The 5th International Shiatsu Conference was held in Vancouver, Canada at the Pan Pacific Hotel, with more than 300 people perticipating, including Shiatsu practitioners from Japan , Taiwan, the U.S., the Netherlands, as well as local devotees who had heard the news on TV and radio.
The night before the conference, a huge Shiatsu demonstration was performed at the Japan House of the International transportation Exhibition that was held at the time. We treated over 500 people from all over the world.
On August 24 at 10 a.m., after the vice president Iwajiro Satoh sensei declared the conference open, Vancouver mayor Michael Harcourt welcomed us and a message from Hawaii Governor George Ariyoshi was screened.
The morning started with a speech entitled "World peace and Shiatsu" by Tokujiro Namikoshi sensei; he impressed the audience with his dream of eliminating atomic bombs and achieving healthy world peace with Shiatsu. Then a registered physiotherapist, Emery Parker sensei, gave us a speech on "Why Shiatsu works", followed by Denis Binks sensei, the president of the Nippon-Netherlands Shiatsu School, whose talk, "Shiatsu is the best art of medicine", reported on the situation of Shiatsu in Europe.
In the afternoon, Dr. Liggett Forest sensei at the Kaiser Hospital in Oregon delivered a lecture entitled "Differences between Shiatsu and massage". His lecture caused astonishment among the delegates in the hall. Following this, "The mission of Shiatsu practitioners" by Fumihiko Indei sensei, the president of the Aisen Shiatsu School in Hawaii, and "The situation in Shiatsu in China" by Chen Mei-yu sensei from Taiwan were presented to us. Toru Namikoshi sensei subsequently gave a lecture on "Self Shiatsu", which way followed by a number of videos about Shiatsu.
Finally, explaining the significance of the anterior cervical region in Shiatsu, Tokujiro Namikoshi sensei demonstrated a Shiatsu treatment for whiplash and lumbago. With a big round of applause for him, the conference was closed.
At the reception party, the consul general in Vancouver, Kunio Katakura, extended his congratulations to us, and Kensen Saito sensei informed us about "The existing condition of Shiatsu in Canada". The conference ended in a triumph.