Book Info: Working Out in Japan: Shaping the Female Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs By Laura Spielvogel Duke University Press; March 2003; ISBN: 0822330490; pp. 250
	Working It Suzuki World Aerobics Cup Cooper Center Tipness Club (Japanese) Japan's vital statistics

In Japan in the 1980s, with the “bodicon” (body consciousness) craze, the “it” exercise was aerobics. Skimpy shiny leotards, big hair, pulsating music—aerobics fit perfectly with bubble era Japan. Laura’s Spielvogel’s book, Working Out in Japan: Shaping the Female Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs examines the way aerobics shaped women’s bodies as well Japanese ideas of beauty, health, and leisure.

While this book focuses nominally on aerobics, Spielvogel’s study is also an examination of how imported ideas are absorbed and digested by differing cultures. Aerobics is an all-American sport that has found a loyal following among the 3.1 million Japanese who frequent fitness clubs in 1995. Invented by Kenneth H. Cooper in the late 1960s, the sport in Japan has retained American styles and goals. Japanese participants look to US cities like Los Angeles or New York as fitness meccas; whether funk, step, or spinning. Spielvogel points out the inherent contradictions and tensions in Japanese fitness clubs. At times, American notions of beauty conflict with Japanese ideas. For example, a tan, strong, gregarious, “hard bodied” aerobics instructor is in direct contrast to the Japanese feminine ideal of a pale, soft, 40 kg, reserved woman.

Spielvogel’s work is a unique topic in English language academe and is a solid anthropological study that formed the basis of her doctoral research at Yale. Her fieldwork included eight-hour days at two Japanese health club chains from 1995-97. She taught classes at a central Tokyo (Roppongi) club populated with twenty-somethings and models; the other, a suburban Chiba club, filled with the middle-aged “silver set”. While seen as an American aerobics “expert” she also served tea, cleaned, and was evaluated by managers in the same way as her Japanese counterparts.

Her first hand experience lends color and insight to the discussion of how societal pressures shape the body and exercise habits. “Your eyes seem smaller,” one instructor comments to a member who had not been at the gym for a while, “has your face gotten fatter?” In another chapter, the author interprets the club space as a form of social control. She observes that “Japanese fitness clubs are designed to encourage looking” and thus police social relationships and appearance. Beyond mere safety concerns, she points out the numerous surveillance cameras at one of her clubs so an outside passerby can see into the aerobics classes, and thus monitor the body. Mirror and clear glass walls further complete the look of “looking.”

She also observes behavior behind the scenes in the absence of prying eyes: “With sweat beading on her forehead and still breathless, the Japanese aerobics instructor slips behind the swinging door of a staff room, collapses in a chair, and gratefully lights up a cigarette.” One staff member jokes, “We smoke because we work at a fitness club. We don’t want to be too healthy. Too much of anything isn’t good.” Some of the instructors she meets are heavy drinkers and smokers with a penchant for fast food.

One weakness of the book is that she fails to describe the financial health of the clubs. She clearly explains the cultural and historical context of Japanese aerobics clubs but are clubs more or less profitable than in the 1980s? While such issues may initially appear to be outside the scope of her study, it may explain the underlying motivations behind some behavior and management policies. For example, she discusses how instructors (rather than janitorial staff) scrub the floor without adequate cleaning liquids. Spielvogel argues that this is an example of seishin kyoiku, labor that disciplines mind and body. On the other hand, the club may be cost cutting to survive in a competitive market—both cleaning stuffs and janitorial staff cost money. In most cases, however, she does not over stretch her impressions and clearly indicates personal reactions.

Ironically enough, the latest fitness craze among twenty and thirty-somethings in Japan is now looking back to the East, away from the all-American aerobics craze and to yoga. Japanese women’s magazines, such as Hanako and AnAn, sport features with models and TV personalities talking about their yoga experiences. In the end, whether in Tokyo, California, or India, the quest for a perfect body is never ending.

Yuki Allyson Honjo. “Tokyo fitness Club Insider Reveals All,” The International Herald Tribune-Asahi Shimbun. June 21-22, 2003. Pg. 24.

Her first hand experience lends color and insight to the discussion of how societal pressures shape the body and exercise habits. “Your eyes seem smaller,” one instructor comments to a member who had not been at the gym for a while, “has your face gotten fatter?” In another chapter, the author interprets the club space as a form of social control.