In this report, I trace the life of Prof. Hidetsurumaru Ishikawa who laid the foundation for the present successful development of acupuncture and moxibustion and pursued medical practice based on scientific evidence.
Prof. Ishikawa was born in Toyama Prefecture. After graduation from Tokyo Imperial University, he moved to Kyoto Imperial University to work in Prof. Amaya’s laboratory.
For 4 years starting from 1908, he studied in Europe, mainly under Prof. M. Verworn at Gottingen University, but also briefly visited Prof. I. Pavlov in Petersburg and Prof. E. Starling and Prof. C. Sherrington in England. He learned much about the newest science at that time, and these experiences served as a backbone for his later scientific research.
After returning to Kyoto Imperial University as a professor of physiology, he developed the physiological sciences in Japan. Along with the progression of modern physiology, he came to recognize the need of a scientific approach to traditional medicine, especially acupuncture, as well as a psycho-physiological approach to analyzing human biological conditions.
In the field of neurophysiology, he is famous for a sensational debate against Prof. Kato, who was one of his favorite disciples, about the conduction of electric impulses in anesthetized nerve cells:decrement or decrementless?
After his retirement from Kyoto Imperial University in 1944, Prof. Ishikawa went to Tsu City as the head of Mie Prefectural Medical College, the predecessor of Mie University Faculty of Medicine and opened the department of acupuncture in the university hospital the following year. During the postwar occupation of Japan, the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers (GHQ) decided to prohibit Japanese traditional medicine, because at that time, the general condition of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Japan was far below Western standards.
Learning of the prohibition order, Prof. Ishikawa visited the GHQ over and over again to explain with his own data the scientific basis of acupuncture and to demonstrate the benefits of acupuncture to the GHQ medical officers. Probably due to accumulated strain, in 1949 Prof. Ishikawa had a stroke during a faculty meeting and died about 2 weeks later. Prof. Ishikawa was succeeded by his apprentice, Prof. Kyugo Sasagawa of Kyoto University, who organized the Japan Society of Acupuncture. The first conference was held at Kyoto University in 1953, and the society has been continuously developing to its present successful status.

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[Introduction] In 2006 the WHO and WPRO agreed on standard acupuncture point locations. To promotepagate these standards, in 2009 the Second Japan Acupuncture Standardization Committee published a Japanese edition of 'WHO STANDARD ACUPUNCTURE POINT LOCATIONS FOR THE WESTERN PACIFIC REGION.' Based on this Japanese edition, a new textbook was published by the Japan Association of Massage & Acupuncture Teachers and the Japan College Association of Oriental Medicine. Since one year has passed since the start of education based on standard acupuncture point locations at Japanese universities, colleges, vocational schools and training centers for anma (Japanese traditional massage), massage, and shiatsu (acupressure); acupuncture; and moxibustion therapies, we administered a questionnaire survey as an evaluation of international standardization and the problems of introducing standard acupuncture point locations .
[Subjects and methods] Subjects were mainly teachers and included a small number of researchers, clinicians, and other groups concerned with acupuncture and moxibustion. We used a questionnaire that we originally created at the Second Meeting of the Japan Standardization of Acupuncture Point Locations Committee.
[Results] Among the 180 institutions surveyed, we obtained answers from 149 people from 93 institutions in total. Agreement on the question of standard acupuncture points, "functional existence" (44.3%) was most common, and "anatomical existence" came next at 26.6%. For the question on acupuncture treatment, 82.4% replied with "use of both acupuncture points and reaction points." For the answers to agreeing with international standardization, "no opinion" was 41.7% and 51.7% for "appreciate." However, both of those groups appreciated globalization of acupuncture and moxibustion by a common　language. There were many opinions on proportional bone measurement. Specifically, opinions indicated a change "from the cubital crease to the wrist crease" (from 10B-cun to 12B-cun) and a need for proportional bone measurement of the upper arm. Whereas, for individual acupuncture points, opinions expressed the difficulty of locating application points and not understanding reasons for change and notations including body surface segments.
[Discussion] We were able to classify the opinions collected into the following groups: (1) problems that can be corrected immediately, including typographic errors, (2) problems that need to be reviewed at the next international gathering, and (3) problems that need to be understood by making full use of related documents.
[Conclusion] We were able to determine primarily for a wide range of teachers, problems understanding individual acupuncture point locations, including consideration of acupuncture points, evaluation of standardization of acupuncture point locations, and other guidelines

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[Objective]It seems that in Japan’s aging society, investigating the position of acupuncture and moxibustion for the treatment of arteriosclerotic diseases is important. In this report we evaluated the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on stroke patients by measuring changes in pulse wave velocity (PWV), brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV), ankle brachial pressure index (ABI), blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR).
[Method]The subjects were 210 initial stroke patients. Stroke patients were randomly allocated to three groups, those only taking drug therapy (drug group), those taking drug therapy combined with rehabilitation (rehab group), and those taking drug therapy and rehabilitation combined with EA (EA group). 81 cerebral thrombosis patients (drug group n = 25, rehab group n = 28, EA group n = 28), 68 cerebral embolus patients (drug group n = 24, rehab group n = 20, EA group n = 24) and 61 cerebral hemorrhage patients (drug group n = 20, rehab group n = 21, EA group n = 20) were examined. For the evaluation method blood pressure pulse wave measuring equipment was used to measure PWV, baPWV, ABI, BP, and HR after two months, four months, and six months from the onset of treatment.
[Results]After two months and four months there was no significant difference in blood vessel elasticity of the three cerebral thrombosis groups. Whereas after six months, compared to the drug group, the baPWV in cerebral thrombosis patients significantly decreased for the rehab group (p < 0.05) and EA group (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences in ABI, BP, or HR. Cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral embolism patients showed no significant difference in baPWV, ABI, BP, and HR.
[Conclusion]We examined the effects of adding EA to the treatment of patients who suffered cerebral thrombosis, cerebral embolism, or cerebral hemorrhage. These results show that adding EA to drug treatment and rehabilitation significantly improves blood vessel elasticity and suggests that using EA would reduce the risk of cerebral thrombosis and its reoccurrence.

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[Objective]In this study, we examined the relationship between public subsidies for acupuncture and moxibustion therapy, which are established independently by municipalities that serve as agents for National Health Insurance, and group health level indices such as life expectancy and health care costs that are incurred due to the treatment of illnesses.
[Methods]Eighty-five municipalities in Fukuoka Prefecture that serve as agents for National Health Insurance were the subjects of this study. "The upper limit of subsidy funds available for acupuncture and moxibustion therapy per year"was calculated from the limits of the subsidy systems that were established independently by each municipality. We then examined the relationship between this value, health indices (life expectancy and standardized mortality rate), and health care costs (actual health care costs per person for inpatient and outpatient care for the treatment of illnesses).
[Results]A significant positive correlation was observed between public subsidy funds for acupuncture and moxibustion therapy and life expectancy (males:r = 0.53, P < 0.001, females:r = 0.44, P < 0.001), whereas a significant negative correlation was observed for standardized mortality rate (males:r =-0.48, P < 0.001, females:r =-0.34, P < 0.005). Furthermore, a significant negative correlation was observed between public subsidy funds for acupuncture and moxibustion therapy and health care costs (inpatient:r =-0.26, P < 0.05, outpatient:r =-0.30, P < 0.05).
[Conclusion]Most patients who use acupuncture and moxibustion therapy seek treatment primarily for symptoms involving the musculoskeletal system. The fact that life expectancy is higher when subsidy funds are greater may be considered to be caused by improvements in daily living, increased physical activity due to relief of musculoskeletal disorders through acupuncture and moxibustion therapy, and reduced risk of fatal disease (such as cancer, ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular disorders). It also suggests the possibility that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy inhibit the severity of fatal diseases or the conditions that may cause these fatal diseases.

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The 2012 International Research Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health was held in the US in Portland, Oregon on May 15-18, 2012. This conference was organized by the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research (ISCMR) and the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine (CAHCIM) . There were 1000 participants at the conference, which offered 7 workshops, 8plenary sessions, 30 symposiums, 65 oral presentations, and 433posters. Many researchers with grants from NIH or NCCAM gave presentations. These presentations were not only about acupuncture but also complementary and alternative medicine in general. My attendance to this conference was sponsored by the Department of International Affairs of the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.

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The 15th international conference of ICMART was held from the 25th to 27th of May 2012 in Athens, Greece, under the theme of "The Point where all Different Ideas Meet."There were 210 participants. In addition to lectures on general subjects, eight topics were examined in depth during eight separate sessions. Ten workshops were held. The overall quality of the presentations appeared to be high. For visitors who were unable to attend some of the lectures because of lectures being held at the same times, the meeting time was managed in such a way that time for providing summarized explanations on the contents of all lectures was arranged every day. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was conducted on visitors'motives for attending the conference and on the current situation of acupuncture in various countries. On the basis of the aggregate survey results, discussions were conducted. Starting this year, participation in the conference has been restricted to only physicians and veterinarians. I was allowed to attend the conference at the request of The Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, for news coverage. The topic of my report was "the diagnostic results and treatment of the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake based on traditional medicine."

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