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Young japanese people take little to no interest in bodybuilding, you could be a stick figure with ripped abs over there and the majority will think you're "healthy" and "shredded".
With age though comes intelligence so once people are told by their doctors "hey you're only getting older so you need to start actually eating and working out for your health" they begin to do it which leads to some dropping certain stigmas/views they may have about fitness in the past, bodybuilding is a social activity too so it only makes sense that older gen X would take interest in it since it doesn't come off as a "boomer" sport.
We're social creatures mix this with the chance of retaining your youth it only makes sense that this would happen.
Not 100% in agreement with redberrings's assertion that "young japanese people take little [...] interest in bodybuilding" even though they've got a point, the surge of figure/bikini/wellness contests there tends to show otherwise. But indeed, in the mother of all categories, they're certainly missing.
I guess Thessel noticed, in their thorough and well-done analysis, that the BBing lineups almost remain the same, with some of the athletes having competed for the past two or three (!) last decades. So we're not necessarily talking about middle-aged women who decided to get fit during a mid-life crisis and take part to competitions, rather very seasoned athletes who started in their 20s, ironically.
There are certainly societal factors at play - Japan being quite a patriarchal society - with some implicit rules women should conform to. The below video from Agence France-Presse touches on this subject. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2pySvzWpfs
The summary for this video goes a little bit against my argument that some of the Japanese FBBs started earlier in life, but it's never demonstrated throughout the video. However there is some mention of the Kawai concept that could explain the lack of interest for BBing among young Japanese women. But, in my opinion, the addition of 'softer' categories for the past two decades and the current social media trend selling fitness and muscles as a valuable product seem to have some effects.
It can be explained by a few things. like Japan these days has very low brith rates. so the average Japanese person is just older than most other countries. and Japanese people are known for living long.
and bodybuilding is a great sport for older people. one of the few sports were a 60 year old can win against a 20 year old and probably has an advantage over the young ones. and it just gives them an opportunity to look sexy at an old age they are never going to be sexy in a normal way again. so this is probably the only way. With fbbs I have a very hard time guessing their age.
So we're not necessarily talking about middle-aged women who decided to get fit during a mid-life crisis and take part to competitions, rather very seasoned athletes who started in their 20s, ironically.
If you look at the podium of the 2023 Nihon Physique you could think that champion Ogishima Junko (55 y. o.), runner-up Sawada Megumi (62 y. o.) and third placed Shimizu Eriko (59 y. o.) competed even in the 1990s. However, Ogishima Junko's first tournament was in 2021 (she started bodybuilding around 2020), Sawada Megumi's first tournament was in 2014 (she started bodybuilding around 2012; four time Miss Nihon) and Shimizu Eriko's first tournament was in 2005 (she started bodybuilding around 2004; one of the FBBs with the longest careers now). Athletes who dropped out of the Top 12/retired were replaced by similar aged or only slightly younger athletes. (The last table in this post will show that the majority of new FBBs since 2012 were 40 years or older at their first tournament.)
I collected data on japanese female bodybuilding/physique tournaments since 2010 in a database. I may have missed some smaller tournaments (in the early 2010s) and some athletes. The following graph shows the number of active FBBs per year and category. (Active FBBs are all who competed in a tournament or were listed on the entry list for a tournament.)
(I grouped the FBBs in five categories: Category 1 for all who participated in the Nihon Physique of that year; Category 2 for those who participated in national tournaments - Nihon Class, Nihon Masters, Japan Open - and don't fit into Category 1; Category 3 for those who participated in block and JSBB tournaments and don't fit into Categories 1 or 2; Category 4 for those who participated in prefectural or sub-prefectural tournaments and don't fit into Categories 1, 2 or 3; Category 5 for those who participated only in Muscle Gate tournaments - non-JBBF tournaments, but closely related in terms of athletes and rules)
The number of active FBBs was around 80 until 2015 and jumped over 100 in 2016. This continued with a new increase after 2020 (even without Muscle Gate tournaments). In other words female bodybuilding in Japan seems to be growing and not dying out.
For the next graph I grouped the active FBBs by their first tournament (during 2010 and 2023, I didn't check the tournaments before 2010):
In the years 2011 to 2015 only 16 to 23 new FBBs appeared, but 29 to 47 in the years 2016-19 and 2020-23. This also implies that Japanese female bodybuilding is growing.
(The graph also shows that almost half of the FBBs lose interest in the tournaments after 2 years and three quarters after 4 years. More than half of the active FBBs 2023 started entering tournaments in 2021 or later - including the reigning Miss Nihon Ogishima Junko.)
Since I don't know the age of all active Japanese FBBs 2010-2023 the last part is more provisional.
This graph groups the active FBBs by age (5 years groups) and shows the athletes with unknown age, too. (With the exception of 2010 and 2020 I found age information about 90 % or more of the FBBs.) The focus shifted from 40-49 years old towards 50-59 years old. The proportion of athletes under 40 years fell in the early 2010s. It changed a lot (fewer percentage in 2014 and in 2018; higher percentage in 2020 and in 2021), however the percentages for the years 2012, 2013, 2022 and 2023 seem to be similar.
The overall trend towards older FBBs as seen in Nihon Physique seems to be true for the active FBBs.
The first table shows the average age of the "new" FBBs per year (2010 and 2011 in gray since many of those FBBs competed before 2010). The new FBBs seems to get older. (Notable drop in 2020 and 2021. This corresponds to the higher percentage of young FBBs in thouse years.)
The second table groups the new FBBs (2012-2023) by age. (At least) 80 newcomers were younger than 40 years and (at least) 124 were between 45 and 54 years old; unknown age for 60 athletes.
Can you link the contest? Or did you search it in Japanese?
As for the 2023 Nihon Physique contest you can watch the livestream (which starts during the 2nd round, includes male bodybuilding as well): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAPDB688QG8 Focused female bodybuilding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJGpVmK0I2Q
(The channels https://www.youtube.com/@masaki1402 and https://www.youtube.com/@FITLOVEJAPAN uploaded videos of all free poses.)
As for the data I copied them from the entry lists and result files (example for 2023 Nihon Physique: https://www.jbbf.jp/attachments/f47d170a640a6... - entry list and http://bodybuilding-fitness.jp/Result/2023/23... result file). They are in Japanese, but you can copy the text from the PDF-files and auto-translate it.
I looked up the entry lists for the Bikini Fitness, Fitness, Bodyfitness and Kenkôbi and Phyisque national tournaments (ALL JAPAN FITNESS CHAMPIONSHIPS since 2019) and compared the average age of the participants:
Bodyfitness and Kenkôbi had classes by age additional to classes by height. Those additional classes were not include in the graph above, but in the one below:
You can see that average age of the Fitness, Bodyfitness and Kenkôbi athletes increased until 2018/19. This trend seems to be reversed for the Bodyfitness athletes. The average age of the Bikini Fitness athletes fluctuates between 36 and 40 years.
So it's possible that the average age of FBBs increased due to the new categories. The average age of the Nihon Physique (Miss Nihon) contestants was 33.7 years in 1993, 33.3 years in 1994, 35.2 years in 1996, 36.7 years in 1999, 37 years in 2000 and 40.3 years in 2004. Therefore the average age of Bikini Fitness contestants is above the average age of Nihon Physique contestants in the mid 1990s.
thank you for sharing this japanese body building rarely gets brought up I went looking on YT the first time I saw your post but I couldn't find anything recent so thanks :)
You could also look at https://www.youtube.com/@GOLDSGYMJPOFFICIAL for livestreams and videos of the Muscle Gate contests (female bodybuilding is only a small segment of the hours long videos).
I looked up the entry lists for the Bikini Fitness, Fitness, Bodyfitness and Kenkôbi and Phyisque national tournaments (ALL JAPAN FITNESS CHAMPIONSHIPS since 2019) and compared the average age of the participants:
Bodyfitness and Kenkôbi had classes by age additional to classes by height. Those additional classes were not include in the graph above, but in the one below:
You can see that average age of the Fitness, Bodyfitness and Kenkôbi athletes increased until 2018/19. This trend seems to be reversed for the Bodyfitness athletes. The average age of the Bikini Fitness athletes fluctuates between 36 and 40 years.
So it's possible that the average age of FBBs increased due to the new categories. The average age of the Nihon Physique (Miss Nihon) contestants was 33.7 years in 1993, 33.3 years in 1994, 35.2 years in 1996, 36.7 years in 1999, 37 years in 2000 and 40.3 years in 2004. Therefore the average age of Bikini Fitness contestants is above the average age of Nihon Physique contestants in the mid 1990s.
You could also look at https://www.youtube.com/@GOLDSGYMJPOFFICIAL for livestreams and videos of the Muscle Gate contests (female bodybuilding is only a small segment of the hours long videos).
My man did a whole statistical analysis using the Tidyverse to create an array of visualizations... They do say to get practice in it is best to analyze a subject you have an interest in. I would never have thought there would be a convergence of FBB and Stats.......I applaud you for putting the hours in.
What is "Kenkobi"
That also draw my attention. A bit of research shows that Kenkôbi (健康美) is akin to 'physical beauty'. I guess this is a category similar to the Bodyfitness one that exists in Europe under the IFBB banner.
Otherwise, kudos again to Thessel for putting the hard work, I stand corrected about some of the above facts.
That also draw my attention. A bit of research shows that Kenkôbi (健康美) is akin to 'physical beauty'. I guess this is a category similar to the Bodyfitness one that exists in Europe under the IFBB banner.
Otherwise, kudos again to Thessel for putting the hard work, I stand corrected about some of the above facts.
Kenkôbi seems to be a mix of fitness and bodybuilding. It started few years after the first fitness competition. The main tournament was the Miss 21 Kenkôbi Tournament (ミス２１健康美大会), which lasted from 2001 to 2018. I guess it was abandoned in favor of the new ALL JAPAN FITNESS CHAMPIONSHIPS (introduced in 2019). You can find some contest videos on youtube. An example from the 2016 tournament (50+ years class):
At first two rounds of posing in bikini and swimsuit (high heels): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVYa1fFNqY
Second a free pose in bikini (barefoot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qE4XPFEh2w
I don't know if there is an equivalent category in other countries or if Kenkôbi is a Japan-only thing (To be honest I'm not that interested in the fitness categories). However I noticed some overlapping among the Bodybuilding/Physique, Kenkôbi and Bodyfitness athletes. Even competing in two categories in the same year. (For example: Yano Kazumi finished seventh in the Bodyfitness category at the Fitness Japan Grand Championships 2022 and ninth at the Nihon Physique 2022 eight days later.)
Thanks for the videos, it clears things up. Indeed, it is similar to the NABBA Figure category which has been around for almost the past 40 years, including rounds with high heels and posing routines. The IFBB then took 'inspiration' from it to implement its own version from the late 90s/early 00s.
JBBF is part of the IFBB so I presume that Kenkôbi is specific to Japan. I can't think of a similar class in the other IFBB-affiliated feds in Europe or North America.
This time I looked at the Japanese FBB/Physique champions/class winners under 40 years (2010-2023):
"around xx years" implies I calculated the age using data from other contests; "at least ..." "not known" implies that I didn't know the age for all champions of that tournament.
Nihon Physique: none
National tournaments:
-Nihon Class:
Akiyama Chikako (2012; class below 46 kg) 39 y o
-Nihon Masters: none (by definition)
-Japan Open:
Murayama Ayano (2019) 31 y o - still active
-Nihon Challenge Cup (JSBB):
Azuma Nanako (2010) around 39 y o
Harigae Hitomi (2023) 36 y o - Tokyo Muscle Bar
-Nihon Shakaiin (JSBB): none
Block tournaments:
-East Japan (HigashiNihon): none
-West Japan (NishiNihon):
Ômori Juri (2013) around 35 y o and (2015) 37 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BXHzm1KbvA for 2013 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8WSMLxDTtM for 2015)
Fujiwara Ayaka (2023) 28 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0p6WToNMaY starting after 4 min 50 sec)
-Tohoku-Hokkaido: (maybe Utsumi Katsumi (2012) around 40 y o)
-Kanto:
Abe Yuka (2016) 28 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tK_pQ4oR6s)
-Kanto Class:
(maybe Miura Emiko (2014; class above 50 kg) around 40 y o)
Abe Yuka (2016; class above 158 cm) 27 y o
Wei Xiao Xiao (2022; class above 158 cm) 30 y o - still active (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BDwJvZbQe8)
Miyashita Akina (2023; class below 158 cm) 34 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R38PFNX25W4)
-Tokyo:
Abe Yuka (2018) 29 y o (youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW0PLvsS7Os)
-Tokyo Class:
Ogawa Yoshika (2010; class below 46 kg) 33 y o
Akiyama Chikako (2011; class below 46 kg) 38 y o
Etô Kayoko (2011; class above 46 kg) 39 y o
Ôkubo Satomi (2022; class below 158 cm) 29 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shww37rxG6Y)
-Tokyo Open:
Tanaka Kumi (2011) 39 y o
-Tokyo Novice: none
-Hokuriku-Koshin’etsu: at least four
Shimada Yumi (2011) about 39 y o
柿澤 陽子 (Kakizawa Yoko?) (2014) about 35 y o
Isobe Miho (2015) about 39 y o
Murayama Ayano (2018) about 31 y o - still active
-Tokai:
Hattori Junko (2016) about 39 y o
-Kansai:
Ômori Juri (2010) around 32 y o and (2015) around 37 y o
Uozawa Aya (2014) around 35 y o
-Shikoku:
Ishigaki Noriko (2018) 36 y o and (2019) around 37 y o
-Kyushu-Okinawa: at least two
Haraguchi Miyuki (2013) around 33 y o and (2016) around 36 y o
-Kyushu-Okinawa Class: not known
-Saikai (Open): at least three
Haraguchi Miyuki (2015; class below 158 cm) around 35 y o and (2016; class below 158 cm) around 36 y o
Fukudome Yuki (2021) around 29 y o
Prefectural tournaments (only those with FBB/Physique tournaments):
-Hokkaido:
Hayashi Fumika (2022) 39 y o - still active
-Miyagi: at least one
Abe Yuka (2012) around 23 y o
-Fukushima: none
-Tochigi: none
-Saitama:
Wei Xiao Xiao (2021) 29 y o - still active
-Kitaku Open: at least one
Itô Rie (2014) around 39 y o
(maybe Yoshitani Mika (2012) around 40 y o and Matsumoto Kozue (2021) around 40 y o - still active)
-Kanagawa:
Kobayashi Nami (2012) around 38 y o
Yoshioka Misato (2022) 29 y o - still active
-Shonan Open:
Suzuki Yûki (2020) around 32 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewFVtZ31fHM)
-Ishikawa: not known
-Fukui: none
-Yamanashi: none
-Nagano: at least three
Fukushima Chika (2013) 33 y o
柿澤 陽子 (Kakizawa Yoko?) (2014) around 35 y o and (2015) 36 y o
(maybe Isobe Miho (2016) around 40 y o)
-Gifu: not known
-Shizuoka:
Katsumata Kyôko (2016) around 32 y o
Ochiai Misato (2023) around 35 y o (video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvoPisgSCf3/?img_...)
-Aichi: at least one
Tanemura Mitsuki (2010) around 38 y o
-Mie: at least two
Hattori Junko (2015) around 38 y o and (2016) around 39 y o (and maybe (2017) around 40 y o)
-Kyoto:
Imagawa Emi (2021) 32 y o (youtube-video deleted; see first screenshot below)
-Osaka:
Ômori Juri (2010) around 32 y o and (2015) 37 y o
Nakamura Sayaka (2018) 39 y o - still active
-Hyogo:
Yamaji Emi (2017) 39 y o
Fujiwara Nodoka (2022) 30 y o
-Nara: none
-Hiroshima: not known
-Yamaguchi: not known
-Kagawa: not known
-Ehime:
Katayama Megumi (2021) 38 y o
-Fukuoka: at least two
Haraguchi Miyuki (2018) around 38 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJmc3V78_-g)
Kosobayashi Kana (2021) 26 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QPfx6SpLlA)
-Oita: none
-Okinawa: at least one
Kagami Yumiko (2010) around 35 y o
Muscle Gate tournaments (the entry lists don't mention age of the contestants):
-Gold’s Gym Japan Cup: none
-Muscle Gate tournaments 2020: all three
Kosobayashi Kana (Muscle Gate Fukuoka) around 25 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2cO17hcjSA)
Katayama Megumi (Muscle Gate Kobe) around 37 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ms_6Jwu13A)
Saiki Reika (Muscle Gate Tokyo) 28 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyYicOYizyc among others)
-Muscle Gate tournaments 2021: at least three
Katayama Megumi (Muscle Gate Shikoku) around 38 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPWm5nsuNvg)
Hatada Asami (Muscle Gate Kansai) around 33 y o
Hayashi Fumika (Muscle Gate Sapporo) around 39 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOPux-re8M)
-Muscle Gate tournaments 2022: at least two
Ôkubo Satomi (Muscle Gate Hamamatsu) around 30 y o (youtube-video deleted; see second screenshot below)
Okudera Aoi (Muscle Gate Tokyo Sportec) around 26 y o (youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_NWUMH80eA medal ceremony at 5:53:10)
(maybe Sakaguchi Shizuka (Muscle Gate Chiba) around 40 y o -youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0RCMot5Qqg)
-Muscle Gate tournaments 2023: (maybe Ebata Mariko (Muscle Gate Fukuoka) around 40 y o)
Additional notes: 243 of 463 active FBBs won at least 1 contest/class 2010-2023. Some prefectural tournaments and Muscle Gate tournaments had only 1 contestant.
(Screenshot 1: Champion Imagawa Emi)
(Screenshot 2: Champion Ôkubo Satomi)
Some records of the 463 bodybuilders 2010-2023 (including JBBF and Muscle Gate):
Most prolific athletes (with most tournament participations):
Most successful athletes (with most wins; not counting overall wins):
Tallest athletes (maximum height in cm, not current height; known data for 385 of 463 athletes):
also shared 9th place with 168 cm: Uozawa Aya (魚澤 亜矢), Shikata Chie (四方 千枝), Ueda Hoho (上田 ほほ), Tanehashi Kumi (種橋 久美) and Ishida Yôko (石田 陽子).
The average of the known (maximum) heights is 158.4 cm. This fits with the fact that the athletes in the class tournaments are divided at 158 cm. (However, the Nihon Class tournaments adds a third class for 163 cm and above and therefore favor tall athletes.)
Heaviest athletes (maximum weight in kg, not current weight; known data for 375 of 463 athletes):
The average of the known (maximum) weights is 49.5 kg.
(Also I found the birth date for Saiki Reika (才木 玲佳) in the wikipedia and the age of Kondô Chiaki (近藤 千晶) on her instagram profile. This means small changes for the data on active bodybuilders in 2020 to 2022 - making them a little younger in average.)
Prefectures by number of participants in their FBB/physique contests (2010-2023):
The maximum of 13 contests (2010-2019 and 2021-2023) have been held in Aichi, Fukuoka, Kanagawa, Nagano and Osaka. 21 of the 47 prefectures didn't held any FBB/physique contest (including the sixth most populous prefecture Chiba, which instead holds Kenkôbi contests). Tokyo is one of the eight regional blocks with a sub-prefecture tournament Kitaku Open (55 participants in 10 contests).
Aichi (10 of 13 contests), Fukuoka (6 of 13 contests), Kanagawa (8 of 13 contests), Kyoto (1 of 4 contests), Oita (both contests) and Osaka (5 of 13 contests) are the only prefectures where more than 3 athletes competed in the same contest. This is important since the top three of the prefectural tournaments can enter the Nihon Physique. So in most prefectures entering a physique contest means you can enter the Nihon Physique of the same year.
Some prefectures (at least Hyogo, Kanagawa, Nagano and Tokyo) have or had related categories for FBB/physique beginner called Miss Beginner, Open or Newcomer (shinjin). Posing is in sport bra and shorts. (I didn't include these contests in the statistics).
Some trivia about the 463 athletes:
(At least) 9 cases of name changes (most/all of them due to marriage I guess): Shimada > Satô Misako; Ôshima > Tanemura Mitsuki; Mizuma > Suzuki Utako; Shinozaki > Harada Rika; Shinano > Yoshida Chieko; Takahashi > Imai Yuka; Îyama > Morita Ritsuko; Nakahara > Mochida Maharu; Mano > Konishi Momoka.
Two athletes called Hattori Junki, but with different Kanji: (1) 服部 淳子 (active 2014-2019 only Nihon Masters, born about 1968) and (2) 服部 順子 (active 2015-2019, born about 1978).
There is a phyisque athlete Suzuki Akiko (鈴木 亜希子; born about 1975, 155 cm) and a bikini athlete with the same name (and same Kanji 鈴木 亜希子; born about 1972, 164 cm).
Some athletes have foreign names: Michele Ruhl (ﾙｰﾙ ﾄﾞｰﾝ ﾐｼｪﾙ), Simone Sounders (?) (ｻｳﾝﾀﾞｰｽ ｼﾓｰﾝ), Harriet Gibbs (?) (ギブス ハリエット), Lea Martins (?) (マルチンス レイア), Ejireia Yugeta (?) (ユゲタ エジレイア), Juliana Naomi Dochi (DOCHI JULIANA NAOMI).
Two athletes with Chinese names: Wu Weina (ｳ ｴｲﾅ) and Wei Xiao Xiao (韋 笑笑).
(At least?) 3 cases of disqualification:
Nakajima Chiharu (中島 千春) for doping, tested at Nihon Class 2022, class below 163 cm (press release: http://tbbf.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/%E...). Youtube videos of this contest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jZShYv7fmo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQrw9uw7MtQ. She lost her Nihon Class victory, however she retained the title of Miss Tokyo (champion of Tokyo block tournament) 2022. (The fact that she initially won both tournaments shows that athletes of her size are not disadvantaged.)
Usujima Chika (薄島 千佳) for doping, tested at Hokuriku-Koshin’etsu block tournament 2014 (last page of http://bodybuilding-fitness.jp/JBBF/Other/Dop...). Also disqualified for East Japan tournament (HigashiNihon) 2014. No youtube videos of these contests found. She returned for the Muscle Contest 2020 (non-JBBF tournament!) as entry number 40. Youtube videos of this contest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YewqlEXMM10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Fkf0xTRMw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba2-wNMfCLA.
Iwamoto Kyômi (岩本 京美) for leaving the award ceremony of Tokai block tournament 2013. Youtube video of the award ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgkfoQyQq4E. At 1:47 she is announced as third place winner, at 2:02 standing behind the podium and thinking, at 2:09 leaving the ceremony (only one athlete noticed this). I did not find tournament participations after 2013. Coincidentally, Usujima Chika with entry number 2 (see last paragraph) won the fourth place and after Iwamoto's disqualification the third place (she gained some size between 2013 and 2020).
Between 2011 and 2023 7 athletes managed to reach the Top 12 of Nihon Physique in their first year of competetive bodybuilding:
(1) Sawada Megumi (澤田 めぐみ), 2014 (53 years old), 6th place, 1 year of training, qualified as Tokyo Open (winner); Nihon Class -55 kg (winner); Tokyo class 46 kg + (winner); Japan Open (winner); Tokyo (winner); East Japan 50 kg + (winner).
(2) Nakamura Shizuka (中村 静香), 2016 (54 years old), 7th place, 16 years of training (former Fitness and Bodyfitness athlete), qualified as Tokyo Class 158cm + (winner); Japan Open (winner); Tokyo (winner); Nihon Class 163 cm + (2nd place).
(3) Harada Rika (原田 理香), 2018 (43 years old), 11th place, 6 years of training, qualified as West Japan (winner).
(4) Ogishima Junko (荻島 順子), 2021 (53 years old), 8th place, 1 year of traing, qualified as Tokyo Novice (winner); Tokyo Class -158 cm (winner); Tokyo (2nd place). (She started her bodybuilding career in a Muscle Gate contest.)
(5) Kasuga Chiharu (春日 千春), 2021 (58 years old), 12th place, qualified as Nagano (winner).
(6) Fujiwara Ayaka (藤原 彩香), 2022 (27 years old), 10th place, 2 years of training, qualified as West Japan (2nd place).
(7) Urushima Miki (漆島 美紀), 2023 (47 years old), 10th place, 6 years of training (former Bodyfitness athlete), qualified as Tokyo (2nd place); Nihon Class -158 cm (5th place).
(During this research I found out that Hashiboku Akiko changed her given name from Aki to Akiko between 2016 and 2017. So there are only 462 athletes left in the database.)
Nakamura Shizuka and Urushima Miki are not the only former (or current) Bodyfitness athletes to reach the Top 12 of Nihon Physique. Other examples include Yano Kazumi (矢野 かずみ; 9th place 2023) and Sakamori Kaori (阪森 香理; 5th place 2023).
In the comments under a youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IZY7zECP5I (Nihon Physique 2023 Top 12 prediction) users discuss why these female bodybuilder are generally so old. According to google translator they think the hormone changes after menopause gives them an advantage.
So perhaps it started with a shift towards less bodyfat instead of very big muscles (late 1990s or early 2000s). The bodybuilders at the time benefited from this change and stayed active longer. As a result, the average age rose. The new Fitness, Bodyfitness and Bikini categories also reduced the number of young bodybuilders. But this is also a theory. I still don't know why the number of active bodybuilders increased after 2015.
What could be done to increase the number of young (active) female bodybuilders in Japan? There is already a Nihon Masters tournament for athletes of 40 years and above - which are about 85 % of the active athletes. So why not introduce a "Junior" tournament for female bodybuilders up to 39 years? There are very few of them (at least 17 in 2023, maybe around 20) so that everyone could fit on the stage.
While watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIP7JV0ru8w about the Top 12 of Nihon Physique (Male and Female) I noticed the large amount of athletes from the Prefecture Tokyo: 8 out of 12. (Based on the population numbers you would expect about 2 athletes)
So I checked more Nihon Physique competitions. I found data on all competitions since 1991. The majority of the champions (23 of 32), of the top 3 (55 of 96), of top 6 (104 of 192) and of the top 12 (198 of 384) are from the Prefecture Tokyo. So the athletes from Tokyo are indeed dominating the national championships for decades.
(After some ups and downs there 6 to 8 athletes from the Prefecture Tokyo after 2004 - except in 2011 and 2016.)
I also checked the other prefectures. Only 20 of the 47 prefectures had at least one Top 12 athlete since 1991.
There are two other prefectures with many Top 12 places: Osaka (dominant in earlier years with 5 entries in 2002, 6 in 2003 and 2004) and Aichi (more evenly distributed: never more than 2 entries). The three prefectures account for 75 % of all Top 12 places.
What could be the reason for the dominance of athletes from Tokyo? Maybe it is the greater competition inside the prefecture. I checked the results of the Top 6 of the Miss Tokyo contest (Tokyo block championships) in the Nihon Physique for the years 2010 to 2023. 10 of the 13 champions reached the Top 12 and 1 failed (2 didn't compete in their championship year, this includes Nakajima Chiharu). Also 7 runner-ups, 2 third placed and 2 fourth placed athletes reached the Top 12 - 21 in total. (57 of the 78 Top 6 Miss Tokyo competitors entered the Nihon Physique tournaments, about 73 %.)
I watched youtube videos of the Nihon Physique competition. Since many of the top competitors are in there 50s I wondered when this "trend" had started. So I checked the age of all past winners of this competition (the "Miss Nihon"):
You can see many different champions in the early years and longer reigns since the mid 1990s. The trend towards older champions is clearly visible. Starting at least in the early 2000s.
So I dug a little deeper and looked at the Top 12 of Nihon Physique (who show their free pose). With help of full entry lists (for 2004, 2006 and since 2008) and youtube videos of earlier contests (for 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998 to 2000) I was able to gather the data for the years 1993 to 2000 and since 2004:
The color legend on the right: gold for champion, black for 2nd place, red for 3rd place, green for 4th to 6th places and blue for 7th to 12th places. Again, clearly visible overall trend (also slower in the 1990s). Few points to mention:
(1) The interval between the oldest and youngest of the Top 12 changed a lot. In the 1990s about 15 to 16 years, in 2005 only 13 years, afterwards usually less than 10 years. The interval suddenly increased to 28 years in 2018 and in 2023 it is 34 years (oldest Sawada Megumi (62) and youngest Fujiwara Ayaka (28)).
(2) I was surprised that no Top 12 competitor between 2004 and 2017 was younger than 35 years. It's even possible that no Top 12 competitor between 1995 and 2017 was younger than 30 years (but missing data of few of the 2001 to 2003 competitors).
(3) Even though some of the Top 12 competitors in the 1990s and 2000s were older than 45 years it seems none of them was 50 years or older. The first 50-year-old top competitor appeared in 2011 and the first 60-year-old in 2021.
I also checked the average age of all competitors in 3 major tournaments (Nihon Physique, Japan Open, Nihon Class) since 2010:
Again the same overall trend, but slightly slower.
So, will the overall trend continue? (And how long?) When will we see a Miss Nihon who is younger than 50 (40) years old?
(I plan to write another post about the Japanese FBBs between 2010 and 2023 in general.)