The status of education for integrative medicine in Japanese medical universities with special reference to Kampo medicines

Aim The Japanese government defined integrative/integrated medicine (IM) as "medical practice led by physicians, cooperating with other specialists." Therefore, the basics of comprehensive medical education should be provided in medical universities. We investigated the situation of IM with special reference to Kampo medicines in the national core curricula, national examination standards and the syllabuses for lectures published on the universities' websites.Methods In the published documents regarding the core curriculum, national examination standards and syllabuses in the academic year 2018, we analyzed whether they include IM.Results Four kinds of universities offered "Kampo medicine" (Japanese traditional herbal medicine) as their core curriculum. Pharmaceutical universities included "health food", and nursing universities included "alternative medicine". National examination standards for dentists and pharmacists included Kampo medicine, but those for doctors and nurses did not. In the syllabuses of medical universities, 85% included Kampo medicine, but the percentage for IMs was low. The situation was similar in dental universities. All pharmaceutical universities included Kampo medicines and health foods; other IMs were low. The number for all IMs in nursing universities was lower than half.Conclusion Based on the definition of IM in this paper, we investigated the actual situation of IM education including Kampo in all universities. There were considerable differences between all the faculties. For medical doctor, the Kampo medicines listed in the model core curriculum that are not included in the national examination standard should be rectified. For pharmacists, it is important to deepen the educational contents in this field.