{"id":289377,"date":"2021-07-02T11:27:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T08:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/one-two-three-the-japanese-stretch-routine-performed-by-millions\/"},"modified":"2021-07-02T11:27:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T08:27:44","slug":"one-two-three-the-japanese-stretch-routine-performed-by-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/one-two-three-the-japanese-stretch-routine-performed-by-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"#One, two, three! The Japanese stretch routine performed by millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#One, two, three! The Japanese stretch routine performed by millions<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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It might not make the cut for Olympians at Tokyo 2020, but each day in Japan’s parks, schools and offices millions perform the country’s most popular stretching routine: radio taiso.\n <\/p>\n

The three-minute drills, usually done to piano music with encouraging shouts of “one, two, three, four!” in Japanese, are broadcast several times a day on public radio and television.<\/p>\n

And while workout videos and podcasts soared in popularity worldwide during virus lockdowns, Japan’s taiso tradition dates back nearly 100 years\u2014even surviving a post-war ban by the Americans, who deemed the group activity too militaristic.<\/p>\n

Radio taiso’s 13 bending, reaching and twisting moves are familiar to almost everyone in the country, which is preparing to host the postponed Tokyo Olympics this summer under strict anti-virus rules.<\/p>\n

“First, lift your arms and stretch your body… next, rotate your arms,” the presenter says as the old-fashioned music plays.<\/p>\n

“Now forward bend softly, with rhythmic bounces three times. And then bend backwards.”<\/p>\n

The phenomenon began in the 1920s, when Japan’s state-run life insurance firm took inspiration from fitness programmes on American radio sponsored by a US insurance company, and lobbied for an easy-to-follow routine to be promoted in Japan.<\/p>\n

The first taiso\u2014meaning exercise\u2014programme was broadcast on national radio in 1928.<\/p>\n

It became embedded in the national psyche as a popular summer holiday activity, with children competing to attend the most early-morning stretching sessions.<\/p>\n

Now, around 27 million people do radio taiso at least twice a week in Japan, often in groups, according to the government.<\/p>\n

They include school children, construction workers and corporate employees\u2014some of whom have kept the tradition going even as they switched to remote working during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Himori Reiko, a senior cabin crew member at Japan Airlines, used to do the drills with team members just once a year for fun before coronavirus.<\/p>\n

But since December, she and colleagues have done the stretches together regularly on Zoom.<\/p>\n

At 3pm sharp, the team\u2014some dressed smartly in the office, others logged on at home\u2014begin to sweep their arms above their heads in unison.<\/p>\n

“As remote working increased, some people felt lonely. By doing radio taiso, we can see each other face-to-face at least once a day,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n

‘Properly stretched’<\/b><\/p>\n

The routine is also enormously popular with older people, in a country that boasts a famously healthy population of retirees.<\/p>\n

Older people often gather in parks and at shrines for the first radio taiso broadcast of the day at 6:30am.<\/p>\n

“Our daily lives have become more difficult during the coronavirus. But we need to move our bodies more than ever,” Mitsutoshi Watanabe, who leads a group of around 250 people every morning in Tokyo’s Ueno Park, told AFP at a recent social<\/a>ly distanced practice.<\/p>\n

“The number of participants has actually increased since last year,” the 79-year-old, dressed in gleaming white sports clothes and gloves, added. Most are retirees, but younger people are joining in as telework increases.<\/p>\n

When the group has made its way through the two classic radio taiso routines\u2014one gentle, the other more vigorous\u2014it quickly scatters.<\/p>\n

“We look around to see who is attending, checking each other’s health… When someone doesn’t show up, we wonder if that person is alright,” Kenny Takahashi, 55, who runs a jewellery business, told AFP after the session.<\/p>\n

He and his wife Hisako, 52, discovered the group while walking to work and now attend every day, rain or shine.<\/p>\n

“Your body is properly stretched from the morning. And my joints can now move smoothly,” Hisako said.<\/p>\n

Japan has the world’s oldest population, according to the World Bank, and Watanabe recommends radio taiso as a way to stay fit as a fiddle\u2014if not quite up to Olympic standards.<\/p>\n

“I will be 80 years old next year. And I am healthy because of radio taiso,” he beamed.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Japan limbers up with monkey bars, radio drills\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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