Japanese physical fitness surveillance: a greater need for international publications that utilize the world’s best physical fitness database

Physical fitness (PF) is significantly associated with current and future health. Routine assessment of PF is important not only to understand the overall health of the population, but also to predict future disease burden. While the annual national PF testing conducted by the Japan Sports Agency is well known domestically, the existence of this surveillance strategy is seldom recognized internationally, as only a few published studies have used this PF surveillance dataset. This short review has three aims. First, we briefly summarize the history and test battery of the annual national PF surveillance system for Japanese people. Second, we discuss published research, including our recent work that utilized data from the Japanese PF surveillance database. Third, we propose a priority research agenda for Japanese PF surveillance. While annual PF surveillance appears to be "normal" for Japan, such surveillance efforts are extremely rare internationally. Promoting Japan's national PF surveillance dataset in international publications provides an important opportunity for other countries to develop similar cost-effective public health surveillance strategies.