ABSTRACT
Generally, a person who has higher cardiorespiratory fitness has lower lifestyle-related disease(LRD)morbidity rates and lower mortality rates. In Japan, Ministry of health, labor and welfare has defined the reference values of the maximal oxygen uptake(VO<sub>2</sub>max)for health promotion by gender and age in 2006. The reference values were defined based on the systematic review of the japanese and foreign articles for the relationship between VO<sub>2</sub>max and LRD. However, the articles based on japanese subjects were few. The purpose of this study is to examine the morbidity rates of LRD and VO<sub>2</sub>max of japanese persons who have no habitual exercise. The subjects of this study comprise 141 males and 287 females aged from 20 to 69. The LRD morbidity rates of males and females suffered from dyslipidemia, hypertention, diabetes / impaired glucose tolerance were 78.7% and 58.5%, respectively. The mean VO<sub>2</sub>max obtained by an incremental bicycle exercise at all group divided by gender and age did not achieve the reference values. The rate of the LRD subjects of males and females who achieved the reference values were 9.9%(n=11)and 4.8%(n=8), respectively. And the rate of the non-LRD subjects of males and females who achieved the reference values were 36.7%(n=11) and 14.3%(n=17), respectively. To obtain the habitual exercise and to keep higher physical activity is important to control a decline of VO<sub>2</sub>max with aging and to prevent the LRD.