TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tours to the United States allowing Japanese massage therapists and others to undergo anatomical training involving the use of donated bodies, available only in Japan to medical students, have stirred a backlash in their home country.

Participants of the tours, organized by Japanese companies in the massage therapy industry, have also included sports trainers and yoga instructors. One Tokyo-based firm sold tours priced from 400,000 yen ($2,700) to 500,000 yen, excluding transportation and hotel fees, for two to three days of anatomical training, pitching it as an opportunity to deepen knowledge of the human body.

In Japan, medical and dental schools at universities conduct anatomy examinations for their students using the bodies of the deceased bequeathed to them for educational and research purposes. Such universities are the only organizations in Japan that can receive donated bodies.

In the United States, private entities other than universities can also accept donated bodies, with users not limited to those working in medical services.

The president of the Tokyo-based firm, who started the tours in around 2020, said anatomical training makes massage services safer.

"It is necessary as a way to prevent injuries that could result from guidance by inexperienced instructors," the president said.

The president of a company based in Ibaraki Prefecture, which launched its tours from around 2018 in Hawaii, said, "It is a common practice for people engaged in massage therapy or dealing with physical fitness in the United States to study anatomy. Participants are serious about learning, not taking part for fun."

A Japanese doctor in Hawaii who operates a facility where an anatomy lesson took place said, "We contribute to the advancement of medicine, and it's upsetting to me that it's seen as a problem."

But the Japanese Association of Anatomists is against the practice. It said in an ethical guideline that paid anatomy examination tours overseas for Japanese participants could undermine confidence in the domestic body donation system and negatively affect the country's medical system as a whole.

Masahiro Kami, president of the nonprofit organization Medical Governance Research Institute, said the tours are evidently provided for a profit and are unacceptable.

"Whether anatomical examinations by people other than health care professionals should be accepted even outside the country needs to be thoroughly discussed to build a social consensus," Kami said.