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How Yoga Came to Japan and has Eclipsed the Whole Sporting Community in Japan

 

(November 6th, 2009)

How YOGA came to Japan and has eclipsed the whole sport/exercising community in Japan

According to the national survey that have been conducted and released by Japan’s National Statistics Center (http://www.e-stat.go.jp) in 2008, the number one popular sport in Japan for men is Golf, which also is ranked number one sport for the overall population surveyed (including both males and females). According to the survey, out of all the survey participants who responded that they practice some type of exercising or sports, 9.1% answered they play Golf. This means, almost 10% of all sports population practices golf.

On the other hand, the number one popular sport/exercise for women in Japan turned out to be Yoga, and is most popular for women of the age 25 to 34, followed by the women of the age 35 to 44. On average, out of all the women who practice some type of sports or exercises, 7.8% practices Yoga, and 7.6% plays golf.

Yoga population in Japan is said to be approx. 300 thousand (0.2% of population) in 2005 and to grow to 1 million by 2010 and 3.5 million by 2015. In USA, there believed to be more than 15 million people who currently practice Yoga.

The interesting thing is that, Yoga was only been really popular in the past 5 years or so (approx. since 2004), while golf and other sports which came up on the list (such as Aerobics Dance, Karate, Surfing, Ice Skating, etc.) have been brought to Japan long before and has been here for awhile.

What this suggests is that Japanese populations are open for new ideas and always looking for something exciting and different, and I believe females show such tendency more often than males, as this survey also turns out to be and also from the survey results I have been reading about elsewhere. It could be the marketing method, or it could just be the timing, etc., but Japanese market is open for “foreign” things a lot more than it has been perceived by many overseas companies.

KN
2009/11/06