Background and Purpose. Traditional medicine (TM) has been widely used in China (including the Taiwan region), Korea, and\r\nJapan. The purposes of this paper are to summarize the basic data on TM systems in these three countries and to compare them in\r\nterms of overall policy, education, and insurance.Methods. Government websites, national statistics, and authoritative papers from\r\neach country were fully searched. Further data were gathered by TM experts from each country. Results. China and Korea showed\r\nsimilar patterns in TM systems, whereas Japan showed different patterns. In China and Korea, TM was practiced in a dual system\r\nwith conventional medicine (CM), and TM education was 6-year training programs on average for TM doctors, and acupuncture,\r\nmoxibustion, and cupping were completely insured. Whereas, CM was dominant in Japan, and TM was practiced by each health\r\ncare worker who has received different TM education respectively, and main TM therapies were partially insured. Conclusions. TM\r\nwas developed similarly or somewhat differently based on differences in cultural background and national policies in East Asia.We\r\ncautiously propose that this study could contribute to the development of TM and also be used for reference in complementary\r\nand alternative medicine systems
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