In the current society, there is an increasing number of people who are becoming aware of the relationship between breathing and the human health (both mental and physical). Many of them have also been practicing the breathing technique to aid in relieving stress and pursue a peaceful state of body and mind. However, it is still difficult to find research literature that focus on the principles such as the background mechanism in which stress causes breathing disorder, and the learning mechanism through which breathing techniques stabilize the states of body and mind. In this paper, we explicate the hidden learning mechanism of psychogenic asthma with the aid of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of hysteria and the neuroscientific account of psychosomatic disorders. By explicating the learning process of shortened and irregular breathing in asthma, we discuss the possibility of learning desirable and calm way of breathing through traditional breathing techniques.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the sense of loneliness underlying the lives of elderly people. The lack of activities relating to hobbies or exercises and separation from their social network have led to the absence of intimate human relationships. This in turn has revealed the issue of emotional loneliness, which had been hidden beneath various social activities.

　First, to discuss the abovementioned theme, an outline of impactful studies conducted before and after the COVID-19 pandemic on the theme of isolation and loneliness of elderly citizens is presented, along with the proposals made in them for ways to ease emotional loneliness. Next, an investigation by Sigrun-Heide Filipp, one of the representative psychologists of elderly mentality in Germany, and her colleagues are reviewed to understand their suggestions toward providing proper emotional support for elderly citizens facing emotional crisis events. Last, the idea of the "little way" proposed by Thérèse of Lisieux, a nun belonging to the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in France, and a discussion by a Catholic priest, Ichiro Okumura, to find connections between the Japanese people and Christianity encompassed in the idea of the little way are reviewed, in order to clarify whether this would lead to a suggestive notion to form a foundation of emotional support practice in Japan.

In view of recently rising expectations of traditional medicine, it is increasingly important to distinguish Japanese kanpo (herbal medicine) from acupuncture and moxibustion. In 1874, the Meiji government established the first law for the administration of medicine (J: isei), which recognized but clearly distinguished kanpo (herbal medicine) from acupuncture and moxibustion. Based on a review of the literature, this study discusses factors that led to differences of their institutionalization during the early days of the Meiji Era, proposing a new perspective on how their differences in therapeutic style were grounded in disparate conceptions of the human body. Nagayo Sensai and fellow founders of Japan’s law for the administration of medicine had aimed to integrate kanpo (herbal medicine) with acupuncture and moxibustion as the grounds for medical practice. Subsumed within modern materialist medicine, kanpo practitioners of bathing and herbal pharmacology opposed this unification, but the shortage of doctors in the early Meiji period left room for all available therapies. On the other hand, acupuncture and moxibustion were based on a pre-modern body concept that relied on the skill of the therapist to change the mind as well as body of the patient. The difficulty of demonstrating and communicating this psycho-somatic model both ideologically and practically impeded its integration into modern medicine. In short, the difference between the two therapies at the time of the unification of modern medicine in Japan is a logical consequence of the disparity between the materialist model undergirding modern allopathic medicine and kanpo, and the nonreductionist pre-modern conception of the body underlying acupuncture and moxibustion.

This study investigated the effect on shoulder function of baseball players wearing rubber bands on their hands. The study enrolled 38 high school baseball players. The results showed a significant increase in the range of motion (left shoulder extension, right shoulder extension, and left shoulder joint maximum elevation value) following their wearing rubber bands on their hands. Furthermore, ease of movement showed significant increase in shoulder joint mobility after wearing rubber bands. These findings suggest that wearing rubber bands may improve baseball players’ shoulder function and mobility.