Female Ambassadors to Promote Exercise among Japanese Women

June 6, 2018

Tokyo- The Japan Sports Agency plans to launch a campaign to promote exercise among women by appointing a female "sports ambassador" for each of the country's 47 prefectures.

Among the ambassadors will be fashion models who are well known and have links with respective prefectures, officials of the agency said, adding that images of them enjoying such activities as yoga and walking will be released to encourage women, who tend to exercise less than men, and men as well to do sports.

The plan will be included in the agency's action program for promoting exercise, which is slated to be drawn up as early as in July.

Besides fashion models, famous people who have become healthier as they started playing sports will likely be named ambassadors under the initiative, the officials said.

These ambassadors will promote not only sports but also activities people can do casually, such as walking when they go shopping and during sightseeing trips. The agency is considering providing financial support to local governments that hold events featuring the ambassadors, the officials said.

The government has set a target of raising the proportion of adults who do exercise at least once a week to around 65 pct by the March 2022 end of fiscal 2021. The target will be met if over 20 million more people start to engage in exercise at the pace.

In a 2017 survey covering 20,000 people aged between 18 and 79, 51.5 pct said they exercise once or more a week. The proportion came to 49.9 pct for women, against 53.0 pct for men. Jiji Press