![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.medangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-27.png\")
<\/a>In a country with the world\u2019s second-oldest population and a long-standing reluctance to admit foreign workers, Japan\u2019s care homes face a shortfall of roughly 570,000 caregivers by 2040, according to the labor ministry. There are nearly four open positions for every job seeker. Women over 40 fill more than seventy percent of those jobs; young men have long stayed away, deterred by low wages and a stubborn perception of care work as women\u2019s labor.<\/p>\n
Now, several Japanese operators have begun recruiting from an unlikely pool \u2014 bodybuilders, mixed martial arts fighters, and retired sumo wrestlers \u2014 and the results are starting to reshape the industry.<\/p>\n
Bodybuilders<\/h2>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.medangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-21.png\")
<\/a>Yusuke Niwa. Source: Hidamari Group, via Japan Insider<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe most visible of these efforts belongs to Visionary Inc., a Nagoya-based disability welfare company founded in 2008 by Yusuke Niwa. Niwa had worked as a young male caregiver in his twenties and noticed he stood out simply because he was rare. A decade in, the company was struggling to hire even one carer a year.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Niwa launched a recruitment campaign he called Macho Caregivers, built around a corporate bodybuilding team named 7SeaS<\/a> \u2014 seven competitive lifters chosen for work ethic and \u201cpersonality that garners support from those around them.\u201d<\/p>\nOf Visionary\u2019s roughly 340 caregiving staff, about 20 are bodybuilder caregivers. The 7SeaS members work six-hour caregiving shifts and get two hours of paid gym time daily, plus a monthly stipend of about 20,000 yen for protein, contest entry fees, and travel. Applications jumped from roughly ten a year before the campaign to an expected 1,200 this fiscal year. Visionary now operates 25 to 29 facilities and projects sales of 2.2 billion yen ($14.4 million) for the year ending March 2026, roughly ten times its pre-2018 revenue.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.medangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-23.png\")
<\/a>Hokuto Tatsumi (left) and Takuya Usui, caregivers. Source: 7SeaS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nOne of the Visionary caregivers is Hokuto Tatsumi, 27, a former Maritime Self-Defense Force serviceman who placed second in Japan\u2019s largest amateur bodybuilding competition in both 2024 and 2025. Takuya Usui, 26, a former fitness trainer who bench-presses 170 kilograms, is another. Both work at a Visionary day facility in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, where they care for adults with disabilities.<\/p>\n
MMA Fighters<\/h2>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.medangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-25.png\")
<\/a>Mamiya Matsuura. Source: Facebook page<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIn Kochi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, Mamiya Matsuura, 36, is both an active professional MMA fighter (featherweight, with a record of 3-3-1), and the operator of a nursing home his family has operated for years. In 2022 he began hiring professional MMA fighters who live and train at the facility.<\/p>\n
Currently, ten fighters care for about fifty residents. Some have tattoos and dyed hair; they cook, help residents bathe, and train at night. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of testosterone in the room,\u201d Matsuura told the New York Times<\/a>. \u201cBut when it comes to taking care of the elderly, the fighters are very tender and very caring.\u201d The residents, he said, have started treating the fighters like grandchildren.<\/p>\nSumo<\/h2>\n
In Tokyo\u2019s Sumida ward, not far from the national sumo arena at Ryogoku, Day Service Hanasaki is run by Keisuke Kamikawa. He is a retired wrestler who fought as Wakatenro and reached the Juryo 2 rank in 2010 before injuries forced him out at 33.<\/p>\n
With no other job experience, Kamikawa took a high school equivalency exam, heard from an old classmate working in elder day care, and opened his first Hanasaki location in 2013. He now runs three.<\/p>\n
His staff includes other former rikishi (sumo wrestlers), among them Shuji Nakaita, 44, and Yugo Miura, 38. The wrestlers\u2019 training, Nakaita said, taught them to anticipate what\u2019s coming next \u2014 a useful skill in caring for elders who may not be able to ask for what they need. Kamikawa has also begun mentoring other ex-wrestlers facing the long-standing problem of second careers after the ring. He has told reporters his aim is to make Hanasaki the \u201cyokozuna\u201d \u2014 the highest rank or grand champion of sumo wrestling \u2014 of Sumida-ku day services.<\/p>\n
Shifting the Image<\/h2>\n
The wider picture is one of structural improvisation. Japan\u2019s caregiver shortage forces roughly 100,000 people to leave their jobs each year to look after aging relatives. Another 300,000 are projected to be juggling work and home caregiving by 2030.<\/p>\n
Some analysts note that physical strength alone doesn\u2019t substitute for proper training in dementia care, communication, and patient safety. Therefore, athletes at these facilities work alongside conventionally trained staff rather than replacing them.<\/p>\n
Still, the cultural shift \u2014 caregiving reframed as cool, strong, and visibly masculine \u2014 has begun to draw young men into a sector that had effectively been closed to them. These three small operations in Aichi, Kochi, and Tokyo show how the work itself can be reimagined.<\/p>\n
\nThis summary is based on the following sources:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Subscribe to the newsletter<\/a> <\/strong>so that you never miss an uplifting story of medical humanitarians improving lives worldwide.<\/p>\nAngels in Medicine<\/strong> is a volunteer site dedicated to the humanitarians, heroes, angels, and bodhisattvas of medicine. The site features physicians, nurses, physician assistants and other healthcare workers and volunteers who reach people without the resources or opportunities for quality care, such as teens, the poor, the incarcerated, the elderly, or those living in poor or war-torn regions. Read their stories at www.medangel.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The most visible of these efforts belongs to Visionary Inc., a Nagoya-based disability welfare company founded in 2008 by Yusuke Niwa. Niwa had worked as a young male caregiver in his twenties and noticed he stood out simply because he was rare. A decade in, the company was struggling to hire even one carer a year.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Niwa launched a recruitment campaign he called Macho Caregivers, built around a corporate bodybuilding team named 7SeaS<\/a> \u2014 seven competitive lifters chosen for work ethic and \u201cpersonality that garners support from those around them.\u201d<\/p>\n Of Visionary\u2019s roughly 340 caregiving staff, about 20 are bodybuilder caregivers. The 7SeaS members work six-hour caregiving shifts and get two hours of paid gym time daily, plus a monthly stipend of about 20,000 yen for protein, contest entry fees, and travel. Applications jumped from roughly ten a year before the campaign to an expected 1,200 this fiscal year. Visionary now operates 25 to 29 facilities and projects sales of 2.2 billion yen ($14.4 million) for the year ending March 2026, roughly ten times its pre-2018 revenue.<\/p>\n One of the Visionary caregivers is Hokuto Tatsumi, 27, a former Maritime Self-Defense Force serviceman who placed second in Japan\u2019s largest amateur bodybuilding competition in both 2024 and 2025. Takuya Usui, 26, a former fitness trainer who bench-presses 170 kilograms, is another. Both work at a Visionary day facility in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, where they care for adults with disabilities.<\/p>\n In Kochi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, Mamiya Matsuura, 36, is both an active professional MMA fighter (featherweight, with a record of 3-3-1), and the operator of a nursing home his family has operated for years. In 2022 he began hiring professional MMA fighters who live and train at the facility.<\/p>\n Currently, ten fighters care for about fifty residents. Some have tattoos and dyed hair; they cook, help residents bathe, and train at night. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of testosterone in the room,\u201d Matsuura told the New York Times<\/a>. \u201cBut when it comes to taking care of the elderly, the fighters are very tender and very caring.\u201d The residents, he said, have started treating the fighters like grandchildren.<\/p>\n In Tokyo\u2019s Sumida ward, not far from the national sumo arena at Ryogoku, Day Service Hanasaki is run by Keisuke Kamikawa. He is a retired wrestler who fought as Wakatenro and reached the Juryo 2 rank in 2010 before injuries forced him out at 33.<\/p>\n With no other job experience, Kamikawa took a high school equivalency exam, heard from an old classmate working in elder day care, and opened his first Hanasaki location in 2013. He now runs three.<\/p>\n His staff includes other former rikishi (sumo wrestlers), among them Shuji Nakaita, 44, and Yugo Miura, 38. The wrestlers\u2019 training, Nakaita said, taught them to anticipate what\u2019s coming next \u2014 a useful skill in caring for elders who may not be able to ask for what they need. Kamikawa has also begun mentoring other ex-wrestlers facing the long-standing problem of second careers after the ring. He has told reporters his aim is to make Hanasaki the \u201cyokozuna\u201d \u2014 the highest rank or grand champion of sumo wrestling \u2014 of Sumida-ku day services.<\/p>\n The wider picture is one of structural improvisation. Japan\u2019s caregiver shortage forces roughly 100,000 people to leave their jobs each year to look after aging relatives. Another 300,000 are projected to be juggling work and home caregiving by 2030.<\/p>\n Some analysts note that physical strength alone doesn\u2019t substitute for proper training in dementia care, communication, and patient safety. Therefore, athletes at these facilities work alongside conventionally trained staff rather than replacing them.<\/p>\n Still, the cultural shift \u2014 caregiving reframed as cool, strong, and visibly masculine \u2014 has begun to draw young men into a sector that had effectively been closed to them. These three small operations in Aichi, Kochi, and Tokyo show how the work itself can be reimagined.<\/p>\n This summary is based on the following sources:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Subscribe to the newsletter<\/a> <\/strong>so that you never miss an uplifting story of medical humanitarians improving lives worldwide.<\/p>\n Angels in Medicine<\/strong> is a volunteer site dedicated to the humanitarians, heroes, angels, and bodhisattvas of medicine. The site features physicians, nurses, physician assistants and other healthcare workers and volunteers who reach people without the resources or opportunities for quality care, such as teens, the poor, the incarcerated, the elderly, or those living in poor or war-torn regions. Read their stories at www.medangel.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>MMA Fighters<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Sumo<\/h2>\n
Shifting the Image<\/h2>\n
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