The authors have been using laser therapy for pain attenuation from April 1984 to February 1995. In this eighth successive report to this meeting the authors have gathered their clinical and research data to commemorate a decade of laser therapy. The system is a GaAlAs diode laser ('Medi-Laser Soft'jointly developed by the Japan Medical Laser Laboratory and Matsushita Electrical Company, marketed in Japan by Mochida Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd) and delivers 60mW in continuous wave at 830nm. The laser is used in the contact pressure method,(5 to 30sec/point), on painful and associated anatomical points. The total number of patients during the trial period was 11,139 presenting with a total number of 19,275 pain entities, a (1.7 pain entities per patient: each symptom regarded as a single entity). The male to female ratios for patient numbers and pain entities was 1: 1.5 and 1: 1.7, respectively. The mean ages for the male and female groups were 54.1 years and 55.3 years, respectively. The mean number of treatment sessions per patient was 25.1 with an average treatment time of 13.62 min. The mean number of sessions per pain entity was 14.5 with an average treatment time of 7.87min. The treatment result was graded in five stages (excellent, good, fair, little or no change and. exacerbation of the pain). The overall efficacy was calculated by adding the scores for only the excellent and good grades. An overall efficacy of 84.7%was obtained. During the past decade, the authors opened an annexe to the main clinic, approximately 30 minutes away by car. In the first clinical trial at the annexe the overall efficacy was only 76.1%. The annexe is in a very rural, agricultural area. The annexe patients tended to be older with chronic pain entities related to the nature of their daily work. Every effort has been made to improve the treatment efficacy by increasing the awareness of the laser therapists and supporting staff, and by increasing the treatment dines where necessary. An efficacy rate comparable to the main clinic has now been achieved. The conclusions drawn from the authors' experience point to the effectiveness of an appropriate treatment environment, Some clinical results will be presented together with a summary of the experimental data.