Japanese government research grants for Kampo medicine: aAn overview of 10 years (1997-2017)

Min Kyung Hyun; Hong Yeoul Yoon; Tetsuhiro Yoshino; Min Jung Park

doi:10.1016/j.imr.2019.11.006

Japanese government research grants for Kampo medicine: aAn overview of 10 years (1997-2017)

Integr Med Res. 2019 Dec;8(4):279-283. doi: 10.1016/j.imr.2019.11.006. Epub 2019 Nov 14.

Authors

Min Kyung Hyun¹, Hong Yeoul Yoon², Tetsuhiro Yoshino³, Min Jung Park⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University, 123, Dongdae-ro, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsanbuk-do, 38066, Republic of Korea.
² Sewon Public Health Center, Cheongju-si, Republic of Korea.
³ School of Medicine, Center for Kampo Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ National Development Institute of Korean Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Background: Japan has its own traditional medicine called Kampo medicine, but it is relatively unknown in compared to Traditional Chinese Medicine. Therefore, this study examined the current status of the research related to Kampo medicine supported by Japanese government research grants (JGRG).

Methods: Three databases were searched on October 2019: National Institute of Public Health, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development. The search keywords were Kampo medicine, acupuncture, integrative medicine, oriental medicine, and traditional medicine. The final research that satisfied the inclusion criteria were selected and analyzed.

Results: After a comprehensive search of the three database and removing any duplication research, 2246 JGRG (985 new proposal) that met the inclusion criteria were selected. The number and amount of JGRG have been increasing steadily. The basic research conducted by academic research institutes was mainstream, and the proportion of development research of new Kampo medical technology was low. Most J-research was non-clinical research and 21 % were clinical research. The largest research institute was the Toyama University and there were many non-clinical, cancer, and Juzentaihoto research. On the other hand, government grants were funded relatively evenly without bias to specific fields or institutions.

Conclusions: After analyzing the Japanese government research grants from 1973 to 2017, research on Kampo medicine, which barely had any interest previously, was revived in the 2000s. In particular, it increased sharply in the 2010s, and the research fields were relatively diverse.

Keywords: Grant-in-Aid for scientific research (KAKEN); Japan agency for medical research and development (AMED); Kampo medicine; National institute of public health (NIPH).