Calisthenics Trend in Japan

Japanese Culture & Photography
4 min readApr 28, 2021
Hibiya Park One Arm Planche Instagram: @photographyjapan

In Japan, you might see an 80 year old senior doing a front lever or a perfect handstand. You might even see a 50 year old doing a one arm pull up. I have seen so many talented people here at public parks.

Japanese Parks

For some reason, Japanese people like to bring their children to parks with pull up and dips bars. It is traditional Japanese culture to bring your child to the park to play and have fun rather than exercise. One of the most interesting experiences I had in Japan is in Hibiya Park (some what close to Tokyo station) has parallel bars that says adults only. When I used it to do handstands and work out, the security came and said this is only for children. It is indeed located in the children’s park which closes at 4:30 pm everyday but it has a sticker on it that states adults only. When I stated this to the staff, he paused and walked away. The parallel bars are about 4–5 feet and slippery so it is pretty dangerous for children.

Coronavirus Situation

Recently there are more and more people working out at home because of the coronavirus scare. Ever since the government declared a pandemic emergency, more than 80% of Japanese people stayed home. They gained weight and realized that they needed to exercise. This is the reason why more and more people started watching YouTube to get exercising tips which…

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Japanese Culture & Photography
Japanese Culture & Photography

Written by Japanese Culture & Photography

Japanese culture, food, sightseeing spots, and photography. Tokyo based Asian American professional photographer born and raised in Hawaii.

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