Understanding the Differences between Western vs Japanese Reiki
- Fiona Phillips | Certified Japanese Reiki Shihan (Teacher)
- Feb 27, 2025
- 15 min read
Updated: Dec 20, 2025
What is the Difference Between Japanese and Western Reiki?
If you’ve been practicing or exploring Reiki for a while, you may have come across discussions about Japanese Reiki and Western Reiki and wondered - what’s the difference and why is it important?
In this article, I will do my best to clarify the distinction, providing insight into how Reiki evolved after leaving Japan and why certain aspects of the original teachings were lost or altered along the way.
A More Accurate Way to Understand Reiki Systems
While many people talk about Japanese Reiki versus Western Reiki, this distinction is only partly accurate. Once Reiki began spreading both inside and outside Japan, different systems naturally emerged. Some stayed very close to the original teachings of Chujiro Hayashi (Mikao Usui's last Shihan student before he died), while others, both in Japan and in the West, removed key practices and teaching, introduced adaptations, simplifications or Western influences.
Because of this, the more meaningful distinction is not simply Japanese vs Western, but rather:
Traditional Reiki systems that preserve Hayashi’s teachings unchanged
Modified or hybrid systems (found both inside and outside Japan)
Western Reiki systems that developed from Takata’s lineage
This makes it easier to understand where each system sits, including Jikiden Reiki, Komyo ReikiDo, Gendai Reiki, Western Reiki and the teachings of the Arjava Petter Institute. With this in mind, the distinctions that follow will make much more sense.
Where It All Began: Tracing Reiki’s Lineage
Every Reiki system that exists today, apart from the closed Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai in Japan, traces its roots back to Chujiro Hayashi, Usui Sensei’s last Shihan/Teacher. Some say that Hayashi modified Usui's teachings, others say he did not.
Some of the most popular and well-known systems of Reiki, including Jikiden Reiki, Komyo ReikiDo, and Traditional Usui Reiki Ryoho (Western Reiki), all share this Hayashi lineage.
It is pertinent to note that Gendai Reiki, a Japanese system of Reiki founded by Hiroshi Doi, is often believed to be the only Reiki system with a direct lineage tracing back to the Usui Reiki Gakkai (rather than coming through Hayashi), but this is a bit misleading. Whilst it is true that Hiroshi Doi was a member of the Usui Reiki Gakkai, members are sworn to secrecy and cannot share or teach the practices used within the Gakkai publicly. By virtue of his membership, all of his teachings are, at most, modified teachings from the traditional system of Reiki. Further, Hiroshi Doi categorises his system as a hybrid Japanese/Western system influenced by his Western teacher Barbara Ray, with heavy emphasis on Western teachings, including the Reiju used, the Western symbols, and a large number of Western new-age practices.
While in the West, many consider Traditional Usui Reiki Ryoho to be the most authentic form of Reiki, in reality, all Western systems are a modified version of Hayashi’s teachings, as is Komyo ReikiDo, and hybrid Japanese/Western systems such as Gendai Reiki. Jikiden Reiki on the other hands, aimed to preserve the original teachings, as did the Reiki taught under the banner of the Arjava Petter Institute.
In other words, once Reiki began to spread, both inside and outside Japan, it naturally evolved into different forms. Some stayed true to what Hayashi taught. Others removed teachings and practices, changed or added to them. The question then becomes less Japanese versus Western and more about whether a system is traditional, modified or hybrid.
WHAT HAYASHI TAUGHT
Hayashi’s (and it is believed, Usui's) approach to Reiki consisted of five key aspects:
Spiritual Practice – Specific practices designed by Usui Sensei in order to attain enlightenment and daily techniques to cultivate energy, healing and promote spiritual connection.
Hands-On Healing – Techniques for treating others and oneself, incorporating intuitive hand placements and energy sensitivity. Aside from hands-on healing and distance Reiki, it also included advanced techniques for circulating blood, detoxifying, healing fresh injuries, eliminating unwanted habits and for balancing energy.
Byosen Technique - a specific technique and set of principles for understanding how to locate illness and problems in the body by interpreting sensations in the hands in order to target and break up toxins, and hasten healing.
Reiju - The hallmark of Reiki that distinguished Usui's healing art from all others that existed in Japan at the time. He formulated a specific process that was used from Teacher to Student to help the invisible channels that connect the student to Reiki. The importance of Reiju was both in the sacred process or formula used as well as how Reiju was used to support students during their path with Reiki. A specific symbol was used solely for this process.
Symbols - Sacred symbols and jumon (incantations) together with prescribed techniques to target specific aspects of healing and practice. The power is in the form and the 'spirit' of the word. The form and words used were therefore important.
These five elements were the fundamental aspects of the traditional system of healing.
Western Reiki: How It Changed & Why
The Shift in Focus
When Hawayo Takata, a Japanese-American woman, brought Reiki to the West, she referred to it as Traditional Usui Reiki Ryoho. Any systems that from through her lineage are therefore considered 'Western Reiki', as they emerged from the West.
Initially, Takata taught the spiritual aspects of Reiki alongside the healing aspects, but during World War II, due to strong anti-Japanese sentiment, to ensure the proliferation of Reiki, she Christianised Mikao Usui's story and removed the more overtly Japanese spiritual practices to avoid the practice being rejected. Over time, as Reiki was passed down through her students, the emphasis became almost entirely on hands-on healing.
As she was also travelling all around to teach and practice Reiki, and wasn't in one place for a long time, she wasn't able to mentor her students through regular practice gatherings (as Usui and Hayashi did), to help them develop their sensitivity to the energy and work intuitively. She condensed her Teachings to weekend workshops and she simplified the practices away from intuitive practices which required more instruction. This is where timed hand placements came into existence. She did teach her students 'to let the Reiki guide you' but the emphasis of her teaching was on set, timed hand positions to ensure practitioners covered the whole body rather than targeting problem areas (as they did in Japan where Practitioners were trained to develop their sensitivity to the energy).
She also removed teachings of the advanced healing techniques such as for circulating blood, detoxifying, healing fresh injuries, eliminating unwanted habits and balancing energy. Presumably, time wouldn't have permitted teaching of their advanced techniques.
In summary, Western Reiki through Takata's changed, became a stripped back version of the full original Japanese practice, leaving a simplified version of hands-on healing as the sole or main practice.
What Was Lost
Some of the key elements that were either removed or significantly reduced or changed in Western Reiki, include:
Daily spiritual practices that helped cultivate /energy from within and the Reiki way of being/spiritual growth.
Intuitive hand placements and use of the Byosen Technique & symbol, replaced by structured, systematic hand positions (treating every person the same way regardless of mental/physical ailment). The symbol and technique attached to the symbol was removed from teaching.
Advanced Healing techniques, which allowed Practitioners to target specific ailments and issues for more specialised healing.
Elimination of Unwanted Mental Habits and Patterns Technique was removed.
Changes to the symbols, mantras and how they were used (both in form and words) -
this happened over time (it is unclear if these were changes made by Takata herself)
Ongoing Reiju (attunements), which were originally given in Japan repeatedly to strengthen connection to Reiki beyond the initial attunements given in the workshops. Over time the form of Reiju changed as well.
Japanese concepts and spiritual and cultural philosophies that provided deeper context to Reiki practice.
The system Takata taught remains highly effective (and there are variations of how practitioners practice), but it is distinctly different from the more intuitive, spiritually immersive traditional approach.
Traditional Japanese Reiki and the Revival of the Original Teachings
Here it helps to understand a little but more of history. Due to the war in Japan, the Usui Reiki Gakkai in Japan (The Usui Association) went underground and closed itself off the public. For a long time, the only Reiki being practiced openly and taught, was through Takata in the West. Any practitioners of Reiki in Japan, would have done so quietly and privately. Reiki had all about been forgotten in Japan.
Reiki eventually returned to Japan, via a Western-trained Reiki Master, Mieko Mitsui who reintroduced Takata-lineage Reiki in the 1980s. Later Frank Arjava Petter’s historical research led to the rediscovery of Chiyoko Yamaguchi, an elderly lady who, as a teenager, had been a student of Chujiro Hayashi (Usui's last Shihan student before he died). Chiyoko and her whole family, including extended family, had all learned Reiki from Hayashi and she had continued practicing it privately on friends and family over many decades. The keen interest in what she had been taught, led to the the revival of traditional Hayashi-style teachings and a re-emergence of interest in Reiki in Japan - giving rise to several new 'systems' of Reiki from Japan.
With this understanding of what Hayashi taught, it becomes easier to see how different lineages relate to that original traditional base.
Some Japanese lineages aimed to preserve Hayashi’s teachings as closely as possible. Others are Japanese in origin but have changed symbols, Reiju or techniques. Others still, like Gendai Reiki, are openly described as hybrid Japanese or Western systems.
Traditional Japanese Reiki: Jikiden Reiki
Jikiden Reiki (meaning 'direct teaching') was founded by Chiyoko Yamaguchi and her son Tadao Yamaguchi.
Jikiden Reiki sought to preserve the direct teachings of Hayashi without Western influence or modern adaptation. It maintains the traditional Reiju attunement form and process, the intuitive healing techniques with a focus of the Byosen technique, symbol and teachings, mental habits technique and corresponding symbol and and the foundation spiritual elements that were removed in Western Reiki. Moreover, it teaches all the practices taught by Hayashi, including sacred symbols and mantras and advanced healing techniques, unchanged.
Jikiden can be said to teach the complete set of traditional Japanese Reiki healing and spiritual practices.
THE ANOMALY: Usui Reiki Ryōhō as Taught by the Arjava Petter Institute (Japanese or Western?)
As discussed above, most Reiki systems can be clearly categorised as either Japanese (traditional, Hayashi-lineage systems that originated in Japan) or Western (Takata-lineage practices that originating outside of Japan). However, the Reiki taught by the Arjava Petter Institute sits uniquely between these categories, making it difficult to place neatly on either side.
Frank Arjava Petter was the vice-principal of Jikiden Reiki for over two decades. Prior to that, Chiyoko Yamaguchi was his teacher. He eventually retired from the Jikiden Reiki Institute at the end of 2024, operating under his own banner, The Arjava Petter Institute.
It is not system of Reiki per se, but a vehicle for teaching it. It does not rename or re-categorise it from the original 'system', nor does it modify, reinterpret or change the teachings. Instead, it teaches Usui Reiki Ryōhō, taught exactly as Chiyoko Yamaguchi learned it from Chujiro Hayashi and practiced unchanged in her home in Japan, as did he Uncles and cousins and entire extended family. Arjava teaches traditional practices that Chiyoko taught him, including some additional practices that aren't taught in the official Jikiden Reiki syllabus, as well as several practices that come from the Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai, passed down in their original form, without alteration.
Arjava is a Westerner but because these teachings are taught exactly as they were practiced in Japan, and because they have not been restructured into a “system” with new layers or interpretations, they don’t fit neatly into Western or Japanese categories. They are both entirely Japanese in origin and also uniquely outside the usual geographical distinctions of Japanese vs Western, because they represent the original practice, preserved and honoured.
For this reason, the Arjava Petter Institute’s approach can be considered a direct presentation of traditional Japanese Reiki, rather than either a “Japanese system” or a “Western system”, although for the purpose of this article, we can place it alongside Japanese systems like Jikiden Reiki, given that it is, in a way a continuation and expansion of the same teachings.
Japanese Systems That Are Modified or Hybridised: Komyo ReikiDo and Gendai Reiki
Komyo ReikiDo was developed by Hyakuten Inamoto, a Pureland Buddhist monk in Kyoto, Japan. Although Chiyoko Yamaguchi was also Hyakuten's teacher, unlike Jikiden Reiki, Komyo ReikiDo does not teach all of the traditional Reiki practices, as they are modified, adapted versions of what Hayashi taught, including some different symbols replacing the original ones, modified techniques, removal of the Byosen technique, symbol and associated teachings as well as a different form and process of Reiju which does not include one of the original symbols used for Reiju. As a result, we cannot call it a traditional system of Reiki. And although the practices might be considered aligned with the original essence of the traditional system, it cannot be said to teach 'traditional' Reiki techniques, given the modifications. It does, however, retain the emphasis of Reiki as a spiritual path, in accordance the the original teachings, although its teaches it with less depth and specificity.
As noted earlier, Gendai Reiki, founded by Hiroshi Doi, is openly described by its founder as a hybrid Japanese or Western system, strongly influenced by Western teachings. It incorporates Western style Reiju, Western symbols and a significant number of Western new age practices. So, whilst Japanese in origin and important in the history of Reiki, it sits firmly in the category of hybrid or modified systems rather than representing the unchanged traditional practice.
These examples show that even within Japan, not all Reiki systems are the same. Some preserve, some adapt, some hybridise. This is why simply classifying something as Japanese does not automatically mean it is traditional or unchanged.
My Journey & Why This Matters
Before practising Jikiden Reiki and Usui Reiki Ryōhō as taught through the Arjava Petter Institute, I spent three years practising Usui Reiki Shiki Ryōhō (Western Reiki). During that time I experienced incredible self-healing and witnessed extraordinary healing in others. It was undoubtedly effective.
But after a few years, I felt like I hit a wall. There was a strong yearning to go deeper. It wasn’t until I encountered Japanese Reiki that I realised just how much had been lost from the original practice - how rich, nuanced and spiritually deep the early teachings truly were.
I first trained in Gendai Reiki and then, for a few years, trained, practised and taught Komyo ReikiDo. The spiritual elements taught within Komyo ReikiDo certainly elevated both my hands-on practice and my personal growth. But after some time, especially when I began teaching it, a familiar feeling returned - something felt missing. I had feeling around the Reiju and symbols that couldn't quite put my finer on. Later I came to understand why: the Reiju, the symbols, and several of the traditional techniques had been changed, modified or removed.
Eventually I came to Jikiden Reiki, studying under Arjava Petter (when he was vice-principal) and continuing my journey with him through the Arjava Petter Institute after his resignation from the Jikiden Reiki Institute. Learning the practices, the original Reiju and symbols through these lineages felt like coming home. The depth, the clarity, the power of the practices, especially the Reiju, took my understanding and my growth to an entirely different level. There was no more nagging, no more yearning. I felt like I had reached ground zero and felt totally at peace within myself and the practice.
Speaking only from my own experience, while recognising that others may feel differently, I noticed a distinct increase in the intensity and effectiveness of the Reiki I channelled once I began practicing these preserved Japanese systems. My own healing deepened. My clients’ healing deepened. The quality of my practice changed in a way that felt unmistakable.
For me, it was never about choosing one system over another. It was about reclaiming what had been lost or altered, and allowing it to refine and deepen what I was already practicing. It was about finding my way back to the origins of Reiki — and letting that authenticity strengthen everything that came after.
My approach today is about bringing back those lost spiritual and healing elements without requiring practitioners of Western Reiki or modified Japanese Reiki to change their entire system. The practices that got lost along the way or removed or changed are in no way contradictory to any other system of Reiki. Instead, I encourage enhancing your practice by incorporating:
Techniques to cultivate energy within, heal and strengthen their Reiki connection.
Intuitive healing methods that go beyond fixed hand positions to increase effectiveness and efficiency of healing.
A deeper understanding of Reiki as a way of life, through the Reiki principals for a happy and healthy life, not just a healing tool.
Advanced traditional healing techniques for detoxifying, healing fresh injuries, balancing energy, eliminating unwanted habits and for circulating blood.
These aspects don’t replace other versions of Reiki, they complement it, allowing practitioners to experience Reiki in a way that feels more aligned with its original purpose.
Summary of the key Differences Between Traditional Japanese & Western Reiki
Aspect | Japanese Reiki (Jikiden/Arjava Petter Insitute) | Western Reiki (Takata Lineage) |
Spiritual Practice | Strong emphasis on daily meditation, mindfulness, and personal growth. | Minimal spiritual training; focus on hands-on healing. |
Self-Healing | Essential daily practice, deeply integrated into Reiki training. | Diluted over time; inconsistent emphasis. Some systems promote it, while others overlook it entirely. |
Healing Approach | Intuitive hand placements and focusing on troubled areas. | Standardised hand positions used systematically. |
Specialised Traditional Healing Techniques (for detoxifying, healing fresh injuries, balancing energy, eliminating unwanted habits, and circulating blood) | Yes – Includes techniques for specific healing. | No – Primarily focused on general hands-on healing. |
Attunements (Reiju) | Given repeatedly over time to deepen practice. | One-time attunements, often only during training. |
Teaching Method | Encourages development of intuition, energy sensitivity, and experience-based learning. | Structured, step-by-step teaching approach. |
Cultural Context | Rooted in Japanese cultural and spiritual philosophy and traditions. | Adapted to Western perspectives and teaching styles. |
Traditional vs Modified Japanese Reiki
Aspect | Traditional Japanese Reiki (Jikiden Reiki, Arjava Petter Institute) | Modified / Hybrid Japanese Reiki (Komyo ReikiDo, Gendai Reiki) |
Lineage | Hayashi’s teachings preserved unchanged | Japanese in origin, but teachings modified or hybridised |
Reiju form, process & symbols | Original Hayashi-style Reiju, unchanged | Reiju changed, symbol (Komyo) or Western-style (Gendai) |
Symbols & Mantras | Original forms and words preserved, techniques for their use retained | Symbols/mantras altered or replaced, techniques for their use changed |
Byosen Technique and Symbol | Fully taught, central to practice | Removed (Komyo) or blended/changed (Gendai) |
Healing Techniques | Full traditional set maintained | Techniques simplified, changed, or replaced |
Spiritual Influences | Rooted in Usui/Hayashi tradition and taught in detail | Moderately retained (Komyo) or Western new age (Gendai) |
Final Thoughts: Reiki Is Reiki
At its core, Reiki is not about division or Japanese vs Western or Traditional vs Modified/Hybrid, it is about what resonates for each person. What remains true is that Reiki, as an energy itself does not change, Reiki is Reiki both in Western and Japanese systems. The difference is how Reiki it is taught and practiced.
Western Reiki has helped Reiki spread globally, making it accessible to millions. Takata Sensei has provided an incredible service to humanity by changing the practices the way she did to allow Reiki to continue to spread during and after the War. You can read more about that here.
Japanese Reiki, emerged post-war, after some Westerners sought out some of Hayashi's students, namely Chiyoko Yamaguchi (who created Jikiden Reiki as a result). In doing so, some, with exception of Komyo ReikiDo and Gendai Reiki, have revived and preserved the original spiritual and healing practice, maintaining the traditions of a holistic system. This honouring has been continued by Arjava Petter under his new banner of the Arjava Petter Institute, following his departure as vice-principal of the Jikiden Reiki Institute.
For those practicing Western Reiki or modified Japanese systems of Reiki such as Komyo ReikiDo and Gendai Reiki, these lost practices are entirely complimentary to your practice and should you feel called to it, there is always the opportunity to add to your current practice, whether by integrating lost elements into your current system or by exploring the original Japanese system in its pure form.
If this article has resonated with you and you're looking to start or deepen your Reiki journey, I invite you to contact me and we can arrange a time to chat. Otherwise, if you are ready to start your Reiki journey, you can book an appointment here or sign up for a Reiki course here. I look forward to connecting with you!
Warmest,
Fiona x
Fiona Phillips
Certified Reiki Shihan (Teacher) and Practitioner | Japanese Reiki
Trained by the Jikiden Reiki & The Arjava Reiki Institutes
Within The Space | Melbourne
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