Hello World!
Sorry for cross posting.
I joined the JPTA congress in Kagoshima(most west south part of Japan) at
 19 to 20 of May.(It's rather old story.)
1.Before congress
 On the rail trip to Kagoshima I visited at a famouse PT Mr.Araki who
specialize
 back pain treatment in Miyazaki prefecture which is the neighbor of
Kagoshima
 pref..He works at anesthetist physician's clinic which has 19  beds for
 admission.
 There I was deeply impressed by him and his practice.
 He uses Terapi Master(R) made by Nordisk Terapi.and mainly make patients do
 active-asistive exercise(self-traction and stabilization exercise).
 For example,in the case of the treatment of cervical herniated disk,
 the patients,using Terapi Master,pulled their neck for the enlargement of
 foramen and stretching for cervical muscles and got well.
 Mr.A had taken the Paris course with me but now rarely used it.
 I was surprised at below things.
 A.There was a patient who has a big disk protrusion or herniation.He was
   instructed to do a kneeling on hands and knees and then raising alternate
   arms and legs.According to the PT,if a series of conservative treatments
   should fail,then the patient will be referred to the orthopedist whom he
   knows very well.He said he understood what surgery will be done by the
   orthopedist.The orthopedist's hospital is in other prefecture and 120
kilo
   meters distant from his clinic.But he said he couldn't refer his patients
   to the orthopedists in the same prefecture with confidence.To my
surprise,
   he,as a PT,play an important part for refering patients to orthopedists.
   This means that he is trusted by the principal of the clinic.I had never
   heard of such a PT until that time in Japan.I think his situation may be
   same as western PTs in orthopedic department or private practice,though
he
   rarely use Mackenzie or other mobilization technique.
 B.He could order to take a X-ray(of course he got a permission to do so
from
   phisician in respect of medical low.)and could make it out.Then I thought
   I had better learn how to see X-ray by myself.His boss anesthetist did a
   myelography.He had ever shocked at the fact that a patient turned out to
have
   a huge herniation according to the myelogram after the PT made the
patient's
   trunk flex actively,he said.Is there any good way to prevent this risk?
   I thought Japanese PT should become possible to do orthopedic assessment
   same as orthopedist,and more over PT original evaluations such as
   intersegmental mobility etc.
   Is my thought proper or inordinate?
 C.His claims
  (1)Even if an orthopedist diagnose a patient as stenosis or herniated
disk,
     his pain not always stem from the diagnosis.
  (2)The pain from ilio-sacral joint is not from articulation but from
     ligaments.It was proved by the procaine block.He was invited as one
     of symposists at Japan spinal surgery conference last year and there
also
     came Bogduk(Australian orthopedist).Bogduk did not agree his claim
about
     ligament pain.

2.At the congress
 There is an active volcano near Kagoshima city and many ashes fall there
 as usual and jumped into our eyes.You had better have swimming glasses on
your
 eyes when visiting kagoshima,though nobody do such a thing there.
 In the platform presentations all of slides are very beautiful compared
with
 past conference that I had ever attended.They must have used computer
software.
 They also use many statistics.Presentators are endevouring not to criticize
 and not to disgrace themselves  in public.("Japan has a culture of
shame."said
 by an American anthoropologist Luce Benedict,though I am not like
Japanese.)
 On the contrary in the poster presentations presentators are relaxed and
not so
 armed by statisitics.They can speak with one by one.I prefer this one to
 platform.Picking up some reports from there,
 a.Treatment of OA Knee by mobilization technique
  The presentator used Nordic approach,especially mobilization technique for
  soft tisue.I didn't know Nordic and Paris system included soft tissue
  technique until that time.
  Her claim was soft tissue mob. must be first addressed in some OA
case,though
  most of Japanese PTs educate patients only Quasd muscle Ex.
 b.Treatment of back pain using PNF
　Materials---Lumbar disk herniated patients
  I couldn't talk with a presentator but he is a famouse PT on PNF in Japan.
  I couldn't believe herniated patients can be cured by PNF.Is there any PT
in
  the world who address PNF to to that case?
 c.Treatment of back pain using fist in SLR test
  Materials;back pain patients with positive SLR
  When the presentator did a SLR test,placing his fist under between L4 and
L5,
  some patients became negative SLR.He then prescribed a brace for fixing
  lumbar lordosis and made good result.
  He explained that this was due to inhibit the enforced stretch of injured
  posterior ligaments.

That's all.
I have finished my homework after an interval of 2 months at last.
Looking forward to have responces from world.

Hiro Wood
PT BA
Japan