Japan university under fire for offering courses in pseudoscientific 'healing therapies'
TOKYO -- Speaking positively to water creates beautiful ice crystals; sugar pellets infused with highly diluted minerals and other substances can heal disease: These are typical claims associated with controversial "hado" vibrational healing and homeopathy, respectively.
Despite scientific-sounding descriptions, experts have long identified such methods as pseudoscience -- practices lacking scientific credibility, evidence or the capability for rigorous testing and validation.
Yet, at Kanagawa Dental University's graduate school in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, such questionable therapies feature prominently in the syllabus of an integrative medicine course for working adult students, attended by individuals who already hold national medical credentials such as doctors and nurses. Lecturers include representatives and senior leaders brought from organizations promoting these methods.
Academic experts warn that the situation carries substantial risks. "The fact that a university offers such courses could grant pseudoscience and its promoting bodies undeserved legitimacy, potentially misleading more people," cautioned one scholar.
Moreover, university sources indicate the courses themselves are not actually funded or run by Kanagawa Dental University.
Methods rejected by Japan's Science Council
The course in question began in academic 2022 on the top floor of a five-story building near JR Takanawa Gateway Station in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The tuition fee for the one-year course is 1.2 million yen (around $8,300). This year's lectures -- totaling around 180 hours -- cover more than 30 controversial self-proclaimed therapies.
Hado once sparked controversy when it was adopted into elementary school moral education classes, criticized as pseudoscience creeping into classrooms. Homeopathy was formally rejected by a 2010 statement from the Science Council of Japan, explicitly denying its therapeutic effectiveness. The university's syllabus even covers "Edgar Cayce therapy," which is claimed to have been started by a psychic with clairvoyant abilities.
According to people involved, the course was originally proposed to the university by Akira Kawashima, a medical doctor frequently appearing on television.
When contacted, Kanagawa Dental University representatives replied that "Kawashima will respond directly." Kawashima himself commented, "Integrative medicine includes the good and the bad alike. It's essential to train medical professionals, after mastering Western medicine, to get accurate insights into various techniques so that, when patients ask about them, they're able to distinguish legitimate treatments from fraudulent ones."
Who manages the university course?
Although billed as a university offering, the course is actually funded and administered by a general incorporated association through a service contract with the university. The association's head is a doctor who runs a psychosomatic internal medicine clinic in Tokyo. She promotes procedures involving "hand power healing," claiming on her own website: "Invisible energy definitely exists," adding that "the delicate energy changes in body and mind can be perceived and rebalanced through one's palms."
Responding to inquiries, the doctor acknowledged her organization's role in operating the course. She explained that the company initially tasked with administrative duties withdrew, prompting Kawashima to ask her to take over. Last December, she organized a public lecture featuring a leading representative of an Edgar Cayce promotion group at the same Tokyo building. Flyers advertising the event prominently mentioned her group's role managing the university-related courses.
Experts convey concern
Attempts to introduce unscientific concepts such as hado, the "gaming brain" theory and EM (effective microorganism) bacteria into educational settings have previously caused public concern. However, experts pointed out that cases of universities proactively teaching these pseudosciences in a positive light have been extremely rare.
Professor Masato Ishikawa of Meiji University, an expert in cognitive science, explained, "There are scenarios where universities teach pseudoscience -- for example, studying 'witches' from a cultural or anthropological perspective. But actual proponents presenting lectures cannot respond to scientific criticism." In 2014, Meiji University planned a course for the general public featuring promoters of pseudoscience like hado and EM bacteria, but canceled it due to faculty opposition.
Professor Ishikawa further warned of the risks posed because students already have medical qualifications. "Course participants pay fees and receive official certificates of completion. Thus, it raises the likelihood they'll offer these practices themselves," he said, expressing concern about an increase in medical clinics providing treatments lacking scientific validity.
Comments from the education ministry
Upon completion of the one-year program, participants receive official certificates issued under the School Education Act. A representative from the education ministry's university promotion division, which manages the law in question, stated, "Ultimately, universities hold full responsibility for the content of their certified programs." However, regarding dubious therapies suspected as pseudoscience being taught within the courses, the ministry representative explained, "We, as an administrative body, are not in a position to determine if particular course contents qualify as pseudoscience."
Professor Satoru Kikuchi, a psychologist at Shinshu University who is knowledgeable about pseudoscience, criticized what he sees as the universities' irresponsibility: "It seems universities play down the responsibility involved in teaching positively about therapies without a scientific basis."
Kikuchi further argued that the education ministry's approach is problematic as well, declaring, "Entrusting universities alone to check their course content mimics the situation with the functional food labeling system -- where responsibility for confirming the safety and efficacy of functional foods was pushed onto private industry, resulting in health problems. It's essentially equivalent to the ministry abandoning its supervisory responsibilities."
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Professor Satoru Kikuchi, a psychologist at Shinshu University who is knowledgeable about pseudoscience, criticized what he sees as the universities' irresponsibility: "It seems universities play down the responsibility involved in teaching positively about therapies without a scientific basis." Kikuchi further argued that the education ministry's approach is problematic as well, declaring, "Entrusting universities alone to check their course content mimics the situation with the functional food labeling system -- where responsibility for confirming the safety and efficacy of functional foods was pushed onto private industry, resulting in health problems. It's essentially equivalent to the ministry abandoning its supervisory responsibilities."
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