MEET IT IN 30 SECONDS
ラジオ体操
Japan’s radio exercises organise movements through music and spoken cues. Beginning as a national health programme in 1928, they passed through postwar revisions to become today’s first and second routines, later joined by Minna no Taisō.
In Japan, rajio taisō uses music and spoken cues to lead a sequence of movements without exercise apparatus. The term names both the broadcast programme and its familiar routines, also practised in schools, workplaces, and local groups.
The first routine, in use since 1951, was designed for the general public at a relatively modest intensity. The 1952 second routine initially addressed working-age adults in workplaces and uses more vigorous movement. Both have thirteen sections, but the second is not merely the first renamed or played faster. Minna no Taisō, added in 1999, has eight sections and combines slower passages with rhythmic ones.
These are the providers’ design descriptions, not an age-based prescription for each individual. Each routine has its own sequence, accompaniment and demonstration.
The official standing chart divides the first routine into thirteen movements: stretching; arm swings with leg bends; arm circles; chest opening; side bends; forward and backward bends; twisting; upward and downward arm stretches; diagonal bends with chest opening; trunk circles; two-foot jumps; repeated arm swings and leg bends; and deep breathing.
The opening stretch raises the arms in front of the body and lowers them to the sides. Rhythmic arm swings with leg bends follow, then arm circles. Within each numbered chart section, successive poses show how one movement unfolds.
The twelfth movement returns to arm swings and leg bends, and the thirteenth is deep breathing. Following the jumping section, the official chart presents these as a winding-down stage.
Japan Post Insurance also provides a seated version, with chair-based forms of stretching, twisting, and upward arm movements. Section eleven retains the heading used for two-foot jumping, while its illustrations show rhythmic seated arm swings.
Broadcasting supplies a shared rhythm and cues to people in different places; diagrams show direction and transitions. The federation’s history describes postal workers learning the movements and teaching them locally. Radio, demonstrations, and printed instruction worked together to spread the exercises.
The federation credits Tadashi Hattori with the 1951 first-routine accompaniment and Ikuma Dan with the 1952 second. FACE MUSIC’s profile identifies Toshihiko Sahashi as the composer of Minna no Taisō, established by the postal insurance bureau and NHK in 1999.
A fixed musical sequence accompanies a fixed movement sequence; spoken instruction and demonstration help participants locate actions and transitions. The Radio Exercise Song introduced in 1956 has lyrics and a different purpose. It should not be confused with the accompaniment to the three exercise routines.
The second routine also has thirteen numbered movements. It begins by gently shaking the whole body, then bending and extending the arms and legs; its eighth section includes one-foot hopping, running, and stepping. Arm swings with leg bends and deep breathing bring its own sequence to a close.
Minna proceeds through hands and arms, chest, upper-body swaying, neck, thrusting, legs and waist, arms and legs, then deep breathing. The federation gives a duration of about four minutes thirty seconds and describes a design for small indoor spaces and more accessible participation.
Its opening differs from the first routine’s upward arm stretch. The standing chart begins with closing the hands, opening them, shaking them loose, then bending the elbows and extending the arms forward. More rhythmic whole-body movements follow. Its design is expressed in starting points, pace and combinations, not simply in having fewer numbered sections.
Counts have a practical function in the diagrams. Minna’s third section repeats an eight-count swaying pattern twice, then bends to each side over four counts. A numbered section can therefore contain changes in rhythm and direction. Demonstration makes those changes visible, while shared cues help people move into the next passage together.
A musical study offers another concrete view. In his analysis of the first routine, Tsugami relates a short note completing a dotted rhythm to preparation—bending the knees and crossing the arms—before opening the arms and straightening on the next beat. Staccato in jumping passages and longer notes that sustain a posture work differently. This is his interpretation; he also identifies places where movement and musical structure do not match perfectly.
The federation connects the Japanese programme with Metropolitan Life’s American exercise broadcasts in 1925. Officials studying insurance overseas introduced the idea of spreading exercises by radio, linking insurance administration with public health promotion.
The Postal Insurance Bureau worked with the broadcasting association and education authorities to develop national health exercises as part of the enthronement commemorations for Emperor Shōwa. Tokyo Central Broadcasting Station began airing this programme on 1 November 1928.
Japan Post Insurance dates national broadcasting to February 1929. JACAR explains that stations including Osaka initially offered their own programmes, with a nationwide common programme established from 1934 onward.
A children’s early-rising exercise group organised by a Manseibashi police officer in summer 1930 became an important example of local radio exercise meetings. With radios not yet available in every home, gathering in open spaces also helped group practice spread.
An early second routine for younger adults appeared in 1932, followed by a third in 1939. Tamagawa’s 1942 printed sheet shows that old third routine, with the old first and second on its reverse. These belong to a different generation from today’s routines.
JACAR describes collective radio exercises in the 1930s becoming linked with flag ceremonies, the anthem, and worship toward the imperial palace. They were promoted in colonies and occupied territories as well. Health, daily discipline, and state mobilisation intersected.
Japan Post Insurance records a stop on 15 August 1945 and resumption on 23 August. The old routines continued until a newly devised set replaced them the following April.
The old routines ended in April 1946, giving way to a new set of three. Postal Museum Japan describes the removal of spoken commands and waltz-style accompaniment as attempts to change their image. Its third-routine record and diagram document this short-lived generation.
The new exercises were complex, postwar life unsettled, and broadcast times irregular. Japan Post Insurance and the Postal Museum identify these as obstacles to adoption. The second generation ceased broadcasting at the end of August 1947.
The present first routine began in May 1951, followed by the workplace-oriented second in June 1952. Both are third-generation routines after two revisions. “First” and “second” identify routines, not successive historical generations.
The familiar Radio Exercise Song, with words by Fujiura Kō and music by Fujiyama Ichirō, was introduced and broadcast in 1956. This song with lyrics serves a different purpose from the music accompanying the exercise movements.
Television exercises began in October 1957. Visible demonstration complemented radio cues and printed charts. The name “radio exercises” remained familiar even as viewers learned through television.
Summer touring exercise meetings began in 1953. The national federation formed in 1962, and the “Ten Million People Radio Exercise Festival” began that October. Touring meetings brought broadcast instruction together with local group practice.
On 21 August 2023, Nakatsu City visited a local Radio Exercise Health Club. A representative picked up litter in the park after six; participants gathered at six-thirty and spread into a semicircle before starting. Attendance was not limited to the immediate neighbourhood, and visiting primary-school children also joined during summer holidays.
Care for the shared place, an agreed time and a formation enabled people arriving separately to exercise together. Continuing adult practice also overlapped with children’s seasonal participation: this local meeting did not exist only during school holidays.
Minna no Taisō was developed in the context of the UN International Year of Older Persons, using a universal-design approach intended to welcome people across ages, genders, and abilities. It joined the first and second routines in later broadcasts and local activities.
Records, booklets, and films supported the early broadcasts. Today Japan Post Insurance provides both standing and seated charts. Music and spoken cues convey rhythm, while diagrams show poses and transitions, providing ways to learn and practise beyond the broadcast.
Japan Post Insurance has produced annual attendance cards for children since 1952, encouraging early rising during the summer holidays and recording participation. Its 2026 card has no preprinted dates, so it can also be used throughout the year.
These scenes illustrate local arrangements for sound and attendance records, without implying universal registration or one standard attendance card.
Hashimoto’s page, updated in 2026, describes local groups formed by relatives, neighbours or friends using an audio source. Groups can register through the federation or city, receive locally supplied stamp books and banners, and have their meeting locations listed. The city’s examples include morning park groups and daytime community-hall sessions, with children joining some groups in summer.
Registration is a local support arrangement, not a requirement imposed on everyone exercising together across Japan. These local stamp books also differ from Japan Post Insurance’s annual children’s attendance cards. Reusable sound, an agreed place, organisers and local support let the same routines fit different daily patterns.
The first began in May 1951 and the second in June 1952. Both belong to the third generation.
Thirteen, opening with stretching and ending with deep breathing. One numbered movement may contain several illustrated poses.
Generation describes historical revisions; routine numbers distinguish different sequences used within a generation.
No. Broadcasting resumed after a brief August 1945 stop. New routines ran from April 1946 until late August 1947.
Adaptation changes the movement: section eleven retains the jumping heading but illustrates seated arm movement.
The first addresses the general public at a modest intensity; the second began as a more vigorous workplace routine, both with thirteen sections. Minna has eight and combines slower and rhythmic parts, opening through hand closing, opening and relaxing.
It repeats an eight-count pattern twice before four-count side bends, showing that one numbered section can contain repetition, direction changes and transitions rather than one fixed pose.
They include preparing a shared place, agreeing on a time and formation, and organising contact. A city can support groups through registration, record books, banners and public information. These are named local practices, not compulsory national rules.