The day after his 90th birthday, Toshisuke Kanazawa walked onto a stage in Japan, oiled and tanned, and struck his poses against men who were mostly a few years younger. When the results came in, he had won the 85-and-over category at the Japan Masters Bodybuilding Championships on August 30, 2026.
It was his 19th national title: 17 Masters wins added to two Mr. Japan crowns from the early 1960s. He trains two hours a day, six days a week, at the gym he chairs in Hiroshima, and says he has never used performance-enhancing drugs.
Kanazawa credits his longevity to three habits that he has refined over seven decades in the sport: careful recovery, a clean lifestyle and a refusal to accept decline as inevitable.
His second career, which has now lasted 40 years, began with a decision made for his wife.
He Shared a Stage With Schwarzenegger in 1967
Kanazawa was born in Shimane Prefecture in August 1936. As a high school student he swam the 1,500-meter freestyle and hoped to reach the Olympics, until a muscle injury ended that plan and steered him toward bodybuilding. His parents were not convinced. He told The Guardian that his father thought young men should be working, so he promised to become the best in Japan within a few years.
He kept the promise. After placing third at Mr. Japan in 1958 and second in 1959, he won the title in 1960, at 24, and again in 1963. In 1967 he flew to Montreal for the Mr. Universe contest, where he shared the stage with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio Oliva and finished fourth. In those years he sometimes trained six hours a day.
At 34 he retired, and for more than 15 years he stopped training altogether.
A Comeback at 50 Began With His Wife
His wife, Kazuko, had a chronic illness. As he approached 50, Kanazawa decided to get back in shape to encourage her. “My wife had always supported me but she was often sick,” he said. “I saw how I had let myself go since retiring, so I wanted to show her that anything was possible.”
Seven years later, at 57, he won the Japan Masters championship for bodybuilders over 40. After turning 80, he added six World Masters titles. In 2022, at 86, he broke his own record as the oldest competitor ever at the Japan Bodybuilding Championships, telling The Mainichi that he wanted to compete until 90 and live healthily to 100.
Kazuko died about two decades ago. Kanazawa now lives alone and does his own cooking, cleaning and laundry, which he told Japan’s VITUP! magazine never feels like a burden because he has goals to meet.
Rule One: Recovery Comes First
Today he trains two hours a day, six days a week. He has dropped heavy free-weight lifts such as barbell squats and bench presses and works mainly on machines, which let him load each muscle while protecting his joints.
Recovery gets as much attention as lifting. “It takes longer to recover from weights sessions than it used to, so I make sure I rest properly between sets,” he said. He aims for about seven hours of sleep a night.
His diet has stayed the same for decades. Since his comeback, he has eaten no meat or fish, relying on brown rice, natto (fermented soybeans rich in protein), miso soup and eggs. Protein shakes fill in the rest, though fewer than before. “I used to have six protein shakes a day but now I have three. As I get older, it’s harder to stomach that much liquid,” he said.
Rules Two and Three: Stay Clean and Refuse to Quit
Kanazawa describes himself as 100 percent natural. He has never used steroids or testosterone therapy, and he gave up smoking and drinking when he returned to the sport.
His third rule is about the mind. Many older people, he says, stop doing what they love the moment their legs weaken or their muscles shrink, treating the change as unavoidable. He prefers to keep setting goals. He has said he wants to remain a bodybuilder until the day he dies.
That message has an audience at home. Japan now counts more than 100,000 centenarians, according to its health ministry. After his latest win, Kanazawa said he plans to keep chasing world records.
At the 2022 World Bodybuilding Championships in Spain, the official results listed him at 60.8 kilograms, about 134 pounds. He finished 12th in the Masters 60-and-over category, against men up to 26 years younger.
