It is doubtful if they are today in a very much more advanced condition than were the Egyptians at the time when the Ebers Papyrus was written.

From one point of view it is an interesting experiment, as illustrating the state in which a people may remain who have no knowledge of anatomy, physiology or pathology.
Early Japanese medicine has not much to distinguish it from the Chinese.
At first purely theurgic, the practice was later characterized by acupuncture and a refined study of the pulse.

It has an extensive literature, largely based upon the Chinese, and extending as far back as the beginning of the Christian era.

European medicine was introduced by the Portuguese and the Dutch, whose "factory" or "company" physicians were not without influence upon practice.

An extraordinary stimulus was given to the belief in European medicine by a dissection made by Mayeno in 1771 demonstrating the position of the organs as shown in the European anatomical tables, and proving the Chinese figures to be incorrect.