When I was looking for general information about the size of the global yoga industry, I came across this information that Japan is (was) the fastest growing market that had a 400% increase in participation in yoga. The interesting thing was that, the more I looked for academic information on 'Yoga in Japan', the more I realised that there is basically nothing written. The more I spoke to Japanese anthropologists, who are also yoga practitioners and experts on South Asia, the more I was told that there is even a domestic lack of scholarship on yoga in Japan. It was this moment that led me to pivot my analytical gaze from being solely focused on 'global yoga and India', to instead document and understand the consumption of yoga in East Asia, in relation to the politics and economics of the Indian state.
Through following links I finally found that this figure mentioned above was for the period 2005-2010. Still, what is happening in the Japanese spiritual marketplace and yoga industry in 2017? We still don't know. I've since spoken to long-standing yoga teachers in Japan who have told me that, during this time, there was a huge increase, but then, for no clear reason, the growth has shouldered. This is known as an industry reaching its post-growth 'mature phase'. Still, over the next two years I will quantify and qualify 'Yoga in Japan'.
However, this information, or rather, the entire article is simply republished from this article, which ultimately finds it's source as the International Yoga Federation, which is quoted as saying
"The International Yoga Federation has estimated about 300 million enthusiasts of yoga worldwide; the fastest growing count in five years comes from Japan.
Frustratingly, they have not yet responded to any request for more information about the yoga in Japan data, and how they came to get this information.
I guess...I'll just have to go there and take a look for myself. Thanks to Dr Ayako Iwatani, the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, I'll get to spend the next two years doing exactly that...documenting what exactly constitutes 'Yogascapes in Japan', or rather 日本のヨガスケープ.
ありがとうございます
I guess...I'll just have to go there and take a look for myself. Thanks to Dr Ayako Iwatani, the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, I'll get to spend the next two years doing exactly that...documenting what exactly constitutes 'Yogascapes in Japan', or rather 日本のヨガスケープ.
ありがとうございます
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