A 2025 survey by Japan’s Sports Agency found that the share of adults belonging to sports clubs has been declining year after year. The membership rate among women in their 30s has fallen to roughly a third of what it was some 25 years ago. Experts point to changes in how people spend their leisure time, driven partly by the spread of smartphones, as one factor. On 5ch, posters raised a range of explanations, from the rising cost of membership fees and food to the spread of at-home fitness information and Japan’s shrinking young population due to the falling birthrate.
A 2025 survey by the Sports Agency revealed on the 11th that the share of adult men and women belonging to sports clubs has been falling year after year. The membership rate for women in their 30s has dropped to about a third of what it was roughly 25 years ago. Experts note that the spread of smartphones and other factors may have changed how people use their leisure time.
Some research also suggests that exercising with others boosts well-being. The Agency plans to work with the fitness industry to expand group exercise programs, aiming to improve the public’s physical and…
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Going to the gym doesn't even make you healthy in the first place — it's just narcissists who go.
4AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:46
Didn't gyms use to be popping up like crazy for a while there?
18AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:56
Re: #4
That was just the trend back then — it's died out this year.
5AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:47
It's because both protein powder and real food have gotten so expensive. Working out makes you hungry, after all.
7AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:48
Because people are broke. No money means you can't even eat, so you end up losing weight whether you like it or not.
8AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:49
Thanks to "Commander" Billy Blanks (Billy's Bootcamp), I stopped going to the gym.
9AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:50
"The membership rate for women in their 30s has dropped to a third over roughly 25 years" —
Comparing just two single points in time doesn't really tell us anything. Show us the actual trend.
10AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:50
You can train your body just fine without going to a gym — honestly, this whole "throw money at everything you do" Tokyo mindset is just cheap.
11AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:51
Probably the fault of those feeble old guys clanking away on the machines.
12AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:51
There are just too many gyms now — more of them than convenience stores.
14AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:54
Boomer: "That's not how you train, you're doing it all wrong."
15AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:55
Young people today won't spend money just to wear themselves out — skiing, golf, tennis, surfing, mountain climbing… now it's basically only old people who do that stuff.
16AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:55
There are tons of at-home workout routines all over the internet now, so word got out that women in their 30s don't really need to bother with a gym.
17AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:55
Cocky young punks flooded in, and the decent crowd that didn't want to deal with them left.
20AnonymousOct 12, 2026 13:59
Everyone's probably just sick of those lean-muscle gym bros in their skin-tight T-shirts and skin-tight sweatpants.
24AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:03
Re: #20
And it comes bundled with a Prius on neon-colored plates or an Alphard bought on a residual-value loan.
21AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:00
Strength training is fun at first because the gains come easy, but once you hit a certain point progress slows way down and it gets boring.
25AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:03
Brazilian jiu-jitsu or kickboxing is way more fun. Sports really do get boring without an opponent involved — though that comes with its own share of interpersonal drama.
26AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:03
Word got out that sports aren't actually good for you.
28AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:04
Wouldn't a "gym" that's just showers and nothing else actually catch on?
29AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:07
Three kata from old-school karate are more than enough to fix a lack of exercise or learn self-defense.
31AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:08
If it's for your health, just do sumo leg stomps (shiko) every day.
32AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:09
Japan's an easy country for walking or jogging in. Unless your goal is specifically strength training, there's no real point in going to a gym.
36AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:10
Re: #32
Isn't it hard to go for walks though, what with the summer heat and all the rain?
33AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:09
Every time I see an article like this I think the same thing — with the birthrate falling, of course the young population is shrinking in every field. That's just obvious.
38AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:12
There just aren't any young women there at all. I'll hang around for about three hours and see maybe three of them, tops.
40AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:21
If you just want to lose weight you don't even need machines, and you can shape your body without bothering to go to a gym at all.
41AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:21
Go somewhere with good Google Maps reviews and it's packed wall-to-wall with hardcore lifters — rough if you're just there to shake off being out of shape. Maybe chocoZAP (a cheap, unmanned 24/7 gym chain) is the right fit for that.
43AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:25
Japanese people have gotten poorer and can't afford the membership fees anymore.
45AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:26
Watching from the outside, all I can say is… yeah, no kidding.
46AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:26
Average wages are rising, but consumer spending keeps falling. When people cut back, this is exactly the kind of thing that gets cut first — you can't really cut food or utility costs even when prices go up.
47AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:27
Anytime Fitness locations keep popping up left and right though.
55AnonymousOct 12, 2026 15:01
Re: #47
Aren't those more like convenience-store-style chains?
48AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:29
For women with zero interest in getting a ripped physique, the only things they really care about are their stomach and upper arms anyway — you can handle that just fine at home.
49AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:31
Because Nishida from the comedy duo Rarand pulled off a 200kg squat with no weight training at all.
51AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:51
I was waiting for Tully's to open at 9am and saw a long line at the gym downstairs — a bunch of old ladies fighting over the treadmills.
52AnonymousOct 12, 2026 14:54
The big-name gyms charge steep monthly fees, but the cheap gyms attract a low-class crowd.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The original article draws on a 2025 Sports Agency survey showing that the membership rate for women in their 30s has fallen to a third over 25 years, with experts citing shifting leisure habits driven by smartphone use as the main factor. In the thread, however, that “smartphone” explanation got little airtime; posters instead leaned on a different set of explanations — rising membership fees and food costs, the spread of at-home workout information, and a shrinking young population due to the falling birthrate. It’s also worth noting, as response 9 points out, that the article’s “a third” figure compares just two single points in time rather than showing the trend across the full 25 years. The rise of low-cost, unmanned gym chains like chocoZAP also came up repeatedly as a place where people leaving traditional sports clubs are ending up.
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