The Real Reason A People Stay Fit, Without Ever Visiting a Gym
In the United States, I’m often bombarded with images and ads of fitness culture. Athleisure is the craze, and it seems that the majority of people are members of gyms like Anytime Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, or LA Fitness. Any decent hotel or typical college campus has free access to a gym, sometimes even offering workout clothes for rental. It’s the land of Alo Yoga and the birthplace to Crossfit. The most successful online influencers write about fitness, and it’s not uncommon to see someone share their workout on social media as they would their food.
But in contrast to that, for a country that is a leader in longevity and has very low rates of obesity — the least among high-income developed nations at 4.3% — you might be surprised to find that there is not much of a workout culture in Japan. Athleisure is not a big thing, and not many people have a membership to a gym. People would rarely use their lunch break for a gym session, and those who do are probably seen as exercise zealots.
Even weeks past the election, President Trump is still handling his loss of the 2020 election to Joe Biden exactly as not only people were predicting he would, but how he told us he would since before he was even elected into power in 2016. Since the loss, Trump has shown his willingness to bend what’s left of our already fragile “democracy” to the brink not just for the sake of his own ego, but in an effort to fundraise off of his base one more time on the way out in order to pay off his campaign debt and lay the foundation for a potential 2024 run.
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300,000 to 500,000: That’s how many fewer babies the think tank Brookings Institution projects will be born in the United States next year. Birth rates in the United States were already steadily declining before the pandemic, but the latest projection is a steep drop from the 3.7 million babies born in 2019, which was 1% lower than in 2018.
The authors of the Brookings Institution report write that stories about birth spikes nine months after blizzards or major blackouts, when couples are cooped up together, tend not to hold up to statistical examination. And in this case, the increased uncertainty caused by the pandemic and its economic fallout is leading prospective parents to put off having kids until conditions are more stable. But the authors expect “that many of these births will not just be delayed — but will never happen.”
It’s not just the United States, either. China’s birth rates are at their lowest levels on record and are expected to drop by 8% this year.
In a recent Rakuten Insight survey of 1000 Japanese citizens ages 20 to their 60s, about half of those questioned revealed that they barely exercised, about once a month or not at all. Citing not enough time or simply that they don’t like exercising that much, most people just didn’t see working out as part of their lifestyle.
What’s going on here?
What Exercise Looks Like in Japan
If you take a closer look as to what exercise means to Japanese people, you’ll find that exercise equates working out. But perhaps exercise can take on forms that aren’t necessarily about going to a gym and lifting weights, or going on 10km runs. Namely, perhaps the exercise we need is the kind of exercise that is weaved into our lifestyle: walking.
What the above results show is not that exercise isn’t important to be healthy, but that in Japan’s approach to moving, perhaps most don’t see it as exercise. Japanese adults walk an average of 6500 steps a day, with male adults in their 20s to 50s walking nearly 8000 steps a day on average, and women in their 20s to 50s about 7000 steps. Okinawans in particular are well-known for their walking culture, being especially mindful about incorporating movement in their daily lifestyle. Nagano, a rural prefecture in Japan, was able to flip their high stroke rate by incorporating over 100 walking routes, and now their citizens enjoy the highest rates of longevity in the country.
While the lengths the President was willing to go in order to preserve his own power and avoid paying the debt that he owes were certainly unnerving, the decision of the Michigan state legislature to certify their states’ election solidified that his efforts would ultimately be unsuccessful. While I and I’m sure many others made the assumption that it was the certification of Michigan’s election that ultimately prompted Trump to begrudgingly allow the transition of power to Joe Biden to begin, I’ve begun to realize there was — at least in his mind — an even more significant factor at play in his decision.
Not long before the process began, it was widely reported that Wall Street and the Republican donor class were becoming increasingly concerned about what a constitutional crisis would look like.
Igor Derysh with Salon writes:
“More than 100 business leaders who plan to ask the Trump administration to immediately allow the presidential transition to begin have also discussed cutting off donations to Senate Republicans facing runoff elections to force the party’s hand.
The executives plan to send a letter on Monday demanding that Emily Murphy, the head of the General Services Administration, stop blocking President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team’s work, according to The New York Times.
…The group includes executives at many top financial firms, including Accenture, Blackstone, and KKR. Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzmann, a loyal Trump ally who spent $27 million this year backing the president and the Republican Party, did not join Blackstone President Jon Gray in signing the letter. He has issued a separate statement urging Trump to move on and accept defeat.”
The day after this story was reported, the transition process began.
Putting aside how this probably had everything to do with preserving their stock portfolios from the volatility that a constitutional crisis would create, and not “preserving democracy” as the article went on to state that they had claimed, it seems fairly clear that this was in fact the underlying motive for Trump’s decision to waver.
At the end of the day, can any of us really be surprised that it came down to this? After all, in American politics, there is little that concerns our lawmakers more than their money, and preservation of power. Donald Trump’s antics were only going to be tolerated as long as the donor class determined it was not going to cost them, and the moment they decided they were tired of it, the game was effectively over. After all the blustering, the court cases, the vehement assertions that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, and the unapologetic bending of democracy to the brink, all it took was a few phone calls from their donors, reminding Republicans who owns them to get them to essentially roll over.
That’s bad news for businesses that cater to infants and new mothers, many of which had already been diversifying their products to hedge against declining birth rates. The Wall Street Journal reports that infant formula maker Reckitt is expanding into adult nutrition, while owners of diaper brands Pampers and Huggies recently launched higher-priced products to make up for a decline in sales volume.
“The first thing we wanted was just to get people walking. Everyone can do that. You walk, you talk, you get exercise and that helps build up a sense of community,”
— Nagano, Matsumoto’s mayor, Akira Sugenoya
Most Japanese citizens live in very walkable cities where public transportation is convenient, safe, and affordable, and not many households own cars. As a consequence, when most people go to work, they walk. When people go grocery shopping, they walk. When people are going out for dinner, they walk. It’s an activity adopted every day by every generation: walking is a part of daily life like breathing is.
The Steps to Better Lifelong Health
This is not a call against working out. I love working out, and spend a few hours a week running, biking, swimming, and completing calisthenic exercises. I don’t doubt the advantages of a good sweat, and find that it boosts both my physical and mental health.
But fitness culture can feel overwhelming for those who aren’t used to it, and too much can perpetuate cycles of shame and guilt. It can make us believe that reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is only available to the dedicated ones who consistently lift weights and are making enough time for daily runs.
Instead what this shows is that, like how eating healthfully doesn’t need to be eating only salads, healthful exercise doesn’t need to be only working out — the lifestyle fitness you need may just be in a bit more walking
Frankly, it would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous.
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Joe Biden won the election in what even Donald Trump would have referred to as a landslide, considering that’s what he called it when he won the electoral college vote by the same margin in 2016. It should also go without saying that Joe Biden also won the popular vote by a comfortable margin, earning more votes than any other Presidential candidate in U.S. history. Is it not even just a little bit disturbing that a letter and some phone calls from a handful of executives threatening to pull funding from two Senate races in a single state carried more weight than a multi-million popular vote victory and sizable electoral college lead in the decision to begin the transition of power? Am I the only one finding it ominous that a few wealthy executives hold the stability of the entire country’s democratic process in their hands? Should we not be concerned that what’s left of the nation’s stability all depends on what Wall Street determines serves their best interests?
As has been so often the case in recent weeks, these recent revelations have served as yet another sobering reminder of just how fragile what’s left of our democracy really is. We may have defeated the fascist this time, but who’s to say we can rely on a few wealthy men to pressure the next one who comes along in the right direction? Are we really prepared to exit this moment, go “back to brunch” like it never happened, and pretend as though there’s no reason to be concerned any longer? As I have said now countless times before, for a multitude of reasons too numerous to list, all signs point to the country being in for some dark days ahead.
