Retired Japanese cheerleaders will not stop

For the Taylor Swift Shake It song, the 89-year-old Fumi Dog quickly lifts the edges and returns quickly, while her friends, who are on average 70 years old, swing their legs up in the air.

“They are all very motivated, (…) the pain in the legs and thighs will not stop them from flying,” AFP Takinov, founder of Toyenka and Japan Bom Bom, said of his girlfriend.

The seniors train hard for two hours a week and prepare for a big event on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the group. It was planned last year, but due to an epidemic they had to postpone it for a year. For women, this is an enormous and physically demanding task, but one way to “maintain good health” and “make sense of life,” believes 73-year-old cheerleader Masako Macuk.

At the beginning of the adventure, Fumi Tag did not talk much about his hobby for fear of what people would think of him. However, prudence also complicated the recruitment of other women to participate in group activities. The opinion of the old cheerleaders, dressed in miniskirts and sequins, was threatened by a misunderstanding by the Japanese community at the time, Dakin recalled.

However, times have changed and today “there are many other groups and people have become accustomed to seeing us on TV. For some, it may be a little more embarrassing, but we can say that we are here and have earned our place in society. “