EXPO November 2012 \58 IN JAPAN, IF You’re noT DOING ‘rajio Taiso’ You’re EITHER DEAD OR You’ve SLEPT IN. MILLIONS OF JAPANESE RISE EARLY EVERY MORNING TO GET TOGETHER and do radio exercises – THE REST DO THEM AT WORK. writer Kenji Hall photographer Kohei Take TUNE IN AND WORK OUT issue 58 — 195 DON’T stoP Moving —Japan Two minutes until showtime and a murmur of anticipation ripples through the crowd. On a stage at a school gym in western Japan the instructor, flanked by two slender women in T-shirts and pink sweatpants, tells the gathering of 800 people standing in tidy rows to take a breather and drink some water. Strong gusts from an approaching typhoon rustle the gym’s curtains. “It’s hot and muggy today so let’s make sure we don’t overdo it,” the instructor, Hajime Tago, says. Twenty seconds before 06.30 ticks around he urges people to take their places. “OK everyone, here we go!” As music blares from the speakers, Tago raises his arms and wiggles his fin- gers; on cue the crowd applaud enthu- siastically. “Good morning to everyone here on location and around the country and to those of you tuning in from over- seas!” Tago says. “We’re broadcasting live from Hokuei town in Tottori prefecture.” For the next 10 minutes, Tago leads his charges in a series of stretches, twists, lunges and jumps as a woman at a piano plays a catchy tune to set the rhythm and pace (see page 204). To millions of Japanese, mornings wouldn’t be the same without rajio taiso: radio exercises. Nearly everyone knows the five-minute dai-ichi (first) routine by heart. From very early on they learn the moves at school or in neighbour- Nikka Whisky Distilling Co hood parks and commit to memory the soundtrack that public broadcaster nhk At Nikka Whisky Distilling’s factory in airs on TV and radio up to seven times Kashiwa city, the rajio taiso theme song a day. When they join the workforce marks the official start of the day at 08.25. it’s often a part of their daily regime at Lasting just five minutes, the exercises are a crucial warm-up for employees before offices, factories and shops. “For Japanese they head to their stations. It’s not just people, doing rajio taiso becomes second about the health benefits, though: the nature,” says Taketoshi Kishimoto, the camaraderie counts, too. “Think of it as 53-year-old general manager of Nikka a form of communication,” says Taketoshi Whisky Distilling’s factory in Kashiwa Kishimoto, general manager at the bottling factory. Kishimoto has been doing rajio city, northeast of Tokyo (see right). taiso for so many years that he only needs The genius of rajio taiso is that it can to hear the music and his body knows what be done anywhere by anyone. When mon- to do. “It’s like riding a bicycle,” he says. ocle visits nhk’s TV studio (page 208), 01 196 — issue 58 issue 58 — 197 Setagaya park The early-morning scene at Setagaya park in Tokyo is a familiar one at parks across Japan: it’s just a few people standing around a radio half an hour before public broadcaster NHK’s 06.30 rajio taiso pro- gramme. Suddenly, with minutes to go, the gathering swells. They start by singing a song and soon they are moving in unison to the music. In summer they are joined by schoolchildren who collect stamps in a booklet for attending and later trade said booklet for stationery or snacks, a reward for being diligent. Alas, some resi- dents near small parks have complained about the noise at such an early hour. 198 — issue 58 issue 58 — 199 Meiji On the rooftop of a building at food producer Meiji’s milk and yoghurt factory in Toda city, north of Tokyo, 50 workers in white uniforms are bending and stretching and twisting together before they hit the production line. Rajio taiso is a tradition at Meiji that dates back to 1966, when back injuries were a common complaint among the company’s factory workers. No president in Meiji’s 95-year history has ever made the exercises a require- ment but they are now a daily ritual for all employees. After 08.00 exercises the managers offer reminders about safety and injuries, ending the powwow with a flourish: the “zero accidents” chant. 200 — issue 58 issue 58 — 201 National Radio Exercises Federation At the Tokyo headquarters of the National Radio Exercises Federation the staff do 10 minutes of exercises at 15.00. The non-profit group, which exists solely to promote rajio taiso, organises events and acts as a historical archivist. But to keep the practice alive it relies on volunteers who run more than 1,000 local chapters in parks, schools and offices. In 2005, the federation came up with written and physical tests to certify new rajio taiso teachers who are then qualified to teach at regional and community level. Last year more than 60 per cent of test-takers passed. 202 — issue 58 issue 58 — 203 Hokuei gym For nearly two months in summer, NHK airs its radio progamme live from a dif- ferent place every day. It’s a big deal for locals and helps keep rajio taiso going at the grass-roots level. In late September the national tour swung through Hokuei, a town of 16,000 in Tottori prefecture, west- ern Japan. More than 800 people young and old turned out for the 06.30 broadcast. The event was scheduled to be held on the playing field of a school and organisers were expecting 1,600 people. However, showers and strong winds forced organis- ers to move the event into the gym. 204 — issue 58 issue 58 — 205 Mitsubishi Electric Rajio taiso has been a fixture of the workplace in Japan for as long as anybody can remember; many people can’t even remember when it started. “We don’t have records of why or how long ago this daily rajio taiso routine began,” says Mitsubishi Electric spokeswoman Haruka Takahashi. At the manufacturer’s global headquarters in Tokyo nearly everyone occupying the cubicles in the factory automation systems group gets up for the five-minute morning session. “I asked one veteran who joined in 1974 and he said that the company was already doing it when he joined,” says Takahashi. 206 — issue 58 issue 58 — 207 two instructors and six models are record- ing a run-through of the 13 moves in the dai-ichi routine, the one suitable for all ages. Later they do the more rigor- ous dai-ni (second) version, aimed at a younger, more active crowd. “Every movement is carefully designed to get you to work muscles that you wouldn’t normally use,” says 39-year-old instruc- tor Mika Okamoto. Rajio taiso was an American idea before the Japanese made it their own. In the 1920s, Japan lagged behind richer Western nations by almost every yardstick: economic growth, health standards, lon- gevity. Government officials felt there was a need for something that would improve the lot of the ordinary Japa- nese. So they did what anyone in their situation would: they sent their best and brightest overseas to learn from the West. One official from the life-insurance division at what was then Japan’s post and telecommunications ministry returned from the US with a proposal for an exercise regimen modeled on Metro- politan Life Insurance Co’s 15-minute radio calisthenics. By 1928, Japanese postal-service employees at all 20,000 outlets were out on the curb every day to demonstrate the moves. Eight decades on the practice shows no signs of dying out. According to the non-profit National Radio Exercise Federation (see page 202) roughly one in five Japanese – amount- ing to 28 million people – does rajio taiso. Offices and factories play recordings of nhk’s programmes and schoolchildren do the exercises as part of their physi- cal education. Meanwhile, trendy newer versions abound: Otona no Rajio Taiso NHK television studio (Radio Exercises for Adults) was recently in the best-seller book charts for more Every so often NHK’s three instructors, than two months, redirecting attention six models (“assistants”) and a pianist go back to the original. into a TV studio to record shows called Minna no Taiso (Exercises for Everyone) Rajio taiso is successful because it and Terebi Taiso (TV Exercises); they has become many things: a warm-up record for radio, too. The format for TV has exercise for the health-conscious; a rou- remained largely unchanged for decades: tine for the elderly; team-building for an instructor off-camera leads the exercise corporate Japan; and a seasonal ritual while women in leotards and ballet shoes demonstrate correct form to a live piano for schoolchildren. It’s tempting to view accompaniment. There’s something very it through a regional lens, comparing it old-fashioned about the costumes and to locals doing tai-chi or stretching in backdrops. Every show looks almost city parks and plazas from Singapore identical but Yoshitaka Iwasaki, who to Shanghai. But staying limber is only has directed the programme for the past decade, says there are subtle changes – part of the reason Japanese still do syn- camera angles and costumes, for instance chronised radio calisthenics; the impor- – in response to viewers’ requests. tance of group dynamics in Japanese culture explains the rest. — (m) 208 — issue 58 issue 58 — 209.