The acupuncture and moxibustion therapy that is conducted in Japan originates in China. But the Japanese style of acupuncture and moxibustion is very different from the Chinese style. The reason is that over a long period of time, many Japanese methods of acupuncture and moxibustion have evolved in the natural environment of Japan.

And now, the original Japanese methods of acupuncture and moxibustion attracts considerable attention of the world. By the request of JICA since April, 1998, we have been accepting trainees from South America who want to study the Japanese way of acupuncture and moxibustion and contribute to the medical development of their country. In the beginning, we had the long-term training course (for 10 months). But in 2005, we also added the short-term course (for 3 months), which many of the applicants for admission to our institution demanded.
Since then, we have received 11 long-term course trainees and 18 short-term course trainees, four of whom are doctors on the active list. Of the 29 trainees, 22 are from Brazil, 6 from Argentina, and 1 from Bolivia. (Table. 1)

The Actual Situation of Education in Acupuncture and Moxibustion in South America

In South America, there are some training schools for acupuncturists and moxibustionists in Brazil, but there are none in Argentina, Bolivia, or Cuba.
The training schools in Brazil give two-year or three-year courses of study.
Only one school teaches Japanese style acupuncture and moxibustion, while other schools teach traditional Chinese and Korean styles. Those schools don 't have any core curriculums for education in acupuncture and moxibustion in common.
Most of the applicants for our institution study at vocational schools of acupuncture and moxibustion after graduating from medical college.
There are no schools of acupuncture and moxibustion in Argentina or Bolivia, so in those countries physical therapists taught themselves acupuncture and moxibustion, and it seems that they conduct acupuncture and moxibustion as part of physical therapy.

The Details of Training at the Clinic Attached to Our University

The Kind of training offered at our clinic is mainly studies by observation, so the applicants must have adequate knowledge of acupuncture and moxibustion.
The applicants are also required to have a working knowledge of Japanese, since the training is conducted in the situation where the therapist and the patient converse with each other in Japanese. If they can speak little Japanese, the training don 't work at all well.
Since there is the difference in knowledge of the Japanese language and Oriental medicine among individual trainees, we interview them at the beginning of the training to know if their working ability of Japanese conversation and medical knowledge is enough. Then we draw up training programs that are suitable for each trainee based on the interviews.
As mentioned above, we have two training courses ready for the trainees : the short-term training course (about 3 months) and the long-term training course (about 10 months).
On the last day of the course we ask the trainees to give a presentation about what they have learned on completion of their course of study. They need to draft a report in Japanese by themselves and make a presentation in Japanese.

A commemorative photo : after the completion ceremony in 2014. The trainee is given the certificate of completion by our university.

A photo of a Brazilian trainee (center) in 2013. She is introduced on the Website of JICA.

Extramural Work

We offer some extramural work outside the university. For example, we attend the annual academic meeting of Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.
Besides, we take field trips to some facilities which are very famous for their treatment based on Oriental medicine, acupuncture and moxibustion.
So far we have visited Fukuoka, Ehime, and Tokyo, which are far from our university, and Osaka, Wakayama, and Kyoto, which are relatively close to our university.

A photo of three overseas trainees taken in front of Fukuoka University Hospital in 2006. (the second person from the left is the professor in charge of the course)

Our training courses for trainees of Japanese descent are highly regarded by JICA as one of the international collaborative projects to make the traditional Japanese style of acupuncture and moxibustion known to Latin American countries.
And we will always be prepared to accept overseas trainees and positively promote international medical exchange.

Table1 Previous Results of Acceptance of Overseas Trainees