<div align="justify">Glistening with sweat, Satoko Yamanouchi’s biceps ripple and the veins in her neck throb as if about to pop as she strikes a fearsome pose at the Japan bodybuilding championships.<br /><br />An hour later, the pint-sized Nagoya housewife is close to tears after narrowly failing to retain her title from a field of 34 bronzed and impressively buff ladies, most of them in their fifties.<br /><br />“I was pathetic!” the 56-year-old Yamanouchi said, sporting a skimpy gold bikini. “A silver medal means nothing to me,” sniffed the sinewy ex-champ, who stands just 1.58 metres tall and weighs 50 kg. “It just means you’re the best loser.”<br /><br />A self-confessed gym rat, Yamanouchi is the poster girl for Japan’s growing number of female bodybuilders, helping break down gender stereotypes in a country obsessed with the “kawaii” (cute) fluffiness of its ubiquitous pop culture.<br /><br />“I want to help change perceptions so that more people can appreciate the beauty of a muscular woman,” said the five-time national champion.<br /><br />“When I tell people I’m a bodybuilder, it freaks them out,” added Yamanouchi, who became hooked on the sport in her late forties after looking for a way to keep fit. “My husband didn’t like it when I started either, his wife wearing a bikini in public, but he came around.”<br /><br />Yamanouchi, who takes around 10 different supplements a day to boost muscle growth and aid recovery, insists she knows where to draw the line, despite her bulging physique. “I don’t want to look like the Hulk,” she said.<br /><br />“I want to look beautiful and keep my femininity. I just don’t feel like a regular housewife,” added Yamanouchi. “I’m always striving to create the perfect body.”<br /><br />The eventual winner, Megumi Sawada, struck a series of eye-popping poses to the theme tune of Godzilla, stunning Yamanouchi to take the title.<br /><br />“It’s unbelievable I’ve won,” gasped the 56-year-old gym instructor, who used to compete in secret to avoid upsetting her mother.<br /><br />“I want to create the kind of body that stops people in the street,” laughed Sawada.<br /><br />Other bodybuilding sub-genres have sprung up in Japan, including “bikini fitness” -- a category that has turned Yuri Yasui into a magazine cover girl.<br /><br />A two-time Japan champion, the statuesque 33-year-old is another who caught the workout bug after initially wanting to lose weight.<br /><br />“When I started training seriously, my parents were dead against it -- even my friends were,” said Yasui, a bank employee from Nagoya, a city southwest of Tokyo, who won her first national title less than a year after taking up the sport. “They didn’t want me up there in front of strangers in a bikini flashing my bottom.”<br /><br /></div>
<div align="justify">Glistening with sweat, Satoko Yamanouchi’s biceps ripple and the veins in her neck throb as if about to pop as she strikes a fearsome pose at the Japan bodybuilding championships.<br /><br />An hour later, the pint-sized Nagoya housewife is close to tears after narrowly failing to retain her title from a field of 34 bronzed and impressively buff ladies, most of them in their fifties.<br /><br />“I was pathetic!” the 56-year-old Yamanouchi said, sporting a skimpy gold bikini. “A silver medal means nothing to me,” sniffed the sinewy ex-champ, who stands just 1.58 metres tall and weighs 50 kg. “It just means you’re the best loser.”<br /><br />A self-confessed gym rat, Yamanouchi is the poster girl for Japan’s growing number of female bodybuilders, helping break down gender stereotypes in a country obsessed with the “kawaii” (cute) fluffiness of its ubiquitous pop culture.<br /><br />“I want to help change perceptions so that more people can appreciate the beauty of a muscular woman,” said the five-time national champion.<br /><br />“When I tell people I’m a bodybuilder, it freaks them out,” added Yamanouchi, who became hooked on the sport in her late forties after looking for a way to keep fit. “My husband didn’t like it when I started either, his wife wearing a bikini in public, but he came around.”<br /><br />Yamanouchi, who takes around 10 different supplements a day to boost muscle growth and aid recovery, insists she knows where to draw the line, despite her bulging physique. “I don’t want to look like the Hulk,” she said.<br /><br />“I want to look beautiful and keep my femininity. I just don’t feel like a regular housewife,” added Yamanouchi. “I’m always striving to create the perfect body.”<br /><br />The eventual winner, Megumi Sawada, struck a series of eye-popping poses to the theme tune of Godzilla, stunning Yamanouchi to take the title.<br /><br />“It’s unbelievable I’ve won,” gasped the 56-year-old gym instructor, who used to compete in secret to avoid upsetting her mother.<br /><br />“I want to create the kind of body that stops people in the street,” laughed Sawada.<br /><br />Other bodybuilding sub-genres have sprung up in Japan, including “bikini fitness” -- a category that has turned Yuri Yasui into a magazine cover girl.<br /><br />A two-time Japan champion, the statuesque 33-year-old is another who caught the workout bug after initially wanting to lose weight.<br /><br />“When I started training seriously, my parents were dead against it -- even my friends were,” said Yasui, a bank employee from Nagoya, a city southwest of Tokyo, who won her first national title less than a year after taking up the sport. “They didn’t want me up there in front of strangers in a bikini flashing my bottom.”<br /><br /></div>