Alexandru Arba
Research expert covering Japan
The fitness industry plays a key role in facilitating a healthier life in a world that is becoming increasingly health-conscious. Exercise has become a means through which individuals seek to attain physical and psychological well-being. Japan poses no exception to this global trend. The majority of Japanese adults engage in sports at least once a week, and their biggest motivation to do so, is for health reasons. The importance attached to sports and the high participation rate in physical exercise fuels the industry’s sports apparel and sports equipment markets. Various types of sports facilities provide the infrastructure to practice sports while offering a setting to meet peers. Among the many available sports facility types, fitness clubs, which come in many concepts and sizes, attract a certain share of the population into their premises. The market size of gyms in Japan amounts to several hundred billion Japanese yen. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, revenue declined significantly. Despite that, the number of fitness facilities continued to rise, even during the pandemic.
