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Julian Ryall

With his broad smile, Tatsumi Hokuto helps an elderly woman in a Japanese care home almost effortlessly to her feet and makes sure she is steady.
At first glance, Hokuto cuts an unlikely figure for a carer role: a powerfully built 27-year-old in tight leggings and a black singlet, with the physique of a dedicated bodybuilder.
But for Nagoya-based Visionary, a company that operates nursing and care facilities across Japan, that contrast is precisely the point.
Visionary’s “macho carers” like Hokuto are core to its effort to bring strength, confidence and a brighter image to a sector struggling to meet the demands of Japan’s rapidly ageing population.


“I enjoy my job because it allows me to balance what I love, strength training, along with my job,” said Hokuto, who previously served for seven years in the Maritime Self-Defence Force.
“Doing this makes me feel that my muscles are benefiting people and society,” said Hokuto, who works with a team of similarly toned young men from Visionary.
“The greatest challenge is that every client has a different disability and characteristics, and that requires me to use different support methods tailored for each individual,” he said.
Asked what his clients might gain from his example, he pointed out that some of the people he had worked with had started their own strength training regimens.

The concept of “macho carers” is the brainchild of Visionary founder Yusuke Niwa.
“The nursing care industry faces a persistent shortage of personnel, and I felt that traditional recruitment media and methods were just not working any more,” Niwa said. “As someone working in the sector, I realised that nursing care has a strong image of being difficult and gloomy, and that has made it more difficult to attract employees.”
The 41-year-old, who set his company up in 2008, said he wanted to create a new type of nursing care that was “bright, cool and positive”.
Niwa had an epiphany one day when he saw a group of bodybuilders at his local gym who were completely committed to their hobby.
“I thought to myself that if attractive people – both in their appearance and their inner qualities – could enter the nursing care field, we could significantly change the image of the industry,” he said.
There was initially some hesitation on his part to raise Visionary’s profile and draw attention to his company’s services on social media, Niwa said.
But his concept has since taken hold and been welcomed by residents of care homes for the elderly, and day care facilities for people with physical and mental handicaps.

“We started by raising awareness of the concept of Visionary, but we now feel that we are providing both a sense of security and enjoyment to our clients,” Niwa said.
“The physical strength of our carers provides a sense of security. At the same time, their ability to communicate in a bright and positive way brings a touch of the extraordinary and smiles to clients’ daily lives. We believe the greatest value lies in the fact that it’s not just help, but care that makes people feel positive.”
Visionary operates 29 nursing and care facilities around Japan and has 340 caregiving staff on its books, including 20 classified as “macho carers”. Of the latter, Hokuto and six others with exemplary work attitude and personalities serve as the company’s elite “7SeaS” fitness team.
Their duties include helping patients into wheelchairs or out of bed, clothing and bathing them, brushing their teeth and combing their hair. For the more mobile, the macho carers put them through light workouts to stimulate them. The team even accompanies groups at times to attend festivals and watch fireworks displays.
On their work days, the macho carers put in six hours of caregiving duties and two hours in the gym, with each man receiving a special monthly allowance of 20,000 yen (US$127) to go towards protein supplements, entrance fees for competitions and travel expenses.
Japan’s challenging demographics mean that care workers are in short supply, and they will become more sought after in the years to come.


Around 2.1 million people work in the sector in Japan currently. A study by the health ministry estimates that with the growing number of elderly and rising longevity, the industry is going to need another 600,000 such workers by 2040.
“Before we started the ‘macho carer’ programme, we received two or three job applications a year,” said Niwa. Thanks to the interest the Visionary has generated, it received more than 1,000 applicants in 2024 and 2025.
“It has become so popular that we intend to expand our operations and our ‘macho carer’ teams within Japan. We are working hard to raise awareness through events and the media, to help people understand the initiative and the opportunities that exist in the industry,” he said.
“Since ageing is a challenge around the world, I believe this model has the potential to be successful overseas as well, and we are considering expansion into new markets abroad.”


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Care worker and bodybuilder Takuya Usui (right) chats with Madoka Yamaguchi as he helps her sit on a bed at a care home for people with disabilities operated by Visionary in Ichinomiya, Aichi prefecture. Photo: AFP

Tatsumi Hokuto works as a “macho carer” for Japanese care facility operator Visionary. Photo: Handout

Yusuke Niwa, founder of Japanese care facility operator Visionary. Photo: Handout

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Japan’s care industry is facing a shortage of workers, and one company is plugging the gap by deploying ‘cool’ and well-toned staff


Japan’s care industry is facing a shortage of workers, and one company is plugging the gap by deploying ‘cool’ and well-toned staff.


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Rapidly ageing Japan’s ‘macho carers’ lend muscles to benefit elderly, disabled

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Japan’s care industry is facing a shortage of workers, and one company is plugging the gap by deploying ‘cool’ and well-toned staff

Japan’s care industry is facing a shortage of workers, and one company is plugging the gap by deploying ‘cool’ and well-toned staff