IAMM Global Café (IGC) is a virtual networking event for IAMM members across the world. These Cafés are hosted by members of IAMM’s Committee on Global Reporting.
The next IGC focuses on the intersection of music and medicine/health in Japan. Hikari Sandhu will host a panel of practitioners actively engaged in music and medicine/health in Japan. Participants will have the opportunity to converse with the co-hosts, as well as each other.
This event is free and open to the public. Registrants will receive a recording of this event. This event is scheduled to last for one hour.
Please join with a cup of coffee, tea, or your choice of libation, and enjoy the conversation!
Host:
Hikari Sandhu, Ph.D., RMT/Founder of MusicAid LLC./Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo
Hikari is a Japan-based registered music therapist with seven years of working experience at the end of life settings in the U.S. and Japan. She completed her master’s degree at New York University and her doctoral degree at the Department of Community of Global Health at the University of Tokyo. Her passion is using music to bring meaning to an individual’s life with cultural consideration and enhance their mental well-being. She is a post-doc researcher of an international Joy research project led by the Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK.
Panellists:
Mariko Hara, Ph.D.
HARA Mariko (sociologist) After obtaining Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Exeter in the UK, she moved to Norway. Currently runs “Music and Arts in the Milieu” that is involved in local and international (action) research projects on music and art activities in Scandinavian care environments. Recent work includes contributions to “The Routledge Companion to Music, Mind and Well-being”, “Musical Gentrification Popular Music, Distinction and Social Mobility”
Rieko Eguchi, MA, MT-BC, CCLS
Rieko Eguchi, MA, MT-BC, CCLS, currently works as a music therapist in the neonatology unit at Saitama Children’s Medical Center in Japan. She is a grandparent of RBL (Rhythm, Breath, and Lullaby) and holds a M.A. in Music Therapy from Montclair State University in the U.S. She was an intern and research scholar and assisted with various research studies at The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine in New York, September 2015 – February 2018. She also completed a child life clinical internship at the center. Her clinical experiences are diverse, including NICU, pediatrics, outpatient radiation oncology, and palliative care. She has several publications related to NICU music therapy and has published a research paper in Japanese medical journals. She is a member of Japanese Association for Promotion of Medical Music Therapy.
Tatsuya Honda, PhD./ Ontenna Project Leader, Fujitsu Ltd.
Tatsuya holds a Ph.D. in Design. During his university years, he was involved in sign language interpreting, founding a sign language club, and establishing a non-profit organization. His research focuses on developing new auditory perception devices in collaboration with the deaf community. His work has been recognized with several awards, including Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 and the Forbes 30 UNDER 30 JAPAN 2019 Special Award. He is also an MIT Innovator Under 35 in Japan for 2020, a Falling Walls 2021 Winner, and a Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow.
Discussion Topic: ‘Possibility of Music as a Care Resource’
Questions
- What are the challenges of your work? (Rieko, Tatsuya)
- What do you think of the unmet needs of the health and well-being of the Japanese? (Everyone)
- How can we innovate health/healthcare with music in Japan? (Everyone)
Background
Japan is experiencing rapid population aging and is ranked as the most aged society globally. Diversity and inclusion are critical to maintaining and developing the Japanese economy. Isolation and loneliness are epidemic, and old communities are collapsing. Japan is in the transition, and technology, humanities, and the arts need to collaborate to enhance well-being nationwide.
Perspectives
Mariko Hara
The disparity between community and healthcare is concerning. Music is an everyday resource that everyone can engage with. Music has been medicalized, and Japanese healthcare is transitioning to using music for health and well-being, as evidenced by the national licensing of music therapists.
Rieko Eguchi
In the field of pediatric medicine, where the bond between newborns and mothers is crucial, the use of music therapy can be transformative. Often, mothers are unable to physically connect with their babies due to medical reasons, leading to a questioning of their own value. However, introducing music therapy research, which shows that a lullaby sung by a mother can increase the vital levels of newborn babies, can empower these mothers.
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