Electricity Makes Us Healthy: Popularization of Electrotherapy in Japan

Electricity Makes Us Healthy: Popularization of Electrotherapy in Japan

Consumers in Japan spend 121.8 billion yen ($1059 million) a year on home medical appliances. In 1998, for example, consumers bought 1.8 million electro massagers valued at more than 47.7 billion yen ($414.7 million). In the marketplace, one finds an abundance of these healing appliances, such as an electro acupuncture appliance, an electromagnetic stimulator, and a low frequency therapy appliance. Many people in Japan routinely turn to these types of devices, to ameliorate feelings of fatigue, or when suffering ailments, diseases, or injury. It is not an exaggeration to say that there is at least one electrotherapy appliance in almost every Japanese home.