While physical fitness is the source of all human activities, there is an increasing trend for children to suffer declining physical fitness despite improved physiques. The Basic Plan for the Promotion of Sports aims to halt and reverse the declining trend of children’s physical fitness. In the last ten years, physical fitness on the part of students in the early elementary grades has flattened out, and shown gradual tendency towards improvement in higher grades.

 Since fiscal 2008, MEXT has conducted the National Survey of Physical Fitness, Athletic Performance and Exercise Habits, and supported initiatives to improve physical fitness which utilize detailed analysis and results of the survey. In addition, MEXT spreads awareness of the importance of physical fitness in children and provides opportunities to become familiar with exercise and sports by dispatching prominent sports figures to elementary schools. Furthermore, the number of physical education classes has been increased due to the revised educational guidelines, with the full implementation of the increases scheduled for fiscal 2011 for elementary schools and fiscal 2012 for junior high schools.