Two in five have chronic katakori, back pain
The physical ailment that seems perhaps not unique to Japan, but at least far more prevelant here is 肩こり, katakori, or stiff shoulders, caused mainly by the tightening and knotting of muscles around the shoulder blades. This recent survey from MyVoice into stiff shoulders and back pain tried to find out more on how people suffer.
Demographics
Over the first five days of June 2008 13,808 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.
Note, stiff shoulders is not aching muscles from, for example, carrying a heavy load all day, but apparently a deep-down tightness in the shoulders. I remeber a couple of years ago at a work health check the doctor did a quick back muscle check on me and was most surprised to report not the slightest hint of stiff shoulders, suggesting I was about the only person he’d seen that week who was problem free.
I did some research on this topic last year and did plan to publish an article, but I never quite got round to it. However, I did discover one very interesting scientific paper that suggests that stiff shoulders is a somatic response to depression. Japanese brought up in the West report very little katakori, but instead displayed more typical Western responses such as headaches. Another study also showed a definite corrolation with stress.
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