Physiotherapy Treatments in Japan

I’d like to share my experience of Japanese physiotherapists, osteopaths, and chiropractors and hear some of your opinions.

First up, I’m not a physiotherapist. But I am a student of biology and am passionately interested in the human sciences. I live in Japan and during my many years here I have visited many different clinics and have received some questionable treatments. Here’s a list:

(1) Electric pad treatment prior to hands on treatment seems to be a staple at 9/10 of the places I’ve been to. As a “customer” it comes across as a way to kill time while the professional is seeing another customer. Applied directly to the muscles, they give rhythmic electronic pulses. I can understand how this could warm-up the muscle but this is surely not a treatment in and of itself?

(2) Water bed treatment is sometimes given prior to the above electric pad treatment. More rare, but again it very much feels like a “time filler” while the professional is busy with someone else. You lie on a water bed with a blanket on top. The water ripples and waves underneath you, relaxing you.

(3) Lack of test-treat-retest method - So many places fail to test ROM consistently before and after treatment. How can you know if you have made an improvement without retesting?

(4) One-size fits all type treatments - this has happened more times than I’d care to admit. I go to a clinic, explain my problem, and they proceed to give me a full-body treatment without ever even acknowledging the body parts I have a problem with.

(5) Carbonated spray treatments - only one place offered me this. It was a carbonated mist spray, applied directly to the skin which according to their explanation sends CO2 into the blood vessels, causing my brain to make them dilate, meaning more O2, therefore improving muscle function and ROM. They performed a test before and after treatment on both of my arms. One arm’s ROM improved by a few centimeters, while the other didn’t change.

(6) Magnetic warm rock treatment - I apologise for the translation but this is the most rudimentary explanation I could think of. I don’t know the details of this treatment as I’ve never actually received it, but it seems that they place magnetically charged heated rocks on your muscles. Is this not just a fancy alternative to applying a heat pack? Why the magnetism?

(7) Spinal manipulation treatment is very popular. Bone cracking, knees against back, twisting of the neck, etc. They often talk of imbalances due to the vertebrae being out-of-place, which according to the way they approach it, is the cause of most joint pain and lack of mobility. It’s almost like a one-fix-for-everything with the goal being to return your body to a normal balance.

EDIT (I forgot to add one more) (8) Acupuncture is another very popular treatment in Japan. I personally have never tried it and so cannot really comment on it’s prescription and effects. But it is so common that it is safe to assume that practitioners and the general public have faith in it.

From the perspective of a non-professional, a lot of these seem very pseudo-scientific. I’d say that number (7) is by far the most reasonable and grounded in actual science. (I know very litttle about (8) acupuncture).

What do you think? And why might the Far East have such a different take on this despite the scientific literature generally being international?

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