Eighty Years of the Japanese Society of Balneology, Climatology and Physical Medicine / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

  The Japanese Society of Balneology, Climatology and Physical Medicine (JSBCPM) was founded in 1935 with the aim of researching the scientific bases of balneotherapy. The Society was admitted as the 15th affiliated member of the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences, which consists of 123 medical societies today. The scientific meeting of the Society has been held annually and the 80th anniversary meeting was celebrated in 2015.   The number of members has gradually increased over the past 30 years due to rising interest in balneotherapy. The members counted 1914, including 976 balneotherapists who had completed a training course for balneotherapy of which 221 were Society-certified balneotherapy specialists in 2015. The Society has held a training course for balneotherapy and study meetings in 7 areas of Japan once a year to promote balneology. The official journal (J. Jpn. Soc. Balneol. Climatol. Phys. Med.) has been issued quarterly and several textbooks relating to spa treatment have been published by the committee of the Society.   In the annual scientific meeting, several special lectures and an average of 50 free papers have been presented. The main concerns of the members, assumed from the percentage of titles of papers appearing in J. Jpn. Soc. Balneol. Climatol. Phys. Med., had been spa bathing treatment followed by climatology and the chemistry of hot springs water up until volume 50; however, they have recently shifted to the physiology of heat stimuli, health promotion with spa bathing and mox and acupuncture instead of climatology and chemistry.   The Society reported “the indications and contra-indications of spa treatment” in 2010 after 5 years’ research into medical references on balneology by request of the Ministry of the Environment. Based on this report the official notification for indications and contra-indications of balneotherapy was changed in 2014 by the Chief of Natural Environment in the Ministry of the Environment. The organization of balneotherapists has performed several studies on the effect of balneotherapy and reported the results of them in J. Jpn. Soc. Balneol. Climatol. Phys. Med., volumes 65 and 74.   The 39th Congress of the International Society of Medical Hydrology and Climatology (ISMH) was successfully held in Kyoto under the sponsorship of JSBCPM in 2014.