The same emphasis is placed on kihon, kata and kumite. Originally, however, most martial arts training included sitting meditation practice. Many disciplines, karate among them, have been described as 'moving meditation'. Today, however, more and more schools treat karate as just another athletic endeavor. It must be stressed that zazen is not necessarily a religious practice.
Meditation is practiced because it cultivates awareness and the ability to sustain awareness.
One learns to see how things are in the present, unclouded by preconceptions, by memories or by strategic planning. One is thus better able to react spontaneously as things occur. The application of this to fighting ability is obvious but there are deeper implications. Being aware of how things really are, apart from our biased interpretations, teaches one to be less defensive, to take a rest from defending the 'rights' and 'interests' of self against others. It could be said that karate was vulgarized in order to make it popular.