It’s a sort of rite of passage into adulthood to buy a piece of exercise equipment you never use. Be it a treadmill, exercise bike, or Tony Little’s Gazelle, you will invariably, at some point in life, purchase a device meant to enhance your fitness, only to eventually use it as a coat rack.

In Japan, the latest fitness fad now gathering dust is Wii Fit, which has been available since late last year. A recent survey by Japan’s IT Media asked owners of the game if they’re still using it, and 64% of those surveyed said they have stopped training on Wii Fit altogether. The silver lining of the survey is that 22% of respondents claim to still faithfully work out and record their progress every day, so at least someone is still hula-hooping and tree posing.

This is one of those rare areas where American and Japanese cultures intersect, in our seeming similar ability to fall for a fitness gimmick, only to give up once we get bored with it. Now then, seeing as how demand in Japan is slacking off, maybe we can get more Wii Fit units into the US so the rest of us can get started not sticking to a daily exercise routine. As a show of good faith to my Japanese counterparts, I promise to immediately unbox the game, use it for a week, and then throw it in a corner to collect dust, never to be seen again.

- Via Kotaku