When I was working as an intern, I was distressed by a contradiction. 90% of the teenagers who came to my clinic had sports injuries where the moment of injury and the cause were unidentifiable. I questioned the cause as to why it happened to them but not the others, despite similar age, figure, practice and lifestyle. Even among adults and the elderly, there were people who became healthy after jogging or aerobics, but on the other hand, others would suffer from pain in their knees, back, and neck as well as other malfunctions of their body

What is the difference between those patients with pain and those who are energetic? What is the real cause of this difference? Building my concern, only 10% of our patients had a clear cause and moment of injury while 90% had no clear cause of their symptoms. I could not escape this problem and when I was about to lose the hope, by chance, I noticed the feet of a patient who had enormous deformation. I had found the connection between these patients

I began checking the feet of all the patients even if their main complaints has differed from one to the other, such as stiff shoulder, headache, irregular pulse and especially knee pain and back pain. After checking thousands of patients, my hypothesis become a firm belief. Twelve years after becoming a director of my own clinic, I traveled to countries and regions where people walk barefoot to research the difference between the feet and complaints of the Japanese people and populations there. The result was clear and I recognized the danger to the feet and bodies of Japanese children.

At that time, I had twelve employees and 250 to 300 patients every day. The clinic was small, so it looked like a crowded train! Each case required attention and judgment and and I would think, “I will only be able to pause from my work when I die.” I was passionate about my work and could never imagine being absent from it even to perform research. However, I couldn’t ignore the mission that I need to see and understand the facts to support my hypothesis.

The travel and research required a local guide, translator as well as body guards, which was quite expensive. I intended to study people who walk barefoot in Indonesia, however, they were actually wearing sandals made of tire. I felt a deep sense of isolation as I didn’t have enough background information about their life, habits and culture. Due to heat and anxiety, there was not a moment of relief in the first week. Because the scenery of the village reminded me of where I grew up, although it looked more like a simple country village from a long time ago, I started to feel more comfortable after a week. I started to research when I could finally sleep soundly, waking up in that situation. We went to visit several villages and the local guide gathered locals from each village. They were initially shy and hesitant to visit with us, but they happily cooperated after giving them 1000 rupiah (about 80 Japanese yen at that time).