Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2010

“When I jogged in the streets of Tokyo, people would stare,” says Clark Hatch. “Motorists would often honk at me.” He’s talking about 1965, the year in which he opened his first fitness center in Tokyo.

“Back then, my Japanese friends had a difficult time understanding the words ‘physical fitness,’” he recalls. “There wasn’t a convenient translation at the time. Now, the Japanese embrace ‘fittonesu’ enthusiastically.”

Hatch, who found himself in Japan courtesy of the US military, went on to open dozens of fitness centers around Asia over the following decades. “In most countries, I was the pioneer in getting the exercise movement started,” he says. His original gym had a 40-year run in Azabu Towers before the building was torn down in 2005.

Now retired and living in Hawaii, Hatch recently published his memoirs, Fitness Ambassador to Asia. “It’s a classic Horatio Alger success story, a Far Eastern odyssey garnished with movie stars, sumo wrestlers and ambassadors,” he tells Metropolis. “There are a number of sidebars that should be interesting to longtime residents in Japan, and for people who have traveled throughout Asia.”