TOKYO — Middle-age and older people who exercise for at least one hour, three days a week or more tend to feel a higher “sense of fulfillment” in life than those who don’t, a recent Japan Sports Agency survey has shown.

The organization announced the results of the latest physical fitness and exercise capacity survey on Oct. 8. According to the study, a little over 40% of men in their 40s who regularly engage in physical activities said they felt fulfillment in their everyday life.

The survey has been carried out every year since 1964. A total of 56,365 people aged between 6 and 79 participated in the latest survey from May to October 2022. They were given a physical test including a grip strength examination and ran 50 meters, and were also asked about their exercise habits and awareness of their own health.

Of the participants, the agency analyzed the relationship between physical fitness test results and exercise habits, among other factors, for 9-year-olds (fourth graders), 16-year-olds (second year in high school) and adults in their 40s and 70s. Those who exercised often (for at least one hour, three days a week or more) scored higher than the average in all age groups when physical fitness test results were converted into figures.

Analysis on adult subjects showed that 41.9% of men in their 40s who exercised for at least one hour three days a week or more said they feel their life is “fulfilled.” Meanwhile, of those who rarely engaged in physical activities, or for less than half an hour and less than a day a week, only 18.4% said the same about fulfillment, while a total of 17.3% answered that they “didn’t feel very fulfilled” or “not fulfilled at all” — far greater than the 3.2% who gave the same answers among those who exercised often. A similar tendency was seen among women in their 40s and people in their 70s.

Noriko Sekine, professor of exercise physiology at the Open University of Japan, who was part of the agency’s research, maintains that the causal relationship between an individual’s exercise habits and their sense of fulfillment in life hasn’t been clarified, but said, “If a person achieves their goal in sport, they may experience fulfillment. While we don’t know which comes first (between the exercise habit and the sense of fulfillment), they likely affect one another.”

(Japanese original by Yongho Lee, Tokyo City News Department)