Japan vs USA: Do Japanese Competitors Really Train that Hard?

The work ethic in Japan is world famous. From the shiny cobble stones at Tokyo Disney to flower arranging, to praticing martial arts, most Japanese people are focused, perfectionist. It is a part of their society.

Here in Japan the martial arts training is second to none. Kids, even grade school level, train for 3 or 4 hours a day whether Karate, Judo, Ken-do, etc. It is an amazing feat to watch and the coaches show no mercy in dealing out time-honed techniques.

The Japanese martial artist follow the saying, train a move 20,000 times so that you can get it right once when it counts. When you train that much and that hard it tends to lend itself to winning A LOT. They train so hard and win so much in fact, and not just in martial arts, but every other sport too, that the American teams on the military bases don't even invite the Japanese teams anymore. Why, because they take every medal in every division, or completely shut down the American team in group sports.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Japanese work ethic is that the coach or sensei can give the kids a workout and then leave for a few minutes or an hour and the kids, without a coach, will give 110%. They will put in maximum effort continuously and perpetually.  This is the essence of the warrior spirit in Japan.

Pictured here is my little brother in law on his 17th birthday. He is one of the top 10 Judo youth in Japan. He is about 220lbs solid muscle. He has a scholarship to the most prestigious high school in Okinawa, Japan where they train 2 or 3 times a day. They train in the morning, the afternoon, and sometimes at night if their coach is mad at them. They kids stay in the Judo dorm at the high school and only return home to their families on the weekends.

The only bad thing about the how hard the Japanese train is burnout. They win a lot, but I think the over the top training leads to a lot of would be world renown athletes from Japan calling it quits too early.

In America, martial arts train hard no doubt, and we have a lot of the best athletes coming out of the US. At the youth level, the US training regime for most sports does not even compare to the Japanese system, because our 45 minute to an 1.5 hour classes 2 or 3 times a week does not compare to their 4 hours a day 6 days a week. I think the same goes for competitors through high school. Collegiate athletes train a bit harder than their younger counterparts and then at the professional level anything is possible. All athletes are training at peek performance and pretty much 5-7 days a week month after month, year after year.  Moreover, the Japanese tend to find the sport they like by junior high school and stick with that only sport indefinitely. Most American kids jump from one sport to another year round, usually never reaching their full potential in one, unless they find the sport they truly excel at and then focus on that singular sport more.

I can honestly say, after living in Japan for almost a decade, my view of what training is and what training is not has significantly changed. I encourage every martial artist to visit Japan at least once, and visit a few martial arts classes. You will not only change your view of training, but you will remain inspired for the rest of your life.

Please comment below, I would love to hear your take and please share with your fellow martial artists.