The Olympics are almost done.

And a question popped into my mind, why is Judo so popular around the world?

Or is my view distorted because France is probably the country outside of Japan where Judo is so popular.

In reality, it is popular in a lot of countries — except the US.

So I dig a little bit further to understand how it spreads, why it remains popular, and how popular it really is.

• Kano (Kanō Jigorō, founder of Judo) had a vision very early on that Judo should be shared and globalized. Compared to many other martial arts and regional grappling styles.

• Judo came about at just the right time, alongside the rise of international cooperation and globalization. In the early 1900s Kano had many of his students travel the world to put on exhibitions or set up permanent schools around the world.

• Judo was founded to be more than a martial art, it is supposed to be a method for self-betterment, and through that community-betterment — the early high level judoka were encouraged to spread the art across the globe for this purpose.

• Judo has a wide arrange of values and works on the foundation of mutual benefit.

• A strong draw of Judo is that you can practice it without receiving punches and it has the most self-defense application.

• The IJF (International Judo Federation) constantly modifies the rules where one of the main reasons for that is to improve its spectator friendliness.

• Its sold itself extremely well for the kids market, which creates an insane talent pool once they are older.

• A lot of people think the BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) and MMA are so much bigger, but they're really not. They are in the news, on social media and in marketing, but Judo is bigger.

• The US is one of the only countries where BBJ is more popular than Judo.

• Judo is actually more popular in Brazil than BBJ.

• In Germany (like in Japan) the police train in some rudimentary Judo throws, which is a huge deal for the reputation as a viable street fight art.

• The IJF boasts 207 members (countries). More than any other grappling sport.

Going Further

• You find find some statistics on Judo Data.

• And the top rankings countries on the IFJ website.

Visually Pleasing

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