Japan's major sports club chains have been flexing their muscle in recent years, expanding their businesses through aggressive mergers and acquisitions as well as by opening new outlets.

Konami Sports Corp., by far the largest sports club chain with an 830,000-strong membership and 233 outlets nationwide, is projecting group sales to increase by 132 percent to 80 billion yen in the current business year through March 2003.

It hopes to achieve this on the strength of 60 new outlets it bought from struggling supermarket chain Daiei earlier this year and 23 more it plans to open on its own.

Konami Sports changed hands last year from the beleaguered Mycal Corp. retail chain to its current amusement firm owner.

According to the magazine Fitness Business, the growth curve of the nation's sports club market is much like a physical fitness program, where one steadily tones up a little at a time. 2001 saw sales of around 300 billion yen, up some 30 billion yen from 10 years ago.

Yet, in keeping with the analogy, rapid growth becomes possible when one reaches a level of critical mass, and major operators are accelerating their pace of growth using as leverage the scale of their operations.

DIC Renaissance Inc., the third-largest chain, with 58 outlets, has quickly expanded by buying up facilities -- at least 20 in the past two years -- from companies that include Japan Tobacco Inc. and Kikkoman Corp.

"During the bubble years (of the late 1980s), businesses from all sectors, with the exception of banks, started running sports clubs. I think the law of natural selection has begun working lately," said Toshikazu Saito, president and CEO of DIC Renaissance.

Started in 1979 as an in-house venture of Dainippon Ink & Chemicals Inc. by Saito, who was then a chemical engineer of the parent company, DIC is poised to go public next year, hoping to raise funds to bankroll further expansion.

"We definitely have room to expand, since only 3 percent of the Japanese population are sports club members, while the figure is more than 10 percent in the United States," Saito said.

Takenori Furuya, editor in chief of Fitness Business, attributes the rapid growth of major chains today to their marketing efforts over the past decade.

Most significantly, they have brought down membership fees to an affordable price by offering time-restrictive membership, such as for early birds, weekday users and nighttime swimmers.

Konami Sports is widely credited with opening branches to the mass market by offering monthly membership in the 4,000 yen range in 1994, when the industry average stood at around 10,000 yen.

"We offered membership at that price at nonservice facilities for experienced visitors who already knew how to exercise without instructors' help," said Shinichi Yagi, managing officer of Konami Sports.

While the firm was soon forced to terminate the program after seeing novices flock to the club, it taught the managers a valuable lesson -- that the low price could attract members who otherwise would not set foot on the premises. And this lesson led to what is now an industry standard of offering time-specific membership.

"Although rivals at first complained that we were selling sports club memberships cheap, they soon followed after seeing we had a big hit," Yagi said.

The downward price trend also came at a time of growing health-consciousness among middle-aged people, and these factors together helped boost the popularity of sports clubs.

According to Central Sports Co., the second-largest chain, with 155 outlets nationwide, the ratio of its members aged 50 and over against overall membership increased to 33 percent in 2002 from 20.3 percent in 1995, with those aged 40 and over comprising more than half of the membership.

Reflecting the trend, the chains have been focusing their resources on this promising age group, introducing programs featuring less rigorous and more relaxation-oriented regimens, including stretching and aroma therapy. Many of the chain's outlets have walk-only lanes in swimming pools and barrier-free building designs.

"The middle-aged population will only increase in the future, and our strategy is to develop exercise programs designed for them," said Seiji Goto, director of Central Sports' corporate planning.

Three years ago Central Sports began opening Wellness sports clubs, where relaxation is the underlying theme, dedicating large floor space to spa facilities.

"Sweat and pain used to be the image of fitness clubs," Goto said. "But we want to change this image with these new clubs."

The industry's drive to lure an untapped clientele base is not limited to physical well-being. Today, many sports clubs offer courses in English conversation, painting and silver handicrafts.