Sports club affiliation influences physical strength, survey shows

The gap in physical strength tends to be wider between people who belong to sports clubs at school or in a community and those who do not, the Japan Sports Agency’s fiscal 2025 survey has found.

This tendency was evident mainly among young generations, according to the survey.

The survey also revealed that the physical strength of women in their 40s is declining markedly. The agency plans to help people secure necessary physical exercise opportunities by improving the environment for each generation.

The results of the physical strength and athletic ability survey were announced Sunday, a day before this year’s Sports Day on Monday.

Conducted between May and October last year, the survey covered 60,213 people between the ages of 6 and 79. Participants did exercises that differed from generation to generation, such as grip strength and situps, and the results were quantified to produce total physical strength scores for analysis.

For the first time, the fiscal 2025 survey examined whether there are any differences in the total physical strength score between people who are members of sports clubs and those who do not belong to such clubs.

The results for 12-, 15- and 19-year-olds, people between the ages of 25 and 29, those between the ages of 35 and 39, those between the ages of 45 and 49 and those between the ages of 65 and 69 were compared going back every three years until fiscal 2001, finding that the total score of club members was higher than that of nonmembers in all age categories and for both genders.

The survey found a long-term trend of widening in the total point gap, mainly among young generations.

For 19-year-old men, for example, the gap grew from 6.29 points in fiscal 2001 to 8.45 points in fiscal 2025. The widening came as the score of sports club members rose by 0.87 point while that of nonmembers dropped 1.29 points.

The proportion of people belonging to sports clubs was high among 12- and 15-year-olds, while the membership rate fell sharply for 19-year-olds.

“A challenge is how people should secure physical exercise opportunities during the period from high school graduation until entering the workforce,” an official from the agency said.

The total physical strength score rose for both men and women in their 60s and 70s.

Meanwhile, the total score continued declining for women in their 30s and 40s. The drop for women in their 40 was particularly large.

As women in these age brackets may have fewer opportunities to work out due to reasons such as work, housework and child-rearing, the agency plans to improve the environment to make it easier to do physical exercise at the workplace and to enhance programs for women.