Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 557
In our nationwide telephone survey conducted in 2001, we found that 76% of Japanese people had used at least one form of CAM during the previous year.
To assess the activity of the Japanese CAM industry since 1990, from a point of view of newspaper advertisements.
We selected four Japanese major daily newspapers issued in January between 1990 and 2003. We measured the size of CAM-related advertisements, obtained the proportion of CAM-occupied space to the whole size of the issues for a given month, and then compared these over the 14-year period (1990–2003).
In 1990, the average proportion of CAM product advertisement was 0.43% for health foods (dietary supplements etc.) and 0.07% for health-related appliances (automatic massager, etc.). They both tended to increase year by year. The proportion of health food products has exceeded 1% since 1999, and that of health-related appliance products has exceeded 0.2% since 2000. Overall, the advertisement of dietary supplements occupied the most space.
We have found that the CAM product industry in Japan has been investing more money for newspaper advertisements in recent years. The prevalence of CAM (especially product sales) and the activity of the CAM industry seem to significantly influence each other. We presume that Japanese CAM users are more motivated by advertisement than clinical evidence.
