Kampo and TCM: Shared Roots and Differences

Who prescribes it

This is the biggest practical difference.

• In Japan. Traditional physicians were abolished in Japan, so most Kampo treatment now comes from physicians who learned modern Western medicine. They prescribe Kampo extract products based on a Western medical diagnosis. The authors say this differs from other East Asian countries. [2]
• Insurance. Prescription Kampo formulations are prescribed in general practice under the National Health Insurance reimbursement system. [1]
• In China and elsewhere. Practitioners of Chinese medicine in many places make their own assessment in the tradition's terms, using patterns and tongue and pulse. See Traditional Pattern Differentiation in TCM and TCM Consultation. We did not find a source we could read that compares the two diagnostic styles in detail, so we stay with the prescriber difference above.

Testing: how the evidence looks

A 2022 review explains that Kampo products were approved without scientific clinical evidence because of long experience with them as decoctions. In the 1990s they were re-evaluated nationally, and from 2000 onward many randomized trials appeared. [2] Trials do exist, and they do not always favor the formula. In one double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 171 people with moderate acute diverticulitis, the Kampo formula daiobotanpito added to antibiotics did not improve the primary treatment success rate compared with placebo (P = .348). [3] It showed some secondary differences in inflammation markers and the time to eat in people with abscesses, which is a hint, not proof. [3]

The evidence label depends on the formula and the condition. There is no single verdict on Kampo. Chinese formulas have their own mixed trial record; see Chinese Herbal Medicine.

The difference at a glance

For Korea, see Korean Traditional Medicine (Hanbang).