The original name of “White Light Reiki” was referred to as “Johrei Reiki”, where “Johrei” is a Japanese word meaning “Spiritual White Light”.
In 1994, at the request of the International Johrei Fellowship, we were asked to refrain from using the word “Johrei”, which was their registered service mark.
In 1995 Stevan Thayer (a Reiki Master in my Reiki lineage) made the change from using the Japanese word “Johrei” to the English version “White Light”, and has thus called this specific type of Reiki by the name “White Light Reiki”.