Profile
Changing the operating system of perception through the body.
PROFILE
Hidefumi Otsuka
Hidefumi Otsuka, PhD
After earning a PhD in Medical Science from the University of Tokyo, I spent approximately eleven years in medical marketing at global pharmaceutical companies. I have offered Rolfing sessions in Shibuya, Tokyo, since 2015.
Certified Advanced Rolfer™ and Rolf Movement Practitioner. Moving between scientific inquiry and many years of somatic practice, I explore how the body can reshape our operating system of perception.
CERTIFICATIONS
Certifications
ADVANCED
Certified Advanced Rolfer
A Rolfing practitioner who has completed advanced certification in addition to the foundational training.
MOVEMENT
Rolf Movement Practitioner
A certification focused not only on structure, but also on sensation, movement, and learning in daily life.
Rolfing® Structural Integration is a bodywork tradition with roughly sixty years of history that addresses structure and movement as an integrated whole. Certified Advanced Rolfer™ is the designation for practitioners who have completed advanced training beyond the basic curriculum. As of 2025, there are about 1,950 worldwide and approximately 130 in Japan.
CAREER
Career
- 1971Born in Tokyo.
- 2001Earned a PhD in Medical Science from the Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo (legal name: Hidefumi Otsuka, written with different Japanese characters). This is a research doctorate, not an MD.
- Approx. 11 yearsWorked in medical marketing for global pharmaceutical companies across several therapeutic areas and new businesses. From 2011 to 2014, worked with natalizumab in neuroscience.
- 2014Left the pharmaceutical industry and traveled around the world through 65 cities in 26 countries.
- 2015Completed Rolfing training in Germany, became a Certified Rolfer™, and began practicing in Shibuya, Tokyo.
- 2019Certified as a Rolf Movement Practitioner.
- 2025Certified as an Advanced Rolfer™.
My doctoral work focused on basic immunology research. I then spent approximately eleven years in medical marketing for global pharmaceutical companies, working across multiple therapeutic areas and new businesses. Natalizumab, which I handled in neuroscience from 2011 to 2014, is an immunomodulatory medicine closely connected to my immunology background. This also deepened my practical understanding of evidence-based medicine.
My move toward Rolfing was not a rejection of pharmacological approaches. It was a way to practice another essential approach: working with the body from within.
SOMATIC PRACTICE
Somatic Practice
My perspective as a Rolfer has also been shaped by many years of varied somatic practice.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
More than twenty years of continuous practice.
Meditation and Breath
Meditation, pranayama, and Ayurveda.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Exploring touch, center of gravity, and movement through practice.
Tea Ceremony
Urasenke tradition: gesture, timing, and spatial awareness.
Noh Theatre
My grandfather was a Noh performer,
These diverse embodied experiences naturally inform my Rolfing sessions.
RECOGNITION OS
The Question of a Perceptual OS
Working with the body is more than releasing tension; it touches the very way a person experiences the world. I call this way of experiencing the world the “operating system of perception.”
Rolfing is one practice for reshaping this perceptual OS. Its philosophical background and neuroscience are explored in depth on the companion site Mind and Bodywork Lab .
Background and further reading
In this guide
Rewriting the Recognition OS — through the body.
Certifications
- Certified Advanced Rolfer
- Rolf Movement Practitioner
Rolfing® Structural Integration is a lineage of bodywork, some sixty years old, that brings the body’s structure and movement into integrated balance. The title of Advanced Rolfer is held by those who have completed an advanced certification program beyond the foundational training — roughly 1,950 practitioners worldwide as of 2025, and about 130 in Japan.
Background
- 1971 — Born in Tokyo, Japan
- 2001 — PhD in Medical Science (Immunology), Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo. (The doctorate is registered under my legal family-register name, 大塚秀文.、博士（医学）/ PhD in Medical Science）
- Please note: this is a research doctorate, not a medical (MD) license.
- ~11 years at a foreign-affiliated pharmaceutical company, working in medical marketing across several therapeutic areas and new business lines — including responsibility for natalizumab, a disease-modifying therapy for multiple sclerosis, from 2011 to 2014.
- 2014 — Left the pharmaceutical industry for a journey around the world, across 26 countries and 65 cities.
- 2015 — Completed Rolfing training in Germany; registered as a Certified Rolfer.
- 2019 — Certified as a Rolf Movement Practitioner.
- 2025 — Certified as an Advanced Rolfer.
In my doctoral years I worked on basic research in immunology. I then spent about eleven years at a foreign-affiliated pharmaceutical company, in medical marketing across several therapeutic areas and new business lines. Natalizumab, the drug I was responsible for from 2011 to 2014, is a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for multiple sclerosis — a humanized anti-α4-integrin monoclonal antibody that blocks immune cells from entering the central nervous system. Its mechanism sat in direct continuity with my doctoral research in immunology. It was also where I deepened, as everyday practice, an evidence-based way of thinking about medicine.
My turn toward Rolfing was not a rejection of the pharmacological approach, but a way to take up another, equally fundamental method — one that works with the body from the inside.
A Background in Bodily Practice
The way I see things as a Rolfer is inseparable from years of bodily practice.
- Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (20+ years)
- Meditation, pranayama, and Ayurveda
- Brazilian jiu-jitsu
- Tea ceremony (Urasenke school)
- Noh Theatre (My grandfather was a Noh performer, and I studied under Ms. Kimiko Inoue in Kyoto in 2016.)
These varied experiences of the body seep naturally into the way I work within a Rolfing session.
What is Recognition OS?
To work with the body is not merely to release tension; it is to touch the very way a person experiences the world. I call this way of experiencing the world the Recognition OS.
A Rolfing session is one practice for rewriting that Recognition OS. The philosophical background and the neuroscience behind it are explored in depth at Mind Bodywork LAB, a companion space to this site. (Currently in Japanese; an English edition is in preparation.)
Booking & Inquiries
- Individual Rolfing sessions:Booking Form
SNS
- LinkedIn: hidefumi-otsuka-phd
- X: @hiotsuka117
- Facebook: hidefumi.otsuka
- Instagram: @hiotsuka117
- YouTube: @hidefumiotsuka198
CONNECT
Social Media
Bookings and Inquiries
Individual Rolfing work can begin with a 60-minute trial session.