Dear friends. I am fan Aikido and I trained more than 10 years. I love it and i already came to Japan but I rarely saw Aikido less popular than Judo. I do not know why although Aikido is very popular outside Japan Could you tell me why ? Best regards.
Also Judo is part of the physical education system in Japanese schools. Practically everyone has some exposure to Judo. You have to explicitly go out of your way to find an Aikido club.
In the US, it's hit or miss. Where I live, there are several Aikido dojos, but not a single Judo club within that same four county area.
I think a lot of Westerners interested in Eastern martial arts tend to romantize them. There are people in Japan who to this day get offended by calling something like Aikido or Karate a martial art, as they think only old school Koryu are martial arts. They view things like Aikido or Karate as hobbies and or/sports. And fun fact... More people in Japan play baseball than do Karate apparently. A guy who ran the local Wado Ryu club near my parents house told me how he went to Tokyo with his association, who had strong links to the JKF. He got to Tokyo and got a bit lost. He asked lots of passers by where the head JKF dojo was in town, thinking everyone in Tokyo knew as it was a big deal cause Karate is sacred in Japan, right? Guess what, no one had even heard of the place. The low point came when he asked 2 people where the dojo was and they didn't know... It turned out it was on the same street those 2 people were on. He found the whole experience sobering and while he still loved training, he stopped taking Karate so seriously after that. Japanese gendai budo can often mean more to Westerners than it does to people in Japan, despite Samurai fantasists and wannabe Ninjas believing what they are doing is sacrosanct.
I'd also add that Aikido seems to be without a niche in the 21st century.... If someone wants a martial art that will increase fighting ability, There are better options than Aikido. If someone wants to take up a hobby as they are interested in a Japanese culture, Kendo or Iaido could do that. If someone wants an alternative exercise system based on Eastern philosophy, Tai chi/ Qi Gong has a lot more going for it in terms of history, marketing and even some peer reviewed literature.
