The majestic shrine was a grand backdrop for the morning’s session (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
“Ohayou!” The cheerful morning greeting echoes around the grounds of Tokyo’s historic Nezu Shrine as bright-eyed arrive and begin limbering up. Their breath turns to vapour in the bitterly cold 6am air and someone sets up a speaker.
It crackles to life at exactly half past the hour – time for Radio Taiso, a daily broadcast that guides millions of people across through a simple five-minute routine.
Around 100 early risers move in perfect synchrony, bending, jumping and pumping their arms as they follow instructions set to a jaunty piano tune.
Toshio Inamura, 96, is among the oldest attendees and has been taking part for over 30 years. He says: “What I look forward to the most is seeing everyone else here and doing it together.
“It is always the same members. I really look forward to it and I believe that seeing each other here leads to our good health. Tokyo doesn’t have much snow nowadays. On rainy days if it’s just a bit of drizzle I still come.”
The simple routine takes around five minutes to complete (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Japan has an average life expectancy of 81 for men and 87 for women, compared to 79 and 83 respectively in the UK.
A national diet that typically focuses on fresh, minimally processed foods and includes lots of rice, vegetables and fish is often cited as a key factor. And Japan also has a number of public health programmes that promote community-based care and longevity.
The National Health Exercise Program – the precursor to Radio Taiso – was inspired by a similar morning exercise initiative. It was launched in November 1928 to celebrate the ascension of the country’s 124th Emperor, Hirohito.
Today, the broadcast is followed by workers, schoolchildren and elderly people hoping to reap the health benefits of this small daily dose of movement.
The warm lighting illuminating the shrine’s grand vermillion gate is an impressive backdrop for this geriatric callisthenics session.
Members in their 70s, 80s and 90s say the morning meetings bring more than just physical benefits. Tomeko Tsukamoto, 86, has been coming for five years after she happened to see people exercising while passing by.
The Nezu shrine group has around 130 members (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
She says: “Soon I made friends so we started coming together. It’s great, I have got rhythm in my daily life now. I am cold when I get here but I am warm when I leave. I feel that my hips and legs have become stronger.”
Grandfather-of-four Tokyo Taguchi, 85, has led the morning meeting at Nezu for the last 13 years.
The group has around 130 members, he says. At least some show up every day of the year, performing the exercises under the shelter of the ornate overhanging roofs when it rains.
Tokyo has always been a keen sportsman, ranking as a 1st dan black belt in judo. He says: “This group started when our predecessors were cleaning here and during their breaks they would listen to the radio. Then they heard Radio Taiso and started exercising together.
“There are quite a few members who are in their 90s. I believe having a daily routine, doing this at the same time every morning, contributes to our health, And knowing that I have to go to Radio Taiso the next morning, I try not drink heavily!”
Yoriko Tsubono, 86, has been taking part in Radio Taiso for two decades. Asked what she believed was the secret to a long and happy life, she said: “I think the Japanese diet is part of it – vegetables, not too much meat, just in moderation.
A man raises his arms to the air as he follows the broadcast instructions (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
“Most of my siblings have died but I am living long. I was one of eight children and I only have one younger sister left.
“Getting up early regularly and moving your body is good. I can’t do it too well at home. I have made friends here, it’s good.”
Tina Woods, chief executive and founder of Business for Health, has visited Okinawa – the smallest and least populated of Japan’s five main islands – to investigate why people there are among the longest-living in the world.
She said the UK should follow Japan’s example by focusing more on prevention of ill health and creating environments “conducive to healthy living”.
Ms Woods added: “Governments need to look at regearing the system and find the right incentives to promote healthier environments – making it easier for people to make the right choices for healthier living and sustaining long-term behavioural change that will ultimately benefit the nation.”
Governments need to promote healthier environments as Japan has done, says TINA WOODS
The UK is stuck in a rut, obsessed with finding quick-fix solutions to the public health crisis, but these issues are deeply rooted in wider socio-economic challenges and cannot be solved with single ‘sticking plaster’ solutions.
Instead, we must take a more all-encompassing and wider system change approach. This is what I found on my recent visit to one of the world’s five Blue Zones, Okinawa in Japan.
Their approach to food and nutrition and low obesity rates struck me most, for example, the Okinawan diet is rich in fish and plants, with minimal fat intake and modest portion sizes.
Meals are not hurried affairs; instead, each mouthful is savoured as a sign of respect, with people eating until they’re 80% full to allow time for the brain to register fullness.
Personally, I prioritise a healthy diet, focusing on fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts, and incorporate intermittent fasting to maintain my weight and hopefully extend my healthspan.
The success of Blue Zones like Okinawa lies in collective health efforts, emphasising shared community values and social connections to minimise poor health and extend the happiness of their residents.
To emulate these longevity successes in countries like the US and UK, interventions at a policy level are crucial.
Japan recently announced its Act on Promotion of Policy for Loneliness and Isolation aimed at tackling social isolation and loneliness in the country.
Governments must create environments conducive to healthy living, making nutritious choices accessible and affordable while addressing broader social issues like loneliness and socio-economic inequalities.
In socioeconomically deprived communities, where factors like isolation, lack of green spaces, stress, pollution, and obesity rates are disproportionately higher, additional support needs to be provided across the spectrum of the wider determinants affecting health, from education in schools to providing investment in transport and jobs, for example, to generate community pride and hope for the future.
We need to ‘invest for health’ with a focus on prevention and move away from our obesogenic environments and unsustainable ‘sickcare’ model.
Ultimately, adopting the holistic approach of Blue Zones requires multifaceted interventions, combining government policies, community initiatives, and individual responsibility to promote healthier lifestyles effectively.
Okinawa didn’t create their way of living in a day but that doesn’t mean the UK can waver on this issue.
Governments need to look at regearing the system and find the right incentives to promote healthier environments – making it easier for people to make the right choices for healthier living and sustaining long-term behavioural change that will ultimately benefit the nation.
– Tina Woods is CEO and founder of Business for Health