How were massage chairs invented?

If you’ve ever sat in a massage chair and thought, “whoever invented this deserves a Nobel prize,” you’re not wrong. Massage chairs are one of the best wellness inventions, invented in the land of the rising sun, Japan. It all started in the 1950s with the father of massage chairs, Nobuo Fujimoto.

Let’s read about the interesting history and evolution of massage chairs as we know them today.

Making of the first massage chair

Humans always loved a good massage… but building a machine to do it? That took a few millennia and a genius with wood, balls, and a garage full of questionable ideas.

Japan is the OG in innovation, and when it comes to massage chairs, the technology, the creativity, and the engineering all started there.

If you’re curious how the first model looked, here is the picture

Who invented the massage chairs (the father of massage chairs)

Picture this:

Osaka, 1950s.

One engineer, Nobuo Fujimoto, decides the world needs a massage that doesn’t rely on a human therapist.

So, he grabs wood, balls, chains, and who knows what else… and creates the first-ever massage chair.

Looks like something Tony Stark made in a cave, it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t sleek, but, damn, it worked!

He designed it to mimic Japanese finger-pressure techniques used in shiatsu massage, except delivered by a chair instead of a therapist.

Where were the first massage chairs used?

Japan’s public bathhouses.

Why there? Because that’s where tired, sore, stressed-out people went for relaxation. Imagine building the first massage chair out of wood and whatever you found lying around the house… and accidentally creating a billion-dollar industry.

Fujimoto eventually added a coin slot so people could pay to use the chair, meaning the world’s first “massage business model” was literally a mechanical chair in a bathhouse.

Niichi Kawahara: the dad who invented a better massage chair

While Fujimoto was the pioneer, another hero stepped into the story: Niichi Kawahara.

His reason for inventing is actually an interesting story. He improved the first model of massage chairs for his daughter. His daughter had terrible shoulder knots. And if history proves anything, it’s this:

When a dad wants to fix something for his kid, miracles happen.

What Kawahara added

• A smoother mechanical system
• Better pressure distribution
• A more reliable structure
• More comfort (finally)

He helped push massage chairs from “cool gadget” to “actual therapy device,” speeding up commercial adoption across Japan.

The story of massage chairs starts with love and care, and it continues with that. Now it is easier and more comfortable than ever to have massage chairs at your home, which cares for your body and soul.

Evolution of massage chair technology

Let’s be real, the first massage chairs looked like medieval punishment devices, like something they use in dungeons. But technology evolved fast, and now they look like they belong to a spaceship.

From wood to high-tech wellness machines

1950s

Wooden chairs with chains and rolling balls. The ancestors.

1970s–1990s

• Introduction of metal frames
• Early electric motors
• Slightly less terrifying designs

Chairs levelled up from “medieval device” to “almost comfortable,” powered by early electric motors that finally made massage semi-automatic instead of just mechanical guesswork.

2000s

• Airbags
• Heating elements
• Rollers that could actually find your muscles

This is when massage chairs stopped pretending and started performing, adding heat, air compression, and rollers that could actually hit the right spots.

2010s

• 3d and 4d roller systems
• Body scanning technology
• Programs that felt like real shiatsu therapists

Suddenly, your chair knew your spine better than your chiropractor, scanning your body and adjusting pressure like a human therapist.

Today

• AI-powered systems (or as they call it 5D massage chairs)
• Zero-gravity recline
• Full-body airbag compression
• Bluetooth, apps, smart controls
• Massage chairs that honestly feel like science-fiction furniture

Modern chairs like Niyak are basically wellness spaceships: smarter, smoother, and so advanced you half-expect them to start giving life advice between sessions.

The rise of massage chairs: market growth and global adoption

Turns out, when people feel pain, they’re willing to pay for relief, especially when the relief sits in the living room. Massage chairs had a modest start, but they took the world by storm, from bathhouses in Japan to every home all around the world.

The global boom

• $6.8 billion market in 2024
• Expected to pass $10 billion by 2033
• Growing at around 4.6% annually

These numbers don’t seem bad for an invention that started with wooden balls and a dream.

Why are people buying more for their homes?

65% of all massage chair buyers are regular households.

Not spas.

Not clinics.

Not wellness centers.

Your average stressed-out human who’s had enough of back pain.

The reason behind it is simple

• Home wellness is booming
• People work from home
• Stress levels are sky-high
• A chair doesn’t take breaks or cancel appointments

From wooden boxes to AI-powered machines

If you ever needed proof that human innovation is driven by back pain, look no further than the massage chair.

We went from ancient Egyptians rubbing feet… to Japanese engineers building wooden massage robots… to today’s AI-powered zero-gravity wellness thrones.

What started as a simple idea to let people save a trip to the masseuse turned into one of the biggest wellness revolutions on the planet.

So next time you sit in your high-tech and luxury massage chair and feel it knead away your stress, remember:

You’re enjoying the final form of a journey that took 5,000 years, two brilliant inventors, and an entire world tired of shoulder knots.