Medical tourism has a long history in Japan. The health-giving properties of natural spring water have been known since ancient times and toji hot spring cures have long been a popular way to combine travel, relaxation, and treatment, Back in 2000, professor Shuichi Oyama of Kyoto University was in rural Niger, West Africa. There, he saw something that would inspire his future research. It was the sight of local women throwing kitchen trash out into the desert.
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