2019
Report of 2nd Asian Physical Therapy Forum

宗太 町田
11~12th, January, 2019
Tokyo, Japan1

All opinions expressed in this report are solely those of the speakers and do not reflect
the views of JPTA or the forum co-organizers.
Copyright © 2019 Japanese Physical Therapy Association All rights reserved
Layout and design: Tomonori ITO
Printed in Japan

2

Contents
Abbreviations
Executive Summary
AgendaDay 1
Opening Session
Symposium[The present situation of profession education in the field of rehabilitation]
Welcome reception
Day 2
Informative session[Various human resource development (HRD) cooperation by Japanese Physical
Therapists in Asia]
Round table discussion
Closing of the meeting
Optional Tour 1 & 2Tour 1: Social Security System in Japan
Site visit for Preventive care facility “Rakuccha” in Minato-city, Tokyo
Tour 2: Accessibility Transportation Trip Odaiba, in Minato-city, Tokyo
Site visit for Panasonic Center Tokyo, Mega web, Pubic transportation services
About the organizers

3

Abbreviations
AFPPD : Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development
AHWIN : Asia Health and Wellbeing Initiative
APEC : Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
ASEAN : Association of Southeast Asian Nations
ERIA : Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia
HRD: Human Resource Development
JCIE : Japan Center for International Exchange
JETRO : Japan External Trade Organization
JPTA : Japanese Physical Therapy Association
METI：Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan
MEXT：Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan
MHLW：Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan

MOU : Memorandum of Understanding
UHC : Universal Health Coverage
WHO : World Health Organization

4

Executive Summary

The 2nd Asian Physical Therapy Forum

Many other Asian countries have a similar

was held together with related meetings

tendency called the aging of populationand optional tours on 11th and 12th,

dynamics. Maintaining health of the elderly

January 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.

will be a common interest issue in the region.

The forum was co-organized by the

In July 2016, the Government of Japan

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN

launched

and East Asia (ERIA), Office of Health Care

Initiative” (herein after referred to as

Policy, Cabinet Secretariat of Japan, and“AHWIN”).

Japanese Physical Therapy Association

official statements, such as ‘Japan-ASEAN(JPTA) with support of Japan Center for

Summit’, ‘the Mekong-Japan Summit’, ‘theInternational Exchange (JCIE).

East Asia Summit’, and ‘the ASEAN Plus

We had 43 participants from 17 countries
and regions, outside of Japan, and they were

“Asia

HealthandWellbeing

AHWIN is shown in theThree Summit in 2017’.
Under

such

circumstances,throughtherapy

discussions held at the ‘1st Asian Physicalassociations and Government Officials who

Therapy Forum’ in Tokyo in September 2017,

in charge of rehabilitation/physical therapy

we realized that the first forum was the

of

two

excellent opportunity to share Japan’s

parliamentarians attended and delivered

experiences in developing healthcare system

opening remarks as well as expert of long-as well as the importance of HRD in rehab,term care policy and a government officials.

with national-level organizations of physicalThe forum was convened to respond to thetherapy practitioners in Asian countries

representatives

each

of

country.

Physical

From

Japan,

rapid

which have the issues of rapid population

population aging in the Asia, from theaging. In order to promote healthy andperspective of rehabilitation and physicalactive aging in ASEAN and East Asia, it istherapy.

an urgent task to develop highly educatedchallenges

andopportunities

of

In Asia, where the elderly population ishuman resources and human resources withgrowing rapidly, effective measures andadvanced knowledge and skills of clinicalquick response to aging society are required.

rehabilitation who can play an important

Japan is the country which aging goespart in the promotion of clinical practice ofahead through most in the world and has

physical therapy in Asian countries.

been tackling with the issue of aging for
many

years

experience,

and
and

Based on this background, ERIA and

has

much

valuable

JPTA

lessonsandlearned.

partnership to hold The 2nd Asian Physicalconcluded

anagreementof1Therapy Forum which would promote policy
dialogue on human resource development of
rehabilitation and physical therapy field in
the Asian region. ERIA and JPTA invited
representativesofphysicaltherapy

association of 17 Asian countries, andofficials who were in charge of national
policiesandmeasuresrelatedtorehabilitation and physical therapy in each

Key Messages
1. Regional cooperation is crucial for the“HRD” in the field of rehabilitation andphysical therapy for coping with population
aging.
2. Immediate action is needed to establish amechanism and/or models to promote HRD
with cooperation among public and private

country. The goal of this forum was to sharesectors including professional organizations

the problems and strategies to promote the3. Community-based care system with

HRD in rehab with participants. We believe

appropriate rehabilitation and physicalit can be achieved through public-private

therapy service providers are key to somecollaboration in whole Asia.

societies for preventive diseases and long-

It is crucial to foster the coordination andterm care.

cooperation between and within the public
andprivatesectors

includingserviceproviders, professional organization in the
rehabilitation and physical therapy fields inall economies in Asia which has a great
diversity of cultures, and the effort topromote bilateral and regional cooperation,
including the Asia Health and Wellbeing
Initiative, could contribute to furthering
HRD. Key messages and future perspectives
which are derived from the forum are thefollowings;

The Way Forward
Through HRD in the rehabilitation andphysical therapy field, professionalorganizations of physical therapy
contribute to create a vibrant and healthsociety where people can enjoy long andproductive lives, and to contribute theeconomic growth in Asia. In order toachieve this objectives, each country andphysical therapy associations must develop
the system of HRD of rehabilitation which
could be indispensable to cope withpopulation aging.

2

AgendaSupporting the aging Asian society: the field of rehabilitation and physical therapy
A regional approach to promoting Human Resource Development
11th, 12th January, 2019/

Tokyo, Japan

CO-ORGANIZED and SUPPORTED BY：
The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA); Office of Health Care
Policy, Cabinet Secretariat of Japan; Japanese Physical Therapy Association (JPTA) ; Japan
Center for International Exchange (JCIE).

OPENING SESSION:
Opening

Kazuto HANDA, President, JPTA

Welcome Remarks

Shuichi NAKAMURA, Chair of Private Sector Consortium of AHWIN
Masahiro SUZUKI, Vice-Minister for Health, MHLW

Congratulatory address

Keizo TAKEMI, Member, House of Councilors, Japan; Chairperson, AFPPD

Keynote Speech

Masahiro SASAKI, Counselor for Policy Planning Coordination,
Office of Health Care Policy, Cabinet Secretariat of JapanSESSION 1: Symposium“The present situation of professional education in the field of rehabilitation”
Moderator, Kouji IHASHI, President, Japan Association for University Education in Physical Therapy
Panel,

Daisuke JINNAI, Executive Director, Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists
Masako TATEISHI, Vice-President, Japanese Association of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists
Tetsuya TAKAHASHI, Executive Board Member, JPTA, Prof. Juntendo University

SESSION 2: Welcome reception and meet up program for networking“Physical activity is the essential for active aging”
Remarks Manabu YOSHIDA, Director General of Health Policy Bureau, MHLW
Norifumi NISHIDA, Director, Higher Education Bureau, MEXT
Kentaro KISHIMOTO, Director, Healthcare Industries Division, METI
Kuninori TAKAGI, President of President, Japan Rehabilitation School Association

3

SESSION 3: Informative session“Various HRD cooperation by Japanese physical therapists in Asia”
Moderator and Panel, Yasushi Uchiyama, Vice-President of JPTA

Panel,

Masaaki Sakamoto, Prof, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Gunma University
Naoko Orito and Hidehiko Shirooka, National University Health System, Singapore
Isao Otsuka, Aizawa Healthcare International Limited
Kazuhito Matsui, CEO, HOT Rehabili Systems

SESSION 4: Roundtable discussion
Moderator, Kazuto HANDA, President, JPTA
1)

HRD in the field of rehabilitation and physical therapy in Asia

2)

Future cooperation

3)

Next meeting

CLOSING OF THE MEETING
Kazuto HANDA, President, JPTA to all participants

OPTIONAL TOUR 1 & 2Tour 1: Social Security System in Japan
Presenter, Yoshimitsu SASAKI, Assistant, MHLW
Site visit for Nursing and Preventive Care Center “Rakuccha” in Minato-city, Tokyo
Coordinator, Nahoko KOBAYASHI, Nagase SHINISHI,
Support Services for Senior Citizens Section, Minato-City
Presenter, Etsuko OISHI, Head of Nursing and Preventive Care Center “Rakuccha”
Tour 2: Accessibility Transportation Trip Odaiba, in Minato-city, Tokyo
Site visit for Panasonic Center Tokyo, Mega web, Pubic transportation services
Language Volunteers of JPTA for the Forum and Tours
Kenji IWATA, Kentaro NAGATA, Kyohei MIYAZAKI, Rieko YAMAMOTO, Rua BAN
Shigeharu TANAKA, Shinsuke MATSUMOTO, Takayuki HOTTA, Yuki ISHIHARA

4

Day 1

OPENING SESSION:

Opening

Kazuto HANDA, President, JPTA

Welcome Remarks

Shuichi NAKAMURA, Chair of Private Sector Consortium of AHWIN
Masahiro SUZUKI, Vice-Minister for Health, MHLW
Katsumi Ogawa, Member of the House of Councilors / PolicyAdvisor of JPTA

Congratulatory address

Keizo TAKEMI, Member, House of Councilors, Japan; Chairperson, AFPPD

Keynote Speech

Masahiro SASAKI, Counselor for Policy Planning Coordination,
Office of Health Care Policy, Cabinet Secretariat of Japan

Opening

Kazuto HANDA, President, JPTA

Everyone from all over from the 17
countries, I would like to thank you and pleasetake my sincere welcome.

Last year, in our

first forum we had all the delegates from the 14
countries

and

we

have

three

additionalcountries making it a total of 17 countries herewith us in Japan.
We are really continuing with an aging society and there are so many issues,
more than you can think. Something that the all the hardships we have had and any
failures and any successes in Japan. I hope that you will learn from Japan’s lesson
learned and then when you go back all the elderly or the disabled population and hopethat you will provide excellent, functional recovery services and hope that we have a very
good discussion for 2 days so the rehabilitation and physical therapy will be thecontribution to each of the countries.

5

Welcome Remarks

Shuichi NAKAMURA, Chair of Private Sector Consortium of AHWIN

Nakamura 氏 写真

I was engaged in planning policies related
to healthcare and nursing care for the elderly
from 1973 till 2014 at the Ministry of Health,
Labor Welfare and Cabinet Secretariat. I
engaged in planning policies
healthcare and nursing care.

related toIn 1960, theaging rate in Japan was only 5%. So Japan was
a young society then.

In 1961, the universal

health coverage and pension system underwhich all residents in Japan are obliged to join both public health insurance and public pension
plans which were enacted. However, the benefit level was very low at that time.

Twelveyears later, in 1973, the year when I started work as a public servant a substantial improvement
was implemented in healthcare and pension benefits. Since then, Japan has embarked on
the path for a full-fledged welfare state. But the speed of population aging was faster than
anticipated and in 1994, the aging rate exceeded 14% and so Japan has become an aged society.
Since the aging rate has exceeded 28% last year, Japan is a super-super aged society now.
Over the period, the social security policy in Japan has focused first on how thehealthcare system and pension system could be sustainable before facing a sharp increase inelderly people. In my 40-year career life as a public servant I had dedicated almost entirely
the measures to address the aging population. Needless to say, enhancing rehabilitation is
the most important subject of all. Up until the 1980s as the aging rate was higher in Western
European countries than in Japan, they had proceeded as a welfare state and so we learned alot from them, their experience – European countries’ experiences – and made good use ofthem for developing the Japanese social security. Likewise, it will be a great pleasure if ourexperience could be of any help to people in Asian countries who will soon be facing a fullfledged aging of their populations.
I feel certain that it is extremely important that all people gathered here exchange
opinions on the common goal, which is to contribute to the improvement of public health andpeople’s welfare of each country. Lastly, I sincerely hope that this 2-day forum will achieve
great success.

6

Welcome Remarks

Masahiro SUZUKI, Vice-Minister for Health, MHLW

It is my great privilege to address the
opening of the 2nd Asian Physical Therapy
Forum. First and foremost, I would like to
pay my cordial appreciation to all physicaltherapists for their sincere dedication anddevotion to health and long-term care of
the people.
As you might be aware, Japan is facing
an unprecedented rapid pace of aging as
Councilor Takemi mentioned and now welcoming an era of 100-year cycle of life. That is
why we aim to materialize solid and robust social security system through dynamic
engagement of our citizens and we firmly believe that we must sustain and further develop
universal health coverage, which was established in this country in 1961.
Modern health systems consist of an interdisciplinary team approach with divisionof labor amongst various specialists. In that sense, physical therapists are the key specialists
for rehabilitation and well-being of people with disability. Only with their full involvement
to ensure self-reliant daily life of the elderly, outcome-based evaluation of care and preventionof serious conditions could be achieved.
It is indeed reassuring that the Japan Physical Therapy Association, hosting thisforum in the last 2 years is paying its utmost efforts to empower physical therapists for better
quality of life.

I sincerely hope that this forum would bear plenty of tangible, successful

results for the coming days.

7

Welcome Remarks

Katsumi Ogawa, Member of the House of Councilors / PolicyAdvisor of JPTA

Our industry, why one of us has to be
the part of the policy makers?

Japan’shistory of physical therapy just marked 53
years. During the 53 years scientific fields
and academic fields, they made significant
growth.

However, domestic physicaltherapist’s status is not there just yet.

As

we are facing an aging society, any area that
we the PT, we can contribute, there aremany. However, because of the system there is a constraint because of those, we are notreally giving our best – our contributions to society. So that is a current – we have to improveand solve the issue so our physical therapy would be required by the general public. That is
the reason why I was sent as a policy maker.
Within Asian countries, I have visited China, South Korea, and recently, I went to
Nepal. Yesterday we had a technical visit from Denmark and actually I had been to Denmark
on a technical visit to learn about the social security system in Denmark and now we arelooking at the social security systems in Asian countries. There is room for improvement
and there is a need to really improve. This is a global issue of aging society. In order tosolve that issue, the area that we as physical therapists are able to make a significant
contribution not just one country but looking at the perspective of Asian countries hand-inhand and so as a team we need to tackle the issues. That is the common understanding.
In that sense, this Asian Physical Therapist’s Forum, this is our second time.

At

this forum we would like to acknowledge any issues and then we would like to have partnershipin order to solve the issues and so I hope that this will be starting place to discuss. So I as apolicy maker, anything I can be of any help, I am more than happy in my best efforts to support
you and I would love to visit each one of your countries and have discussions and exchange
inputs. In closing, I would like to wish a very prosperous meeting.

8Congratulatory address

Keizo TAKEMI, Member, House of Councilors, Japan; Chairperson, AFPPD

Health now has become a common issues
beyond national boundaries, especially in Asia.
Therefore, I am very glad having this wonderfuloccasion to talk about how Japan can collaborate
with our counterparts in Asia, especially in thisvery important subject of physical therapist.
It is still an unfortunate thing that in Asia still
we do not have enough experts in co-medical
services, including physical therapists. Japan has the most advanced aging society, we have
had so many experiences, which is a positive one and also a negative one – both. So I really
hope that you can take some lessons from both sides and then please collaborate with us.
Especially, aging issues is a common agenda. Looking at 2050, more than 60% of the aging
population over 65 lives in Asia, our area.
The younger population under 40 hit the peak in 1994 and then consistently has declined.
But on the other hand, the population over 65 which will be tripled by 2050. How can wecope with such a large, expecting elderly population in Asia? Only Japan or only your own
country cannot overcome these issues. As you know, the dependency ratio shows to what
extent the younger generation have to share the burden because of the increasing elderly
population and also the younger population. We hit the peak of the dependency ratio in 1960
and it is really fortunate for us – we could keep the peak of the dependency ratio by 2000. So
nearly 40 years we could have wonderful population dividends. Therefore, in 1961, we could
achieve universal health coverage. And then in 2000, we could successfully introduce thelong-term care insurance system.
In these 40 years, we could have a large slice of the industry, we can produce thosemore sophisticated technologies and also the machines and several facilities for long-term careservices, including physical therapist related issues. And also the providers we have had inthese 40 years and we have had those educational systems for physical therapists and otherco-medical services as well.

So we have had 40 years to prepare for aging. However,

unfortunately, the other Asian countries, they once hit the peak of the dependency ratio.
Suddenly, their population of the elderly over 65 have started increasing in a very speedy
manner. Can you imagine it is much speedier than Japan’s speed of aging and you do nothave such a long years such as 40 years of Japan to prepare for aging. This is a very serious
common agenda in Asia as a whole.

9Aging started in European countries around the 1940s but took very long years to bean aged society. According to the UN definition of aging, if the population over 65 share
70% of the whole population, we call it an aging society, and if it has become over 14%, wecall it aged society. An aging society shows 7% and aged society shows 14% of the total
population. And then the triple, 21% of the total population become over 65, we define it asa super-aged society. So in Japan’s case, we can define it as a super-super-aged society.
How can we collaborate with each other? For example, in Japan, we are now facing
very serious shortage of long-term care workers. Therefore, we want to invite well-qualified
long-term care workers from Asian countries to care of our own elderly population with longterm care services. You are having the larger size of the long-term care needs of the elderly
population in the future.

Once those workers can work in Japan and can gain moresophisticated skills for the long-term care services and also those physical services and then,they will be back to their own countries and utilize their own, more qualified, sophisticatedtechniques of co-medical skills for their own elderly population in their own countries.
Therefore, if governments conclude those memorandums and then we can design
those labor markets beyond national boundaries and create circle of labor in Asia as a whole.
This shows that it is a win-win game for both of us. But the important thing is who andwhere the potential labor forces can take the educational services to be experts in co-medical
services.

Maybe this is one of the big subjects for you as expert physical therapists in Asia.
Now Asia has really become under one umbrella because of the interdependence andbecause of increasing elderly population but on the other hand, we do not have enoughcommon systems beyond
national

boundaries

tocollaborate with each other.
I really hope that you cangive us really good ideas on
how to do that.

This is awonderful occasion not only
for Japan but also for other
Asian countries as a whole.

10

Keynote Speech

Masahiro SASAKI, Counselor for Policy Planning Coordination,
Office of Health Care Policy, Cabinet Secretariat of JapanThe aging population is not only aproblem but also a chance. Market sizeof medical care, elderly care, prevention,
rehabilitation, healthcare service, andconsumer products for elderly people isexpected to become large according topopulation aging in Asian countries.
If Asian workers acquire high skills
in elderly care and rehabilitation , they are expected to be main provider of elderly careandrehabilitation in aging Asia. These workers will contribute to generate newindustries in Asian countries. On the other hand, Japan has experience of adaptation to
the aging, and necessary know-how in human resource development, education, andavailable technologies in order to provide various healthcare services including
prevention.

11

Asia Health and Wellbeing Initiative (AHWIN)
Contributing to 3rd goal of SDGs, achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
Promoting autonomous industries of medical / elderly care, healthcare services and otherservices which support healthy life and realizing comprehensive “Mt. Fuji-shaped”
healthcare in respective Asian countries through mutually beneficial cooperation among
Asian countries Minimizing the needs of medical / elderly care through enrichingnecessary healthcare services including business based approaches; (1) Promoting
specific projects and clarifying the purpose of the projects and (2) building anenvironment to advance further cooperation on business basis by creating MOCs witheach partner country which cover the projects contributing to AHWIN.

12

SESSION 1: Symposium“The present situation of professional education in the field of rehabilitation”
Moderator, Kouji IHASHI, President, Japan Association for University Education in Physical Therapy
Panel,

Daisuke JINNAI, Executive Director, Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists
Masako TATEISHI, Vice-President, Japanese Association of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists
Tetsuya TAKAHASHI, Executive Board Member, JPTA, Prof. Juntendo University

Moderator, Kouji IHASHI, President of Japan Association for University Education in Physical Therapy

Kouji Ihashi is a Professor, Fukushima Medical
University, Preparing Section for New Faculty of
Medical Science, registered as Physical Therapist in
1976. Received PhD in Medical Science, Tohoku
University Graduate School of Medicine in 1995

Consultative and Advisory Positions Held:・President of Japan Association for University Education in Physical Therapy, 2017-present
・Editor in Chief, Journal of Japanese Physical Therapy Association, 2007-2013
Membership in Scientific/Professional Organizations:・Japanese Physical Therapy Association (JPTA), 1976-present
・Japanese Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, 1995-present
・American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, 1999-present
Honors and Awards:
・Most valuable paper award, Tohoku J of Physical Therapy, 2008
・JPTA Award, 2015

13

Panel,

Daisuke JINNAI, Executive Director of Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists

Profession education of occupational Therapists
Daisuke Jinnai is an Associate Professor,
International University of Health andWelfare,Schoolof

HealthSciences,

Department of Occupational Therapy.
In 1985, he graduated from Kumamoto
College of Medical Care & Rehabilitation, and a few years of experience in clinicalsetting. From 2013, he is in the current
position in JAOT.
Education for developing occupational therapists had stared at the same year withphysical therapist in Japan. The Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists(JAOT) was established in 1966, having are some departments for Science, Education,
Measures for the system, public relations, international relations and so on. Our mission
is to work toward the improvement of professional skills and cultivation of the personalqualities of occupational therapists, promote the popularization of occupational therapy,
and contribute to people’s health and welfare.
Number of OT schools, certified OTs and memberships of JAOT are rapidly increase
and nearly 80 % members are under 40 years old. Facing to the social needs, such asaging society. Now, number of projects have implemented such as discussion ofamendment the regulation for OTs entry-level education, the many training courses inthe “Post-Qualification Education System for OTs” and so on.
Therecertified

are

105

members

across10

fieldsspecialization

these

of
are

Dementia,

Hand

Surgery

Assistive

Technology,

SpecialNeed Education, Higher Brain
Function,

Acute

Psychiatry,

Dysphagia, Visiting OT, Cancer
and Employment Support.

14

Panel, Masako TATEISHI, Vice-President, Japanese Association of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists

Profession education of SHL Therapists
Masako Tateishi is a Professor, in the
Department of Speech, Language andHearing Therapy(SLHT), Faculty of
Health Science, Mejiro University. She
has received National qualification of
SLHT, worked in the Department of
Rehabilitation of Keio University andobtained PhD in Tokyo University.

Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists (SLHTs), or casually referred to as STs in Japan,
is one of the health professionals serving persons who have communication disorders
including speech, language or hearing disorders, and those who have swallowing
disorders. System of National license in Japan has started in 1997, as Speech-LanguageHearing Therapists Act, and the total number of licensed SLHTs is approximately 31,200.
Japanese Association of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists (JAS).
Unlike PTs and OTs, total number of membership of JAS is approximately 17,000 invarious work settings, gender ratio is 24% Male and 76% Female, there are 82schools forentry-level of SLHT education is 82 in Japan. Facing to the aged society in Japan, themid-term goals of JAS is 1) To increase the number of qualified SLHTs and 2) To makeour professional service fully accessible.
What we are doing 1) Quality improvement of SLHTs; annual conference, continuing
education programs, specialty recognition, publication of a professional journal
2. Adjustment to the social needs;
“

Model

Core

Curriculum”

responding to expanding scope ofpractice “Speech and Hearing Day”
(Sept.1)

expansion

of

SLHT

employment and distribution.

15

Panels, Tetsuya TAKAHASHI, Executive Board Member, JPTA, Prof. Juntendo University
Profession education of Physical Therapists
Professor Tetsuya Takahashi (PhD,
MSc) is based in Tokyo, Japan,
Department

ofFaculty

HealthofPhysiotherapy,
ScienceatJuntendo University. He is anauthor of national guidelines for
Rehabilitation

inPatients

with

Cardiovascular Disease (JCS 2012).

His clinical and research interests include cardiopulmonary rehabilitation for people
with a variety of chronic heart diseases, postoperative physiotherapy in critical care,
physiotherapy for frailty, and self-management of chronic heart disease. He haveextensive teaching experience in undergraduate, postgraduate, international andclinical forums. He is an Editorial Board member for Physiotherapy Journal and Journalof the Japanese Physical Therapy Association.
Role of physiotherapists in Japan for persons after his/her discharge is varied in theeach home care services. From the increase of expenses for medical and long-term careinsurance, physiotherapist are expected to provide more home visit service.
In this situation, main issues of PT education in Japan are 1) 4- year University level
education is Not mandatory, 2) Too many PT schools and students (Quantity > Quality),
3) Inadequate quality assurance of PT schools, 4) Inadequate quality assurance ofclinical educations, 5) Excessive stress in clinical internship, 6) Physiotherapy fee is the
same

if

PTs

qualifications

have

national

whicheverschoolgraduate (any quality of treatment).
It is a time to change from“quantity” to “quality”, for aiming to
be an “independent Professional”.
Japanese PT education should be 4
year

university

patient safety.

level

to

ensure16

Discussion and report from representatives from each association

TaiwanThailand

Vietnam

Sri Lanka

SingaporeRepublic of Korea

17Philippine

Pakistan

Malaysia

Mongolia

Myanmar

Nepal

Macau

Indonesia

18Hong Kong

Bangladesh

Cambodia19

Profiles of participated countries and regions in the field of Physical Therapy/Rehabilitation*12th, Jan, 2019 : Round table discussion at 2nd Asian Physical Therapy Association
Name of title in your language

Organiz

Practising

ation's physicalAcademicMember therapis journals

CPD

Recognised
specialEvents:interest✅

0ts

groups:Starting

ISCED

level(minimum)levelsUpper secondary✅

education

1997

Post professional

degree programmes

Recognised Standar
specialisati
on:

ds of

PTs are permitted topractice

Registration CPD* required
required tofor re-CPD*

required forpractice

registration

membership

No

No

No

Unknown

N/A

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Unknown

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

･Act as first contact/autonomous practitioners･Assess patients/clients

Bangladesh･Physiotherapist･Prefix Dr. and Suffix PT e.g. Dr. Md. Fazal PT

836

1,500

✅

Masters degree0Yes･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services･Act as first contact/autonomous practitioners･�រព��លេ�យចល�

Cambodia･Physiotherapy Standard at Physical Rehabilitation
Center･Physiotherapy Standard of Ministry of Health･Assess patients/clients

155

381

■

✅

0

Upper secondary

✅

None

0

Yes

物理治疗师

1,064

3,198

✅

✅

10

Upper secondary✅

Professional
doctorate, Research

1

Yes

2

Yes

0

Yes

doctorate

Indonesia

Fisioterapis

Macau

･物理治療

･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Offer preventative advice/services

Masters degree,

Hong Kong･Make a diagnosis･Refer to other specialists/services･Law of the health professional practice

1,697

10,000To be added

133

150

■

✅

4

Upper secondary■0

Unknown✅

None

Unknown

None･Assess patients/clients･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Offer preventative advice/services･Assess patients/clients･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Offer preventative advice/services･Act as first contact/autonomous practitioners･Assess patients/clients･Fisioterapia･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services･Assess patients/clients

Malaysia

Pegawai Pemulihan Perubatan Fisioterapi

980

2,900

■

■

0

Upper secondary✅

Masters degree0Yes･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services

Mongolia

MyanmarХөдөлгөөн засалч

147

147

✅

■

0

Upper secondary✅

Masters degree

4

Yes

806

1,569

■

■

0

Upper secondary✅

Masters degree

0

Yes

370

1,500

■

■

0

Secondary

✅

None

0

No

･ေ ဆး ဘက္ကြ ် မ္း က ် င္ ( အေ ၾကာ )･ေ ဆး ဘက္ ကြ ် မ္း က ် င္ ( အေ ၾကာ )･အေ ၾကာ အဆစ္ကု ပညာ ရွင္Nepal･भौितक िचिक�क
･Physiotherapist･Vautik Chikitsak･Assess patients/clients･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services･Assess patients/clients･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services･Act as first contact/autonomous practitioners

Masters degree,

Pakistan･Physiotherapist･Physical Therapist

1,270

15,000■■1Upper secondary✅

Professional
doctorate, Research･Assess patients/clients

10

Yes

Philippines･Physical Therapist･Physical Therapist, Registered, Philippines･Pisikal Terapist or Pisikal Terapi･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services

doctorate･Offer preventative advice/services･Assess patients/clients

4,961

13,000■■5Upper secondary✅

Maters degree0Yes･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services

Republic of Korea 물리치료사

Masters degree,

20,09335,600✅

✅

11Upper secondary✅

Research doctorate

344

1,814

■

✅

4

Upper secondary✅

Bachelors degree

0

No

0

Yes

･Assess patients/clients･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Act as first contact/autonomous practitioners･Assess patients/clients

Singapore･Physiotherapist/Physical Therapist･物理治疗师

･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services･Assess patients/clients

Sri Lanka･Physiotherapist･භෞතචිකිත් සක Bhawthachikithsaka

203

440

■

✅

19

Upper secondary✅

Bachelors degree

2

Yes･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services

Bachelors degree,

Taiwan

物理治療師

1,088

6,405

✅

✅

8

Upper secondary✅

Masters degree,
Professional
doctorate, Research･Act as first contact/autonomous practitioners

1Yes･น ักกายภาพบําบ ัด
･กภ.

1,430

4,400

✅

✅

2

Bachelors degree✅

Graduate diploma,
Masters degree,･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Assess patients/clients

Bachelors degree,

Thailand･Assess patients/clients･Offer preventative advice/services

doctorate

0

Yes

Research doctorate･Make a diagnosis･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Refer to other specialists/services･Offer preventative advice/services* Assess patients * setting goals and planning of treatment

Viet NamCử nhân Phục Hồi Chức Năng chuyên ngànhVật lý trị liệu

800

800

✅

✅

5

Bachelor of PT

Not yet5yes* Making the programme of treatment, prevention* Giving advice/ services in community. * Reassess andevaluate

Japan

理学療法士

83,552 127,000

✅

✅

18

Upper secondary✅

Masters degree,
Research doctorate

19

Yes

･Assess patients/clients･Treat (interventions, advice and evaluation of outcome)･Offer preventative advice/services* CPD - Continuing Professional Development

20

SESSION 2: Welcome reception and meet up program for networking“Physical activity is the essential for active aging”
Remarks Manabu YOSHIDA, Director General of Health Policy Bureau, MHLW

Hiroto ARAKI, Director, Higher Education Bureau, MEXT
Kentaro KISHIMOTO, Director, Healthcare Industries Division, METI
Kuninori TAKAGI, President of Japan Rehabilitation School Association

Aiming at feeling together closely each other more, the Welcome reception and meet up
program for international guest was held at the night of day 1. Theme of the reception
was “Physical activity is the essential for active aging” and participants got anexperience of physical exercise within the atmosphere traditional Japanese art.
Manabu YOSHIDA, Director General of Health Policy Bureau, MHLW

Hiroto Araki, Director for Medical Education Planning, Medical Education Division,
Higher Education Bureau, MEXT

21

In this reception, several Government Officers from MHLW, MEXT, METI included
Director General, and President of Japan Rehabilitation School Association attended.
Before the networking activity, they presented remarks for international guests,
focused about social situation in Japan and this appreciated occasion for interacting
experience and cooperation in the field of physical therapy and rehabilitation.
Kentaro KISHIMOTO, Director, Healthcare Industries Division, METI

Kuninori TAKAGI, President of Japan Rehabilitation School Association

22

Physical active workshop in the traditional way
1) Rising hands for prepare physical activity2) Setting a position at one leg standing

23

Day 2

Informative session

Various Human Resource Development (HRD) cooperation by Japanese Physical
Therapists in Asia
Moderator and Panel, Yasushi Uchiyama, Vice-President of JPTA

Panel,

Masaaki Sakamoto, Prof, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Gunma University
Naoko Orito and Hidehiko Shirooka, National University Health System, Singapore
Isao Otsuka, Aizawa Healthcare International Limited
Kazuhito Matsui, CEO, HOT Rehabili Systems

Moderator and Panel, Yasushi Uchiyama, Vice-President of JPTA

Yasushi UCHIYAMA is PT, PhD amd Vice
President of Japanese Physical Therapy
Association (JPTA), also a Professor at
Graduate School of Nagoya University.

Professional Affiliations and Activities：
2015

Chair of 50st anniversary national congress of Physical Therapy in Japan

2007-present Vice President of Japanese Physical Therapy Association (JPTA)
2006

Chair of 41st national congress of Physical Therapy in Japan

2003-2011

Alternative to E.C., AWP region of WCPT

2001-present Member of Executive Committee, JPTA
1994-present Editor of Journal of Physical Therapy
1985-present Ordinary Member, Japanese Physical Therapy Association

Awards：2004

The Best of Research Presentation Award by 38th Annual Congress of Physical
Therapy in Japan

2003
2003

The Best of Research Paper Award by The Japan Geriatric Society
The Best of Research Paper Award of Sogo Rehabilitation by Kanehara Ichiro Foundation

24

Panel, Masaaki Sakamoto, Prof, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Gunma University
Human Resource Development (HRD) cooperation with Mongolia
Masaaki Sakamoto is a licensed PT
and Professor in the Graduate Schoolof

HealthSciences,

Gunma

University. He received a PhD in theShowa University.

Based on the academic exchange agreement contracted between Faculty of Mongolian
National University of Medical Science (MNUMS) and Graduate School of Health
Sciences, Gunma University in 2007, support has initialized as follows; to develop the
curriculum, human resource development such as instructors included rehabilitation
doctor and sport doctor, holding workshops for faculty and staff of Ministry of Health,accepting international students, special lectures practicum in Gunma University
approximately 90 Mongolian students, and providing postgraduate education (more than
6 students until now).
Future task for Mongolian physical therapy education would be, 1) Basic Knowledge
and skill, 2) Education of graduate students, 3) Cooperative research, 4) Preparation ofphysical therapy textbook in Mongolian language in this project and also we may see thepossibility of distance education. What we were doing was “Support” until now but itwouldn’t be appropriate from now on. We may focus more for cooperation each other.

25

Panels, National University Health System, Singapore
Human Resource Development (HRD) cooperation with Singapore
Naoko Orito

Hidehiko Shirooka

Naoko Orito is a qualified PT, and graduated her MPH of the Nagasaki University in2016. Hidehiko Shirooka is also PT and he received his Msc in Koto University.
Physical therapy in care prevention in Japan has been recognized in the field for Care,
Fall, Frailty Prevention and recently health promotion, and Sport activities. To prevent
dementia, physical therapists can organized exercise class with “Dual-Task Exercise”
which is scientifically effective for brain atrophy as research indicates. For example,
stepping together with telling a name of fruits which is different one in the group around5 - 6 people.
From 2017, Naoko Orito and Hidehiko Shirooka had started to establish multicomponent intervention program based on the agreement of JPTA and National
University Health System in Singapore. Now over 50 localized exercises have beendeveloped and more than 80 certified volunteers are operation in Singapore.

26

Panels, Isao Otsuka, Aizawa Healthcare International Limited
Human Resource Development (HRD) cooperation with China
Isao Otsuka is the PT and Director of
Aizawa Hospital, and Chairman of
Aizawa(Beijing)

Healthcareinternational Limited, who received
his

Masterdegreein

Shinshu

University.

Aizawa Healthcare International Limited had two hospitals in Beijing, Beijing Puhua
International Hospital and Beijing Hankun Hospital.
There are differences between China and Japan, about development of therapy in thefield rehabilitation and number of rehabilitation beds (approximately 60 beds/10,000 in
Japan, 7 beds/10,000 in China), also workforce in the rehabilitation. In Japan,
rehabilitation professions are PTs, OTs and STs, number those specialists areapproximately 230,000. If we see that in China, total number of “rehabilitation

therapists” is around 20,000, that Traditional Chinese Medical doctors are not included.
There is a huge gap such as competency and professionalism which Japaneserehabilitation professions have and rehabilitation therapists.
For cooperating HRD in
this field, we consistently
and continuously put effort
for quality of rehabilitation
care for patients.

27

Panels, Kazuhito Matsui, CEO, HOT Rehabili Systems
Human Resource Development (HRD) cooperation with Republic of Korea
Kazuhito is the CEO of Hot Rehabili
Systems (Ltd.) and licensed PT in Japan.
After he had clinical experience in a hospitaland work experience in a Municipal office,he established HOT Rehabili Systems in
1998. In 2017, HOT Rehabili Systems Korea
has established.

Main businesses of HOT Rehabili Systems are, Home-visit nursing, Home-visit care, In
home care support, Day care, Short-stay life care, Private residential home with nursing
care, Elderly-only housing with services, Nursing Small-scale・Multifunctional business,
Group home for people with dementia, Welfare equipment lending and selling, Municipal
preventive care business as of 2018, and number staff is 345 people. Put rehabilitation
as the axis of business, comprehensive home support system in the community has
developed. Not only just experienced care for customers, scientifically, utilizing objective
indicators, goal set and appropriate intervention had been generated and implemented.
Aging society itself would be barrier of economic grows, so it would be a timing for
preparing of business to support long-term care not only in the Republic of Korea but
also in other Asian countries sharing knowledge and having a collaboration work.

28

SESSION 4: Roundtable discussion
Moderator, Kazuto HANDA, President, JPTA
1)

HRD in the field of rehabilitation and physical therapy in Asia

2)

Future cooperation

3)

Next meeting(Chair, Kazuto Handa) I believe that we have been able to confirm the situations andthis time for you together, we requested some administrative officials to come also.
(Bangladesh, Rajib Hasan) I am working in my country as Deputy Director, Planningin the Ministry of Social Welfare. These I found was totally new in the concept of
rehabilitation services comparing in Bangladesh aspects. I am hopeful these subjects I
can easily implement and I will try to endorse the issues in the government structure.
I was former president of the Bangladesh Physiotherapy Association, 7 years back,Bangladesh was not so well deputed with the physiotherapy and rehabilitation services.
Within last 10 years, our government is trying to improve the rehabilitation services wellin a platform so that the mass population in our country can get at least quality services.
Now government of Bangladesh has implemented 103 integrated disability service
centers in my country, in all the subdistrict level with 32 mobile therapy rehabilitationvans in cooperation with the World Bank and government program.
We have completed the act, the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Council Act 2018 in the lastparliament, last bill. In that rehabilitation council, 18 health professionals will be
regulated in our country. Whether physical therapy, is the number 1 profession in out of
18 professionals, and there are other professionals like occupational therapy, speech andlanguage therapy, 5 different types of psychology, starting with clinical psychology, social
psychology, counselling psychology, school psychology and development psychology, andthere are special education and the other area.

29

In our council, we have got the act
passed

as

all

the

rehabilitation

professionals with other technologists who
are working in the rehabilitation side, alsowith the technician with short course, all
will

be

registered

but

only

the

rehabilitation professionals will get thelicense. This is a good landmark in mycountry to stop the malpractice over there.
(Mongol, Oidov Batgerel) These 2 days, it has been informative, There is so much we
can learn from all of you, not just Japan, but also all the other 17 countries, all thedelegation and we benefitted so much from your expertise and your input. It has beenvery productive forum for our delegation in Mongolia. For Mongolia, we adapted theJapanese style curriculum and at the University we set the department and then provide
a 4-year education. Then MEXT and the Ministry of Finance support us to comply.
However, Mongolia is still the developing country and we have many lifestyle disease.
There is prevalence, how the PT is going to intervene in the lifestyle disease. In thelecture yesterday, there was a revision of the Japanese curriculum, I thought that wasvery interesting. For instance, he talked about the imaging or for the pharmacology or
nutrition, so those are the new course in the module, in Japanese curriculum. I thoughtthat was a good movement in Mongolian since we adapt curriculum from Japan so that
we can follow suit. For instance, in our PT, perhaps there is imaging diagnosis because
I believe that we need to learn about the imaging so that we can need to revise ourMongolian curriculum.
Japan with such a long history in PT area, especially for the instructors, so I wish, I do
hope that the Mongolian instructor will go to as a researcher in Japan and then theylearn in Japan and then when they come back to Mongolia, hope that they can make thebest use in Mongolian field. There are other Japanese universities have some programs
to receive the overseas program, not only the Gunma University but other Japanese
Universities will also welcome the Mongolian students. We need the postgraduate as weare not there just yet, so Mongolia’s again lifestyle disease, especially for the myocardial
infarction and some stroke for specific PT, that is what we would like to learn.

30(Singapore, Yong Limin)
I am an administrator in Singapore
Ministry of Health. We form our Life
Health Office just last year because we see
the importance of the representations ofLife Health profession in the ministry. We
have very limited resources in Singapore.
We face the biggest challenge that is
actually the manpower shortage. We have so many things that we actually need to do inpreventative care, in rehabilitations and also palliative care. We need to learn from every
one of you to have better solutions to overcome our challenges. I really appreciate JPTA,
Office of Healthcare Policy Cabinet Secretariat and ERIA to have this initiative and also
to actually take the leadership in having this forum, gathering all of us, to have thissharing and learning together so deeply appreciate.
What is going to happen to the Singapore Life Health Professional is really since thestart of having our Life Health Professional Act, so physiotherapy is essentially covered
under this act and with this act, we are actually the first to assess and also actually
being recognized as full independent professionals in Singapore and also the emphasison the education and training. We are now actually trying to further explore how we canactually bring our life health professional to higher level of competency so that we canachieve our objective to the outcome-based evaluation, especially the justification for
funding. Moving forward the funding is going to based on the outcome in Singapore
Healthcare System. This is actually a very important pivot point for us because thatwill really help us to justify further why do we actually need to spend so much resources
for certain services. If with very solid outcome, I believe that physiotherapy profession
can really contribute our value and also to actually help in solving the healthcare
problem at a national level or even at international level.
(Thailand, Somjai Luevisadpaibul)
My name is Somjai Luevisadpaibul. Thailand divides public healthcare into 12 regions.
Each region covered 5 million people. Each region has a committee which consists ofrepresentative from 3 major sectors; one academia sector, people sector and thegovernment sector. I have responsibility for region 10.

31(Thailand, Wichai Eungpinichpong) I would represent our country officers, Ms. Somjai
Luevisadpaibul, I will speak for her. Here is the National Council of Security Office ofThailand, for the Thai government and at the same time, here is the President of PT
Council, currently at the same time. It is good opportunity for her to participate in thisconference.

First of all, she would like to thank the ERIA, JPTA and Office of

Healthcare Policy Cabinet Secretariat for good opportunity for her to learn from all othercountries regarding the elderly care and role of PT in terms of prevention, promotion,
apart from the rehabilitation that we used to be cover in the rehabilitation field.
Nowadays, we are looking forward to work more and more on prevention andpromotion role of the PT especially in the elderly throughout the Thailand. What she
thinks after this good experience to put forward the role of the physical therapy as wellas the healthcare providers and healthcare professionals for prevention and promotionin the elderly. More specifically, she wishes that after this conference, she would like toconduct a pilot study in many important places, province and prefecture in Thailand,
probably we will start off with some study regarding the role of rehabilitation, personal
focusing on the physical therapy and exercise for the elderly people. We might do thescreening first to see whether they have any other problem physically and mentally. We
plan to execute this project very soon after this hopefully.
(Nepal, Smriti Suwal) First of all, I would like to thank organizers for providing Nepal
Physiotherapy Association to be the part of this dynamic platform, and it is very good
opportunity to have a very interesting, learning and sharing opportunity as well.
I am a sub-treasurer of Nepal Physiotherapy Association and I am also associatedworking for humanity and inclusion, the new name of Handicap International (HI) Nepal
Program. I am also associated with Ministry of Health to provide Ministry of Health thetechnical support to design the training curriculum, to design the disability, introduction
to the health workers and female community health volunteers.
In context of Nepal, rehabilitation and the need of assistive device was not that muchin the priority list of Ministry of Healthand Population until 2015 Nepal
Earthquake.
there

was

rehabilitation

After the earthquake,
a

huge
and

demand

the

needs

for
of

physiotherapy and then the division forrehabilitation and disability was alsoannounced under the Ministry of32

Health. We know that the need is very high in our country and even in Asia obviously
but the demand and supply is not yet to be fulfilled. I think every one of us should thinkthat how can we fulfill the demand and the supply to meet the need. Can be identified
the cases from the community level and then refer those cases to physiotherapy
rehabilitation centers. This kind of approach can also create a big impact in thecommunity.
In Nepal, most of the physiotherapists are focused at the central level and very lessare in the community level because there are only 23 seats provided from the government
quota. NEPTA along with Humanity & Inclusion, HI, we do advocacy in Ministry of
Health to form much more quota in rural part of Nepal because the demand is muchhigher there. I am also associated with one small project called ‘Early Detection’ where
I train government health workers and female community health volunteers to early
identify children with birth defect.
This is a pilot project in rural Nepal which has created a big demand for the need ofphysiotherapy because it is in the rural part and there is no any physiotherapy rehab
center. People should come at least they have to walk for 2 whole days to reach the center.
Lots of people with disability and children with disability have been identified and they
are now going to set a physiotherapy rehabilitation center and recruit one
physiotherapist in that rural part of Nepal. I think this kind of approach is also very
important in the community to advocate.
There is a very huge gap in data collection and research in our country and what I
think is we have to also link rehabilitation with opportunities of education and livelihood
because these are the cross-cutting issues in disability. At the same time, we also to be apart of Rehab 2030. After the care and rehabilitation package is formed, it will be verymuch interesting and a very strong tool to have a proper advocacy.
(Cambodia, Lak Muy Seang) I am from Ministry of
Health, Cambodia. First of all, I would like to say
thank you to JPTA, ERIA and Cabinet Secretariat
Japan, invited us to join this forum. It is very
interesting forum that this is the first time I havejoined.
Ministry of Health in Cambodia, we have createdso many strategies, for example, PT standard. We
collaborated with Ministry of Social Affair andfacilitated by associations and ICRC to develop

33

standard management in our country for PT. We have developed some guidelines forexample, stroke management. We have developed rehabilitation action plan for oursystem in our country. We have like some doctors for ST and OT and PT. We have likehuman development on PT standard. I would like the forum and JPTA in Japan to help
us on develop curriculum. We have curriculum for 4 year’s bachelor’s PT, but we needteacher from overseas to help us. For clarifying more, I would like to invite Dr. Song Sit
for clarify this.
(Cambodia, Song Sit) Just make a short narrative on Dr. Lak Muy Seang. It is lack thenumber of physiotherapy enroll in the physiotherapy course, so the main action for us
with going to do more advocacy with University of Health Science, especially makeawareness in the community to attract more physiotherapist students to enroll to thecourse because every year we have only 15 students per year to enroll for thephysiotherapy course and we have only one school. So, if we continue to do, we will lackof human resource to support our elderly or non-communicable disease who need
physiotherapy and rehabilitation. In addition to that, we are going to improve our
education system and the 4-year bachelor’s degree. But at the moment, we have only 32
bachelor’s degree physiotherapists local, so we need to go to overseas to get master’s
degree. That is why we would like to announce for further support again to different
countries, not only Japan but can be from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and also Thailand andother country, Singapore as well. That we would like to have our local physiotherapy toobtain a master degree, they can manage our 4-year bachelor’s degree program after
they back to Cambodia. Otherwise, we will rely on external support and we will face
future human resource development for the Cambodian physiotherapists.
(Chair, JPTA) There are some issues that arepopping up since yesterday and I would like tojust summarize. There was a delegate from
Mongolia.

There is any research after

postgraduate in Japan, we have all the policy
for the elderly people.

If they can come to

Japan and receive training, would that bepossible if there is a program, training programavailable, so one of the advanced facilities in

34

PT? Advance PT facility, they are welcoming. They say yes to receive the overseas
students.
Number one, will you be able to come to Japan to receive the training? If the answer
is yes, we are going to prepare. For instance, dual-task exercise is one of the examples
and then there are different types of the exercise, so anything that you can learn in Japan.
Can you come to Japan and can we just learn together? Is it feasible? That I would
like to ask you. If the answer is yes, that means that we, JPTA, are going to start
preparing for that project. Anyone? How we are going to shape the project? Of course,that is we need to consider further but in Japan so we are going to find some facilities
that can accept overseas students. Do you have any requires about the condition? Of
course, you may face difficulties about the language. Anything else? If you have any
request for us to develop this project? Any request or condition you would like to haveaside from language barrier?
(Bangladesh, Mohammad Shahadat Hossain) The people, the professional, thepolicymaker who are in the good position in the South Asia, they come forward to get thevoluntarily or just give the proposal willingly to come forward and discuss with the JPTA,
I think. This is my proposal to you. Everybody should give the proposal to come forward
because they are receiving us, they are calling us to discuss about the issue. Everybody
should come forward and discuss about the issue. It is an excellent program, I think notonly in the student, but teachers also will be happy to come for the training in the various
sides.
(Chair, JPTA) We, JPTA, what type of the system that we have? Especially for the – wehave some acute facility or the chronic type of the facility, or we have disability facility,
this is the number and this is for the elderly care and many will be able to receive. We
are going to just summarize and then how many those facilities are available. So, that is
also our proposal on our end. We would like to make a proposal to you. How does thatsound?

35(Mongolia, Oidov Batgerel) There is no ending. This is one of the starting from the acuteto chronic and then maintenance phase, so there is never ending. There are all different
functions, acute and chronic, recovery, so if you will have any kind of holistic reallytraining from end to end. That is my request and perhaps not just Mongolia, economicallythere was no fund to come to Japan because of the situation in economics in certain –because it is very expensive in Japan. If possible any funding or aids that will be able toprovide for stay, not just to observation or technical visit but for us really substance timethat we can learn more in Japan, so those are our requests.
(Chair, JPTA) According to Japan law, anyone who has PT license in overseas can comeand work with the Japanese patients as long as there is a practical, more like a purpose,
yes. All the overseas PT licensed individual will be able to work on the Japanese. But ifthat practice is really going prolong for many, many long time, so that will be treated asa medical intervention, this means they will have to be under the supervision of the
MHLW in Japan. Duration itself – so there are all the different zones training available,that is what we would like to establish and for the cost, as you mentioned, but that may
be the hinder, so the language, because we are the professional. When I went toNetherland and studied there, among the PTs, somehow we could communicate it. For
example, acute to prevention not from the first to third level prevention, including themall. Hope that we can provide those holistic or comprehensive training to you.
(Singapore, Muhammad Jazimin Bin Haron)
We have agreed that sharing of information and knowledge is very important across theregions in Asia. I think we also have to look at technology and leverage on technology. Sofar, Singapore Physio Association, we are talking to the Australian Physio Association tocollaborate in terms of sharing webinars. By having webinars, we can actually be in
our homelands and still have live podcasts or webinars from overseas. If we ourselves
can find a solution to that, we do not need to travel overseas just to learn something. We

36

can actually still be in our home. That will save a lot of time and we can just listen to the
podcast, listen to the webinar and learn something. If language is a barrier at backend,
we can add some subtitles to the webinars and that really solves a lot of issues also. I
think we should also look at technology and leverage on this to be able to move forward
and improve all of our knowledge in this Asia region.
(Chair, JPTA) As was proposed or suggested from Singapore, we do not have to limit
our activities to just face to face meetings or trainings. In Asia, there are countries andareas that will be advancing forward the degree is different, therefore, those who are
advanced then if the overall team or countries and regions could advance forward, itwould be good. So, not just JPTA but Singapore, Taiwan and Korea, those who haveadvanced, everyone could participate in, I have high expectations for this project.
I want to discuss what we are going to specifically do. One is the Japan Domestic
training structure and also participation for that. That was what I asked you first.
Regarding the second agenda item, yesterday from each country, regarding education tofoster PTs in various difficulties. Going forward how education could be possibly
supported or which countries are requesting the support, I would like to confirm thatand listen to your opinions about that.
From Cambodia earlier those requests were mentioned and yesterday from several
countries, regarding education requests or opinions were raised but further in thosecountries or other countries, if there are any requests regarding education in addition toyesterday’s opinions, if you could raise them please.
(Pakistan, Sulman Malik Kamboh)
In Pakistan, the basic graduate degree is DPT, doctor of physiotherapy, 5-year degree
program. It has been started from last 10 years, but unfortunately we have very less,only one program for Ph.D. and we have not a single supervisor locally in Pakistan.
Higher Education of Commission of Pakistan has designed a modular system in which
the universities are inviting foreign
supervisors, and they have to pay very
high charges to them and in return they
are taking the huge amount of the feesfrom the students. It is very difficult for
Ph.D. students to study.
It is a request from us that as we aretalking about the strengthening of the

37physiotherapy profession in the Asia, so all the countries which are senior to us anddoing started Ph.D. programs previously, they should encourage and urge the students
from those countries where the Ph.D. is fresh. It is our request from Pakistan to upgrade
the faculty of physiotherapy profession in Pakistan by giving and by signing MoUs from
our association and our government and faculty.
(Chair, JPTA) Education in the graduate schools

is more academic and practitioner

parts of joint research could be advanced mutually, and I think that is quite fruitful. How
the mutual compatibility of the credits are possible and also the remote, kind of lectures,
how to deal with that? We have quite high motivation and momentum for it right now. A
discussion from Pakistan earlier to set the curriculum and curriculum management
including that as well if you could propose and suggest your needs, then we could serve
as your contact and nationwide universities, PT organizations, we do have intimate
relationships with them, and there are such organizations in existence.
(Taiwan, Chung-Liang Shi) Actually, we
can provide the scholarship for students
including master’s program or Ph.D.
program as well. In addition, we haveover 20 medical centers where to provide
the PT training including short andcomprehensive physical therapy training
as well. We are happy to join thisplatform and Taiwan PTA would also liketo provide a contact window for all of you. We are talking about in these 2 days the PT
diverse development is a global trend so not only providing the elder population, we also
have to consider the other population such as the child and disability patient and so on.
I would like to suggest we have to consider to develop the specialty or sub-specialty
training curriculum through the panel discussion, maybe, this is our issue we canconsider. Besides the sustainability is another important issue, even we can provide theproject shortly. How to cope with the healthcare reform in every country, incorporating
the finance support, so this is our second suggestion for you to consider.
(Chair, JPTA) We have called joint degree system, so this is the overseas credit
accreditation and the Japan’s accreditation too. One-fourth of the required credit, theycan earn from the exchanged score. There is also some scholarship programs, so we would
like to really set this forward to official level. This is a top-level individual or the next

38

generation leadership, so the purpose of this program is for those who need to be
developed in the future. Not just a traditional PT technique or knowledge, that for publichealth and social security’s area, so would be extensive higher education, so more likethe master’s degree education should be implemented in an extensive way.
Perhaps, there may be a PT be able to work as administrative officer or the private
sector or the country’s economics, something as a policymaker, a lawmaker would be from
our among PT individual.
(Malaysia, Yew Su Fen) We have urgent
needs for our physiotherapist students infinal year to do postings in the hospitals
andbecause

we

have

about

30

universities and colleges in a country
that

is

providingphysiotherapy

education, there is a great shortage forthese students to actually be posted tohospitals where they can learn all thedifferent disciplines. Some just posted to clinics in the rural areas where they can really
not learn anything, so it is a disappointment for the students when they were not posted
to hospitals. Because the hospitals only accept 2 or 3 postings, but we have more thanthat you see, so they actually speak to me and ask me and see whether we can ask Japan,
maybe Taiwan, Korea, Philippines or whoever can help us to provide postings for thesestudents so that they can really learn proper physiotherapy instead of just going to aclinic with one physiotherapy working there and they hardly learn anything because it
is not a hospital postings. Since we the association is here today on this platform, weshould be able to hope we can work together and going through our association, we canhelp these students to find appropriate postings to be posted to all your countries. I
think this will greatly help us especially Malaysia, since we are very short of area ofclinical postings.
(Malaysia, Che Ruhani Binti Che Ja’afar)
Thank you very much ERIA, JPTA and Cabinet Secretariat in Japan for inviting us
from Malaysia. I am Ruhani from Ministry of Health, Director of Allied Health Divisions.
Allied Divisions in Malaysia is trying to process some project which has already started
in 2016, now we are in process doing the regulations could affect these and also othercriteria for registration. We hope we can enforce the act in 2019. If we see other39

professions, for example, medical, pharmacies, and dentistry, so they all go towards
experts and also specialists. I think the association can think of to bring up thecompetencies of physiotherapist. We need a leadership because to upgrade
physiotherapist to be a policymaker because Asia is going to be aged society, so one of
the topics now, the sustainability, SDGs, UHC, and also the strategy planning for the
Ministry also, we are going to go to the preventive and also health promotion.
In this case, I will propose that JPTA also can collaborate with University to make theprogram that can be recognized by whole country and also I mean the curriculum shouldbe accredited by the accreditation body so that later on we can recognize that as a
specialist, especially for the geriatric. You can upgrade all the health profession to ahigher competency. I would like to share in Malaysia, we are working together with
doctors and also other specialists. We are doing the credentialing, so those who do nothave the special qualification when they practice for certain years and then they carrybook and they can improve, they are competent for certain then we credential them.
(Chair, JPTA) You mentioned the team of
medical care, for the public health or all thescience in the graduate university school, thescientific pharmacological knowledge andthe technology aspect, we need to have very
abundant curriculum. Especially for not justJapan and other countries whether theuniversities or the facilities, they will be
provider of accreditation for instance, Hong
Kong Polytech. There was state-of-the-art technology that supports, I think Hong Kongis possible, feasible and also the other, there is a very country specific or the academia
specific support.
We see the shortage of number of the PT within Asian country. This is a realistic issue,
especially at certain region to carry out prevention or primary care, so the PTs work with
OT, SLHT or perhaps that the PT has to carry what the OT, SLHT would do, I think it
is very difficult to put in the word. Sometimes, PT has to wear different hat for OT, SLHT
so that we can really provide all our profession in an extensive way, and this is what I
heard when I visited other country and regions. There was a limited amount of thesocial security, how we are going to manage and use efficiently and that is highexpectation from administration. From that perspective, your own country, what typeof direction you would like to take or JPTA or among association, how we are going to40share the information, the postgraduate training aspect?
(Thailand, Wichai Eungpinichpong) I am PT, not OT, but my suggestion might cover
the OT and ST as well.

Regarding the postgraduate education, I think probably tomyself Japan is the best model of Asia. This would be a good opportunity to create thespecialist model regarding healthcare or health promotion and prevention, possibly startwith short course training, could be 1 month or 3 months training. This is not master’s
degree yet, should be more flexible. After we can move forward to the postgraduate,
master’s or doctorate afterwards. I think this should be possible for the JPTA to handle

the training or the education like this. By doing this, we can put forward the manpower
and the vision that experience so that people who come for the training they can get theexperience back, their vision back to their home country.
(Myanmar, Moe Ko Ko Kyaw)

What I saw HRD cooperation in Mongolia, thecurriculum textbook to be written in their own mother language. I really do not what isthe pros and cons for studying physiotherapy in mother language because in our country,
physiotherapy started from 1959, English only. That is quite interesting for us and is one
thing. Another thing is just now as mentioned about OT and ST. Sometime we PT, andsometime we need to wear the OT hat, and sometime we need to wear ST shoes on us
because especially in our country we do not have, totally zero number of OT and ST. How
can you support of human resource. We have a plan to open a new department in our
medical technology university, but we still need to wait very long time to get that justOT and PT. So hopefully these countries will help us out something us for developing
rehabilitation program in our country.
(Chair, JPTA) In your curriculum, which language do you use your mother languages or
English or universal another language? In Japan, there is also dominancy of Japanese
language but for graduate schools, especially in our university, we use English. Any othercomments regarding education, CPD program and informal topics, training program andformal level graduate school education dividing into several stages to respond to various

41

needs respective countries and associations to collaborate with each other.
(Hong Kong, Pang Marco Yiu Chung)For working physiotherapists, our association offers a lot of continuing education
courses throughout the year and CPD points are given. If this is something that we want
to work on, we could distribute information to the respective associations of our region,
so if someone is interested in taking these courses, they could come or we could think
about teaching these courses in your country.
(Nepal, Laxman Adhikari) Our country Nepal is facing, we have no master’s level course
our Nepalese students, most of the Nepalese students went foreign countries for higher
education. We requested all the Asian countries to providing us if possible for scholarship
to us. Second thing is we all Asian countries’ physios should have conducted knowledge
exchange program like this forum. We have to exchange our knowledge and experiencesamong the Asian PTs. It should be good for us to enhance our profession.
Second things, if possible JPTA can help our government worker to provide 1-2 monthtraining for them. It is good for us and we also expect JPTA has more experience todevelop a curriculum for the higher education, bachelor’s level education and others.
We have to conduct this forum in other countries or other Asian countries, also it would
be good and we have to collaborate work to all of us with good cooperation.
(Nepal, Shamed Katila Shrestha) The Second Asian Physical Therapy Forum has beena great platform for sharing knowledge and ideas, organized by JPTA, ERIA and Cabinet
Secretariat. I did not know that there were so many physical therapists in Taiwan,
Malaysia and Japan, we recently have only two universities and at the present only one
university is giving the education of Bachelor of Physiotherapy. When I graduated in2011, all the physiotherapists are studying outside and most of them go to India andthere are very few physios. They go to Belgium and other countries but I think there islack of information that in the Asian country that there are universities in and aroundthe Asia itself, so it is better for all the students of Asia that they get to study in the Asia

42

itself. And they can work for people in Asia not the other region in the world.
We may get to know about the university that you have, the kind of education that you
provide either it may be inter level or bachelor’s or master’s or Ph.D., so that all of us
can contact and circulate that message to all the interested students or participants andthey can know about the fee structure, the living style, the language in which they aregoing to study so that it will be best platform for all. All interested students who want tostudy physiotherapy in Asia itself rather than travelling to long distance country and somany difficult outside.
(Nepal, Smriti Suwal) I just would like to add
a very short point on that.

Along with ourphysiotherapist from Nepal, maybe, we can also
send some policymakers, decision makers from
Ministry of Health, just for the short-termcourses like what is the importance of
rehabilitation and this kind of small course.
That will be very much helpful for us toadvocate at the same time.
(Chair, JPTA) We have a delegate comment from Nepal.

What we are going to do?

This is our second forum. How we are going to shape the third forum? Would you liketo give us a very short one message from each country plan, please?
(Bangladesh, Mohammad Shahadat Hossain) I think we are really happy to see the
JPTA’s performance. The AWP congress was fine but I think here this platform isimportant for developing countries like Bangladesh. This is my proposal that 4 or 5
countries can arrange this type of program for the future.
(Cambodia, Song Sit) Actually, this kind of meeting is very useful and for the third
meeting, we would like to follow up what we are doing here, especially submit the
proposal for some short course trainings that JPTA is going to provide and related tosome support of education, future scholarships providing, especially master’s degreewith different country should be followed up. We would like to continue with similar
agenda related to the sharing the experience with education within the whole Asian
countries putting the impact of continuous professional development within the Asia forthe next forum meeting.

43(Hong Kong, Pang Marco Yiu Chung) For the next forum, I think it would be nice if we
can follow up on the PT education and training, if we could come up with some solid
proposals and how we move forward. I would like to hear more about the other countries’
request or needs and for other countries, what we can offer and so we could come up withsomething more solid.
(Indonesia, Moh. Ali Imron) We learned much upon this forum and hopefully willcontinue in next year in more specific area maybe. We should put a lot of time to discuss
about the education and then for the clinical setting, I think will be useful. I believe it
will be held in the next year.
(Macau, Kit Man Ao) We can collect all the data about education, either like entry levelor CPD courses that we can share online and maybe some like online courses or somelike materials that we can get together and then we can share to those like the country
or the regions like us that we do not have academic background or some country that it
may not easy to go out to study and also the time cost. I think we can put something
online and then try to make it easy to everybody to assess that would help about theeducation and also the human resources.

(Malaysia, Yew Su Fen)

Malaysia thinks that what Japan has done is indeed very

useful for us. We have learned a lot and another great imminent problem that is facing
not only Malaysia but the whole country is NCDs. We know that obesity is one of thebiggest problems even for growing children, 5-6 years old now, very obese and Asian
countries is I think second one after Europe. We are physiotherapies, experts in exercise,should actually play a role in helping, incombating NCDs. We can include NCDs adapt
from what Japan is doing so that it will beeasier for us to implement our policy into ourprimary healthcare where we can look into
what we can do for the community, adult obesityand children obesity and even diabetic andheart disease. We hope that maybe by next year
Japan can help us by supplying us withknowledge on what you have been doing and wehope to learn from you.

44

(Mongolia, Oidov Batgerel) Here, all the PT associations in each country, withgovernment officials who are in-charge of the PT development, so this forum was quite
meaningful for us. This is the PT and then other related rehabilitation disciplines; OT,
ST, and we learned about the situation in different disciplines and that was informative.
About the next forum proposal, we would like to study about acute or recovery stage inJapan. Japanese PT, they were the really forerunner in Asian countries for instance forthe acute recovery stage, so those PT in that specific stage what type of activities, would
you please introduce what the acute PT and recovery or chronic stage PT are doing inJapan. We need to share about ICF in the medical setting for teaching to students.
(Myanmar, Moe Ko Ko Kyaw) The Japanese curriculum for physiotherapy is
acknowledged by WCPT. We also want to be like that. What are the Japanese Physical
Therapy Association really takes a leading role not only one country, maybe Taiwan orsomething like that? Leading role to standardize curriculum for local physiotherapy
schools. Like our country, it is very hard for us to do that kind of job, we do not have thehuman resource and we do not have the budget. It is like developed country like Japanor other countries will do that. This may be good for all the countries in this region.
(Nepal, Shamed Katila Shrestha) I think we can have discussions on physiotherapy
education and the kind of education system, university and practice that we have in
different countries, we could have a common platform now. I think we can talk on more
about our questions on autonomous because I find it that it is very much prominent incountries like Asia that the questions on our independent practice has been raised once
It is truly our right that only physiotherapists prescribe exercise. I find this is very major
problem in countries like Asia that you know the patient when comes to already havegot physiotherapy treatment mentioned by some other profession, so this has to be looked
upon. On behalf of all Nepal physiotherapy association, I would once again like to thankall the organizers, ERIA, Cabinet Secretariat in Japan and JPTA.

45(Pakistan, Sulman Malik Kamboh) I simply endorse the statement of senior colleague
from the Hong Kong. The agenda of the next meeting should be the physiotherapy
education and training.
(Philippines, Michael Pereyra Gabilo) This is the vital role of physical therapy in the
Asian people when we face aging population. Now, we are looking at the human resources.
Probably the third forum, I would highly recommend education and research because I
believe that is a good mixture, a good fusion, two good topics that we can discussespecially that we need to somehow look at the best practices from different countries,
not just only on how to deliver or the teaching, learning strategies. More importantly, let
us look at the clinical education, not just only in the classroom setting.
But we also need to highlight how do other countries perform clinical education becauseof course as an entry level PT or we are looking at the future PT graduates, we shouldbe able to train them because that is the very crucial portion in their education, theclinical education part as well as of course probably looking into the different best
evidences that we have.
(Korea, Wootaek Lim) In shortly to answer come from issues and request what we
discussed today, we recently made a guideline for education including curriculum andclinical practice and number of professors requested, this was working with American
Physical Therapy Association and WCPT as well. Those can be shared in the next forum
I think. In case of scholarship and so forth for students from other countries, we KPTA
can have connect come from other countries to university in Korea directly so that they
can get a scholarship, so just let me know if you need help.
Before closing the forum, we would like to propose to other countries to make one
foundation or organization for research. We can call this Asian Research Center. Basedon the research center, we can support PT researchers and make great leaders. This canbe helpful for PT when we act the law
or regulation to expand our boundaryand develop expertise.
There

are

already

numerous

researchers about exercise performedby PTs, but it would be great if we canact more systematically and will beorganized. When you have a certain
person which is common in all

46

countries, like aging, we can get data to support it and it would be great if we can have
many results from published papers, not just opinion from PTs. That is objective andmore powerful and can be effective response against the challenges. This is other issue
but I think today is a great place to discuss this as well. We, Korean Physical Therapy
Association, are currently trying to enact Physical Therapy Regulation Act. In South
Korea, there is only Health Professional Act including occupational therapist and speechtherapist. It is similar to other country when I checked other countries’ law. So, hopeevery country has a specific Physical Therapy Regulation Act to promote right of the PTs
and expand the scope of PT practice.

We are currently collecting the relevant data

which can be helpful. We share these results with other association once we got. Pleasetell me your law or regulation, which defines who is PT and the scope of PT.
(Singapore, Muhammad Jazimin Bin
Haron) I believe Hong Kong, we needto have a solid proposal for education
training. I think for example, like aportal, calendar, and a list of events
that is happening across Asia and theevents could be face to face courses thatyou can fly over to attend or even somewebinars or online lectures that you
can just attend live or even justdownload the podcast. Since a lot of us are struggling because we have members inassociation, this can also be made especially only for our own association members sothat means if you are a physio and you want access to all these materials, perhaps youneed to join your association. Therefore, you can access to all these materials and thatwill actually help us a lot.
We also need to look at with all of this training how exactly does it affect patient’s
outcomes, does the increase in physiotherapy knowledge lead to better outcomes ofpatients or are we just learning and nothing changes to the patients, that will be a very
interesting thing to take note. With regards to Malaysia talking about NCDs, actually
Singapore is also very keen in addressing NCDs. As you know, Singapore has a very highrate of diabetes, the government has also declared the battle on diabetes, so thegovernment is very interested and we have come up with many resources from thedoctors, the dietitians, the physios with regards to multi-pronged approach towards
lifestyle management for diabetes.

47

Although I can’t promise with you at this moment, we are keen to share our resources.
It looks like we should be able to share some resources, but let me take this back to mycouncil and my executive committee to see how we can collaborate with everyone.

(Sri Lanka, S.K.D.D.Padmasiri) We have so many sportsmen retire untimely because of
the poor rehabilitation, because we have no proper process for onsite and long-term
rehabilitation and there are other problems coming up, this is related to NCDs,
myocardial infarctions due to the change of the lifestyle. If you can develop a programfor conditions, such as body ailments due to poor ergonomics and some ailments in themuscular systems, it will be very useful. Next is a program to exchange students, theundergraduates and the postgraduates and on the other hand if you can give training tomaster’s programs, two or three people can be trained and then they can go to their local
country and start their own master’s programs training two or three people. This type ofprogram will be very effective.
(Taiwan, Jau-Yih Tsauo) About next forum, I would suggest to discuss about professional
development in each country such as how to fight for the law and license and for thoseareas without physician and even direct assess, all about the professional autonomy.
TPTA will collect the information of all universities for the foreign students and we canshare to all of you. Our officer said he can find some budgets for short-term training in
hospital for countries, maybe you need it.
(Thailand, Wichai Eungpinichpong) For the next forum, we still want to keep on follow
up the elderly healthcare because this is a big issue, not just now even in the near 20
years future, I think probably is good opportunity for PT to be well known by thecommunities, not just the medical but for the social community. We should keep on andfor next meeting we should follow up for each country.
I also agree with the topic about autonomous practice of physical therapists is very

48

important for us too. In Thailand, we have overcome this. We can have direct access.
Probably next time, we can share how we obtain our autonomous.

(Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Huong)
Currently, in my country, we have two main curricular. That is in PT level, bachelor’sin PT level, a full time 4-year for student in high school, second is at least 3-year for the
PT working in hospital. In the future, I want to develop master’s level in physical therapy.
Therefore, we need educational cooperation between the countries and other countries.
Also, we think about a different model for education and training in master’s level. We
think we can have 3-month in overseas and 3-month in our country. We can have an
online training or the volunteer can come in our country and give lecture for 1 or 2 weeks
and after that we translate in Vietnamese for the students. There is different model. For
the next meeting, we need to talk about more than the high quality education formaster’s level and doctor, we will talk about PT for dementia, diabetic, and heart diseaseand cancer.
(Chair, JPTA) For our third forum, we do continue to work on to develop more.

49

CLOSING OF THE MEETING
From Kazuto HANDA, President, JPTA to all participants (Cambodian Physical therapy
Association represented for all)At the 2nd Asian Physical Therapy Forum, we declare the followings;

1. We, physical therapists of each country in Asia, will dedicate to the
public benefit by progressing physical therapy.
2. Countries where physical therapy well developed are going to cooperate
together to support the other Asian countries.
3. Not only for elderlies but also children and adult persons with disability,
we will organize the system to provide the sufficient service as an essential
role of physical therapy.
12th, January, 2019

50

OPTIONAL TOUR 1 & 2Tour 1: Social Security System in Japan
Presenter, Yoshimitsu SASAKI, Assistant, MHLW
Site visit for Nursing and Preventive Care Center “Rakuccha” in Minato-city, Tokyo
Coordinator, Nahoko KOBAYASHI, Nagase SHINISHI,
Support Services for Senior Citizens Section, Minato-City
Presenter, Etsuko OISHI, Head of Nursing and Preventive Care Center “Rakuccha”

51Tour 2: Accessibility Transportation Trip Odaiba, in Minato-city, Tokyo
Site visit for Panasonic Center Tokyo, Mega web, Pubic transportation services

Thanks for language volunteers of JPTA for the forum and tours
Kenji IWATA, Kentaro NAGATA, Kyohei MIYAZAKI, Rieko YAMAMOTO, Rua BAN
Shigeharu TANAKA, Shinsuke MATSUMOTO, Takayuki HOTTA, Yuki ISHIHARA

52

About the organizers and supporters
Office of Healthcare Policy, Cabinet Secretariat, Japan
In promoting a society of health and longevity, the government of Japan enacted the Healthcare
Strategy Promotion Act in May 2014; followed by the establishment of the Headquarters for
Healthcare Policy in June, and the Cabinet approval of the Healthcare Policy in July, of the same
year. One of the objectives stated in the Healthcare Policy is to promote overseas activities of thehealthcare sectors by building mutually beneficial relationships with foreign countries, especially, infields of medicine and elderly care. Based on the Healthcare Policy’ the Office of Healthcare Policy,
Cabinet Secretariat, Japan is promoting an initiative called the “Asia Health and Wellbeing Initiative(AHWIN)”, which launched in 2016, that aims to amass bilateral and regional cooperation on
healthcare-related efforts in Asia in order to attain both making ideal healthy and vibrant societies
and sustainable economic growth through reciprocal and mutually beneficial approaches. In August
2017, The Cabinet Secretariat of Japan co-hosted the Multi-stakeholder forum in Ho Chi Minh city,
Vietnam, where started cooperation with Asian countries regarding AHWIN.

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia is an international organization based in
Jakarta. Since its founding in 2008, ERIA, through its research, supports the regional economic
integration process among ASEAN member countries. As the leading economic think tank in the region
and the Sherpa institution for the East Asia and ASEAN Summit process, ERIA’s research and policy
recommendations have influenced the policymaking process in the region. ERIA conducts researchunder three pillars: (1) deepening economic integration; (2) narrowing development gaps; and (3)sustainable economic development. ERIA’s studies cover a wide range of areas such as trade andinvestment, human resource and infrastructure development, globalization, and energy issues. ERIA
publishes books, reports, discussion papers, and policy briefs that present the key recommendations of
its studies. In partnership with regional research institutes, ERIA regularly conducts capacity-building
seminars and workshops for policymakers, administrators, researchers, and business managers of the
CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Viet Nam) and other developing areas in East Asia
to strengthen the link between research and policymaking.

53

Japanese Physical Therapy Association
Japanese Physical Therapy Association (JPTA) was formed on July 17, 1966, by 110 licensed
physical therapists. It was approved as an incorporated association by the predecessor of the Ministryof Health, Labour, and Welfare in January 1972 and became a member of the World Confederation
for Physical Therapy (WCPT) in 1974. In 1990, it was recognized by the Science Council of Japan as
an academic research organization. More than 50 years have passed since the association’s
foundation, and physical therapists today are involved in a wide range of professional areas. The
association meets a variety of social needs and is proud to go about its work as the only academic andprofessional association performing physical therapy in Japan.

Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) *Supporter
Founded in 1970, JCIE is one of the leading independent, nongovernmental organizations in thefield of international affairs in Japan. It organizes policy-oriented studies, dialogues, and exchange
programs that bring together key figures from diverse sectors of society, both in Japan and overseas.
JCIE is headquartered in Tokyo, and it operates with an American affiliate, JCIE/USA, in New York.
For more than a decade, JCIE has been a leader in policy research and dialogue in the health sector
through its Global Health and Human Security Program, which seeks to develop a better
understanding of the critical value of human security to global health and aims to explore ways forJapan to enhance its leadership role in global health over the long term and to build domestic andinternational support for such a role. As an extension of that work, in 2017 it began looking at thecritical impact of aging on Japanese and other societies. Partnering with ERIA, it has launched a
program on Healthy and Active Aging in Asia, which will work in close consultation with thegovernment of Japan’s AHWIN initiative and will contribute to the promotion of bilateral andregional cooperation on aging-related challenges in Asia.

54