‘I’m 100% natural’: how Japan’s 90-year-old bodybuilder is still winning titles

Toshisuke Kanazawa is reminiscing about his long and illustrious career when he pauses and makes an unusual offer: “Shall I take my top off now?”

He strips to the waist to reveal a smooth, bronzed upper body, pecs that most men can only dream of, and cable-like veins extending the length of his arms – the result of countless hours in the gym.

There is something else that makes Kanazawa’s physique even more remarkable: last month, a day before he won yet another major competition, the champion bodybuilder celebrated his 90th birthday.

Today, as he sips green tea at the gymnasium he runs in Hiroshima, Kanazawa’s eyes twinkle mischievously when he recalls his victory over seven other men in the 85+ category at the Japan Masters Bodybuilding Championships – his 19th national title and, he insists, not his last.

Born in Shimane prefecture on the Japan Sea coast in 1936, Kanazawa was a gifted swimmer who excelled at the 1500m freestyle as a high school student. After a muscular issue crushed his dream of competing in the Olympics, Kanazawa set his sights on becoming a professional bodybuilder.

“My mother was sceptical but supportive, but my father was dead against it – he thought young men should work, he says. “I told them I wanted to be the best in Japan but would need a few years to achieve that.”

He spent the next five years living as a near-recluse, training for six hours a day and surviving on simple meals cooked by his mother. The cash he earned from an occasional job delivering electric appliances went on milk and cheese.

At the age of 24, Kanazawa kept his promise to his parents, winning the Mister Japan title, a feat he repeated three years later. He would go on to win many more medals, and compete in the 1967 Mr Universe competition in Montreal alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and the winner, Sergio Oliva. Kanazawa, who finished fourth in that event, has won six World Masters championships since turning 80.

He is far from alone – other Japanese athletes and adventurers continue to defy the passage of time.

At 59, Kazuyoshi Miura is the world’s oldest active professional footballer, while swimmer Shoko Yonezawa is setting world masters records at 91. The sailor Kenichi Horie announced on his 88th birthday this month that he would attempt another nonstop solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean in March next spring; last year, Shintaro Okuyama completed a certified marathon in a time of eight hours, 43 min and 46 sec. He was 96.

Kanazawa credits clean living for his longevity and his ability to complete sets of pull-ups and leg presses. He has never smoked or drunk alcohol, and gave up meat and fish decades ago. His meals comprise mainly brown rice with a sprinkling of furikake, natto and miso soup into which he cracks a couple of raw eggs.

“I used to have six protein shakes a day but now I have three. As I get older, it’s harder to stomach that much liquid.” He has had to make other concessions. He no longer performs squats or bench presses, and sticks to machines rather than free weights. “I do what’s best for me and my body at this age.”

He has never been seriously ill and says his most recent health check produced data usually associated with a much younger man. “It takes longer to recover from weights sessions than it used to, so I make sure I rest properly between sets and get around seven hours’ sleep a night,” says Kanazawa, who trains for two hours a day, six days a week at his Hiroshima gym, a short walk from the peace memorial park devoted to victims of the atomic bombing.

“And I’m a 100% natural,” he adds – a polite way of establishing that his success has come purely from hard work, not performance-enhancing drugs. Then he smiles. “And I haven’t lost my marbles, right?”

With two Mr Japan titles to his name, Kanazawa retired in his mid-30s, only to return to competitive bodybuilding aged 50 as a way of encouraging his wife, who suffered from chronic illness.

“My wife had always supported me but she was often sick,” he says. “I saw how I had let myself go since retiring, so I wanted to show her that anything was possible.” Seven years later, he finished first in the masters championships for bodybuilders. “That was when I was at my physical peak.”

Japan’s status as a super-ageing society often generates negative headlines about depopulation, economic decline and the burden on younger people of ballooning health and social care costs. Almost 30% of the country’s 123.7 million people are over 64, and figures released last month showed the number of centenarians now exceeds 100,000, almost 90% of them women.

“Older Japanese people are doing incredible things, but I worry that too many of them give up on the things they did when they were younger,” says Kanazawa, who this month took fourth place in the mixed pairs category at the Japan Open Championships with Asuka Miyamae, 39 years his junior.

“It’s like when the muscles in your legs start to weaken and you just let it happen because you think it’s inevitable. I never wanted to be like that, which is why I do what I do.