and public in January 2013, and may well be a stepping stone to future legislation. This follows an NCAC report of an increased number of physical injuries caused by licensed (e.g. Judo bone setters, Massage Shiatsu therapists, etc.) and non-licensed (chiropractors, Seitai therapists, etc.) manual therapists in Japan in August 2012. The Japan Advertising Review Organization (JARO) and many media are now notifying the public that practitioners who meet the WHO standard are safe. One more good news is that JAC and Tokyo College of Chiropractic assisted to launch the first integrative medicine clinic in Japan in the urban area of Tokyo on April 1st, 2013. This clinic provides not only medical service and physical therapy but also chiropractic care, acupuncture, yoga therapy, aromatherapy and Chinese medicine. Chiropractors working in this clinic have a primary care right and keep own identity in their practice.
The Japan Chiropractic Registers (JCR) held the 3rd chiropractic standardization exam with the International Board of Chiropractic Examiners (IBCE) on January 20, 2013. Currently about 800 practitioners are temporally registered in the JCR's list and the JCR is starting an official registration system to compile the list of chiropractors who completed chiropractic education set up by the WHO guidelines. The list will be sent to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) by sending a message that JCR registered chiropractors are safe. The JCR offers the IBCE SPEC exam each year in order to evaluate applicants. Final year students of Tokyo College of Chiropractic are required to take the IBCE SPEC exam as a part of their final exams. To increase the number of JCR registered chiropractors, the JAC has also recommended to the JCR that a re-education program be made available in order to upgrade the skills of substandard practitioners to the WHO standard.
I have to say our political movement in Japan had been slow but steady. As our part of the world Asia-Pacific region is now of particular interest in the 21st century, we should contribute as much as possible continue to make chiropractic a respectful and ethical profession within the health care system.
Prepared and presented by Dr Kei Takeyachi