The “Useless Muscles” Debate: Why Must Muscles Be Justified in Japan?

Today I want to look at a recurring argument in Japan: the so-called “useful muscles” versus “useless muscles” debate—often invoked when people talk about strength training or muscular physiques.

In Japan, “Macho” (マッチョ) is not just about physical strength. It’s a culturally loaded label, one that can carry assumptions about personality, conformity, and social deviation.

What this article is (and isn’t)

I’m not here to argue, “There’s no such thing as useless muscles,” or “Training-built muscles aren’t useless—period.”
Instead, I want to describe the social and cultural structure that keeps this debate alive in Japan.
I’m also not trying to compile a watertight “muscle chronicle” of modern Japanese fitness culture.

My take on “useless/useful muscles”

First, I’d like to briefly explain how I’ve approached strength training up to now,
and what kind of physique I aim to achieve.

I’ve been training for over 30 years. If you look at the images on my official site, you’ll see my look probably falls within what’s described as “Soft Macho.”

This physique isn’t the result of me specifically aiming for a “Soft Macho” body as a destination. Rather, it’s the result of choices and compromises reflecting various requirements and constraints of real life, as well as my outlook on life.

What I mean is, I genuinely want to live to 120 years old and continue strength training throughout my entire life. My strength training and lifestyle habits are structured to achieve self-realization based on this philosophy.

Next, I’ll outline my perspective on “useful/useless muscles.” My view is quite conventional and could even be considered conservative.

Bodybuilding muscles are muscles pursued for beauty.
What defines that “beauty” is shaped by societal norms, athletic organizations, and personal preference.
On the other hand, muscles for sports, martial arts, or the context of street fighting—like “can you protect a woman in an emergency?”—are muscles built to win in those scenarios.
Even though they’re both called “muscles,” their intended purpose is fundamentally different from the start.
Therefore, it’s fundamentally impossible to categorically declare one “usable” and the other “useless.”

This is my perspective.

So, in this article, I will explore why the phenomenon known as the “useless muscle debate” occurs in Japan.

In Japan, Macho has long been shunned and ridiculed.

First, I’ll put into words a page from history that could be called a microcosm of the modern history of Macho in Japan.

The image of Macho in Japan that I, born in 1975, have witnessed is one that has always been shunned in society and sometimes laughed at. For a long time, there was a prevailing tendency in Japan to keep one’s distance from “excessive muscle,” or Macho, as typified by bodybuilders.

“Avoiding Macho” – as one manifestation of this, a period where Macho types were “ridiculed,” particularly in the media, lasted a long time.

When it came to Macho featured on TV shows, they generally fell into two patterns. The first was a very small number of comedians and other entertainers who successfully turned their macho physiques into “laughs.” The second was the so-called “eccentric weirdo” category.

The typical portrayal of Macho in this oddball category involved scenes like:

“shoveling down mountains of plain boiled spaghetti piled high in a bowl,”
or “chewing on large containers packed with boiled chicken breast while declaring, ‘This is the best thing for muscles!’”
Incidentally, such scenes are invariably followed by shots of other cast members reacting with expressions of utter bewilderment. Furthermore, there are scenes where a half-naked Macho, painted red, serves as a target for games like the “demon target practice” found at festivals, getting pelted with balls by other cast members.

There’s a fact: Japanese Macho have been portrayed in the media as figures meant to be laughed at—as clowns, or as “incomprehensible weirdos” whom ordinary people can neither understand nor empathize with.

Even if they spoke something in front of the camera, even if those words possessed philosophical depth or rich spirituality, the staging often suggests that all such content was likely cut during editing. This approach seems to have been frequently employed on television.

I suspect this narrative aligns closely with the reality observed by strength training enthusiasts or bodybuilders around my age.

Nothing Fundamental Has Changed

The emergence of magazines like “Tarzan” may have brought about some degree of “improved social standing for the Macho” in Japan, but I feel no fundamental change occurred.

Furthermore, as health consciousness grew with the times, celebrities—particularly those who achieved significant economic success—began publicly declaring they “keep going to the gym.” The idea that self-management skills lead to business success seems quite ingrained in modern Japan.

However, there is one phenomenon frequently observed in these contexts.

That phenomenon is this:

People feel compelled to verbally add a kind of qualification or “disclaimer” each time, stating,

“I go to the gym, but I don’t necessarily want to become Macho.”

This is understandable. After all, in Japan, Macho have been shunned and ridiculed.

This structure that makes people feel compelled to add disclaimers can be articulated using a clear metaphor.

For example, imagine a yoga studio run by a group rumored to be “spiritual.” Someone might attend simply because it’s nearby or because they genuinely enjoy yoga—not because they share the group’s worldview. In that case, if they ever have to say, “I go to yoga there,” they may feel an urge to add, “But I’m just there for yoga.”

This analogy illustrates a structure similar to that which makes you feel compelled to say, “I go to the gym, but I’m not trying to be a Macho or anything.”

What Was “The Fitness Boom” in Japan?

Next, regarding the so-called fitness boom that occurred at the beginning of the 21st century in Japan. Personally, I view this phenomenon similarly to what the term “boom” suggests: it did not bring about any major change fundamentally altering the nature of Macho in Japan.

Looking at the background of this fitness boom, I believe it emerged under the following global trends:

• The intensification of neoliberalism and the doctrine of personal responsibility
• The development of social media and the irreversible progression of lookism
• The emphasis on labor productivity

In essence, one aspect of what occurred during the the fitness boom was the proliferation of convenient justifications individuals could offer society to explain their choice to “maintain strength training as a habit.”

Here, doing strength training acquired a socially acceptable excuse to demonstrate, “I am not a weirdo.”

“If you want to succeed in business, lift weights,”
“All successful people hone their self-management skills through strength training,”
“Global CEO XX lifts weights.”

This “winner’s mentality,” driven by neoliberalism, provided Japanese society—which constantly questions “why you keep doing strength training”—with an all too clear “answer.” Here lies a clear answer to society’s question, “Why do you do strength training?”: “Well, I want money, of course.”

Similarly, the irreversible progression of lookism driven by social media’s growth has brought something to Japan’s strength training culture that shares this same structure. Here too, society’s question, “Why do you do strength training?” receives clear answers like “To stand out” or “To increase my follower count.”

Put another way, what was happening behind the fitness boom was likely this:
Japanese society redefined “strength training culture” under the condition that “It’s okay to do strength training, but only for the purposes of health, beauty, or improving productivity.”

A crucial point is that this is by no means a simplifiable situation like “Japanese Macho men have finally gained acceptance.”

Rather, it appears that the act of strength training itself—
as a physical tuning tool for business success,
as a how-to for gaining attention in a lookism-dominated society,
as a health-conscious pursuit to extend healthy longevity—

is being driven by these powerful forces.
The social image of Macho in Japan seems to have been elevated merely as a peripheral byproduct of this broader trend, at least for now.

Against this backdrop, it seems to me that the core of the “useless muscle debate” isn’t about muscle performance, but about whether that muscle can be socially justified.

The Categorization Has Become More Refined, But

Of course, it is not that the situation surrounding Macho in Japan has remained entirely unchanged. It is fair to say that society has gained a greater degree of granularity in how it talks about muscular bodies.

What was once lumped together indiscriminately as “excessive Macho” is now subdivided. The most extreme form has come to be labeled Gori Macho, while more moderate, socially explainable forms—those perceived as relatively acceptable—are referred to as Slim Macho or Soft Macho.

Yet even within this more refined labeling system, the underlying pressure remains largely the same. Men still feel compelled to repeatedly clarify, “I’m not aiming to be a Gori Macho.” They have not been freed from the sense that, unless they add something like, “I’m not really into intense strength training or anything,” they risk being pushed into the category of the “weirdo.”

Rephrased more plainly, “I’m not aiming to be a Gori Macho” often functions as a way of saying:
“I am not someone who deviates from social norms or the prevailing atmosphere,”
or
“I am not someone who fails to read the room.”

From this, a hypothesis naturally emerges:
perhaps what Japanese people fear most is becoming an incomprehensible, deviant presence in the eyes of society.