Homeopathy recently came under the spotlight after Science Council of Japan President Ichiro Kanazawa urged medical workers to refrain from using the more than 200-year-old form of alternative medicine, calling it "ignorance of science" and "absurd."
Kanazawa's Aug. 24 comments were a response to last year's death of an infant girl in Yamaguchi Prefecture who died of a vitamin K deficiency when a midwife allegedly gave her a homeopathic remedy instead of the vitamin.
Nine medical groups, including the Japan Medical Association and the Japanese Associations of Medical Sciences, promptly supported Kanazawa's stance, calling on members to steer clear of homeopathy.