Japanese society is one of the longest-lived in the world. In some areas such as Okinawa, it has been studied: the diet, very healthy and low in fat, is one of the reasons why there are so many centenarian Japanese, but another factor is physical exercise.
Rajio Taiso or Radio Taiso is a morning exercise program to the rhythm of piano music broadcast on NHK radio. Radio Taiso, which means precisely ‘radio exercises’, is a morning exercise program of calisthenics, movements of muscle groups that emphasizes power and effort. As the Japonismo portal explains, the program only lasts between 5 and 15 minutes and is broadcast at 6:30 in the morning.
Japanese tradition says that this exercise program “serves to develop ‘strength and grace,’ improve health and self-esteem, as well as promote a sense of community and group, so important in the traditional Japanese context.” They are small simple movements that stimulate circulation and flexibility, in short.
The program is divided into two parts, each with 13 rhythmic movements. The second part is especially dedicated to young people and, at the end of the exercises, the average pulse rate is 140 beats per minute. There are different official versions of the program, with exercises for all ages, exercises that can be done while sitting, and exercises to increase physical strength. The grace (and perhaps also the success), as they point out in Japonismo, is that it is a physical activity that can be done practically anywhere.
The origin of these exercises would be North American. In the 1920s, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. company sponsored a 15-minute radio program dedicated to doing morning exercises to the rhythm of piano music in cities like New York or Washington D.C. The program was very popular with some Japanese guest workers from the life insurance division of the then Ministry of Communication and Transportation, who copied the idea and brought it to Japan.
The first Radio Taiso exercise program was broadcast in 1928 to commemorate the coronation of Emperor Hirohito. During the 1930s and 1940s, Radio Taiso exercises became popular as a good way to keep Japanese troops healthy. During World War II, the Imperial Regime Assistance Association, or Imperial Aid Association, promoted exercises over the radio to improve the health of soldiers on the battlefield.
“Currently, people are used to doing them in the morning watching the television channel where the movements are broadcast. One of the main purposes of practicing Radio Taiso is to reinforce the spirit of cooperation and unity of all the participants. It is always practiced in a group, normally in schools before classes start, and in companies before starting the working day”, the authors, Francesc Miralles and Héctor García, explain in the book ‘Ikigai’.
Even grandparents with reduced mobility do this exercise, as Miralles and García explain, which only takes a few minutes and is related to longevity. “The purpose of the exercises is to stretch and work the mobility of the joints. One of the most photogenic and well-known is to simply raise your arms above your head and then lower them in a circular motion”, they explain. “It may seem basic, but in our modern life it is possible to go days without raising your arms above your ears.”
