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The story
On 5ch’s “Business News+” board, a new AM/FM radio preloaded with the audio for Radio Calisthenics No. 1 and No. 2 sparked discussion. The selling point is that users can start exercising just by turning the dial, without waiting for the scheduled broadcast time, and the unit runs on either disposable batteries or USB-C power. The thread was split between people praising the idea and those asking whether a smartphone or YouTube would do just as well, while posts pointing out that rights holders beyond the broadcasters are involved in the calisthenics audio, and introducing the “legendary Radio Calisthenics No. 3” — broadcast for only about a year and four months starting in 1946 — drew particular attention.
Just switch the dial to play Radio Calisthenics No. 1 or No. 2 anytime. Supports Wide FM, has a speaker rated up to 5W, and runs on either disposable batteries or USB Type-C power.
Northern Blue Co., Ltd.
November 4, 2026, 9:00 AM
Source: prtimes.jp / Original article here
What people said
That's about all this product amounts to.
You mean on a smartphone, right?
Its speaker's too weak for that — you couldn't do it in a park.
Is this a radio for people in their 90s who can't get online?
For doing radio calisthenics every day, maybe having even slightly easier operation than pulling up the video on YouTube matters.
The whole point is that it happens at a fixed time.
So that's why Kampo Life Insurance put out a radio calisthenics app.
I downloaded it out of curiosity but it demanded an email signup, so I uninstalled it lol
No. 1 especially is Kampo Life Insurance's alone, after all.
Register your email and you'll probably get hit with Kampo insurance sales pitches lol
The key is that it's a radio.
A recorder/player would be boring.
No. 2 especially can get pretty artistic sometimes.
Since they'd use it daily for radio calisthenics,
even elderly people who don't normally listen to the radio
would end up handling one regularly,
so when an actual disaster hits, they could get information from it right away.
Features and history
• Broadcast period: Aired only for a short stretch of about one year and four months, from roughly late April 1946 (Showa 21) to late August 1947 (Showa 22).
• Intensity: Compared to No. 1 and No. 2, the movements are more complex and dynamic, making it a notably high-intensity routine. It consists of 16 moves across 11 types.
• Why it ended: A combination of factors — the moves were too hard to pick up from audio alone, and the broadcast time wasn't stable — led to its discontinuation, much to people's regret.
• Modern revival: It has been reconstructed from historical records by professors at Ryukoku University and released on CD, DVD, and in book form. It's drawing attention for its potential benefits in preventing lifestyle diseases and building muscle strength.
just keep the copyright as-is and make it free to use.
Monetizing it is basically unconstitutional-level wrong.
Just put it on YouTube and call it done.
Well, public broadcasting itself isn't even free to begin with.
It ended in March, yeah.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
This news story is a product introduction based on a company press release, with no political angle to it. Where opinions in the thread split was over whether a dedicated radio is even necessary — some argued a smartphone or YouTube would do the job just fine, while others pushed back, pointing to outdoor use in parks and ease of use for older people unfamiliar with the internet. One easily overlooked point raised in the thread is that the Radio Calisthenics No. 1 and No. 2 audio involves rights holders beyond just the broadcasters — including Kampo Life Insurance and JASRAC — meaning licensing terms could differ between streaming it online and baking the audio into a dedicated device. Also worth noting is the existence of “Radio Calisthenics No. 3,” broadcast for only about a year and four months starting in 1946 and no longer performed today — a fact that wasn’t widely known until it came up in the thread.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Business News+) thread “Radio calisthenics anytime, no need to wait for the broadcast time — AM/FM radio with built-in Radio Calisthenics No. 1/No. 2 audio launching October 2026.”
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