Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is now called "Kampo Medicine" in Japan. Traditional Chinese Medicine was imported to Japan by about the sixth century. Imported TCM and traditional Japanese remedies joined together, creating a new Japanese medicine.<br> Kampo medicine is needed for modern medical treatment for the following reasons. There is an unexpected gap between academic medicine and the practical medicine patients want. If 5 symptoms occur, patients must visit 5 clinical departments, one for each organ affected. Diseases which cannot be explained by Western medicine are treated as "just imagination", or patients with such diseases are told to "bear them". These patients thus remain untreated and uncomfortable. Such cases are often found in clinical practice. There are, in addition, too many stress-related diseases.<br> What is really needed for the treatment of human sickness and what is really wanted by sick people is medical care tailored to the particular patient, which respects the individual characteristics and personality of the patient. In Kampo medicine, therapeutic policy is determined on the basis of the physical constitution and condition of individual patients. For this reason, Kampo medicine is called "tailor-made medicine". One characteristic of Kampo medicine is that it is aimed at treating conditions preceding disease. The diagnosis system of Kampo medicine therefore includes identification of the personality of each patient and correction of its distortion, if any.<br> Women with undefined complaints in the climacteric period and elderly women often have multiple symptoms. When these women visit modern Western medical clinics, they must undergo examinations in many departments and receive a variety of drugs. In Kampo medicine, however, the condition underlying various symptoms is identified, and treatment harmonizing mental and physical approaches is provided, allowing symptoms to be healed using only one or two kinds of drugs. To identify the characteristics of each patient and to provide treatment tailored to each patient, SHO diagnosis is needed. This diagnostic process is unique to Kampo medicine and is not included in modern Western medicine. Making full use of the traditional diagnostic approach of Kampo medicine, SHO is determined and the patient's condition is understood from the standpoint of Kampo medicine. Optimum treatment is then provided on the basis of such understanding of the patient and his or her illness.<br> Human medical care is a science. Kampo medicine is also a science. However, good, high-quality medical care cannot be achieved without emphasizing the art of medical practice. Kampo medicine is established as a science with art. Practicing Kampo medicine involves dealing with patients using a science with art and thus providing humane medical care to patients. Kampo medicine is thus of use to all the world. [Adv Obstet Gynecol, 57 (2) : 131-150, 2005 (H17.5)]<br>