Several studies have reported an association between sarcopenia and depression. Their results, however, are inconsistent, partly due to small sample sizes and lack of consideration of important confounders. The present study aimed to cross-sectionally examine this association in community-dwelling people in Japan. This study used baseline data from the Yuzawa cohort study (age ≥ 40 years), with the final analysis population comprising 2,466 participants. A self-administered questionnaire was used to elicit information related to sarcopenia, depressive symptoms, demographic characteristics, anthropometrics, disease history, and lifestyles. Sarcopenia was diagnosed using SARC-F, a validated questionnaire including components of Strength, Assistance in walking, Rising from a chair, Climbing stairs, and Falls. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 11-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). For depressive symptoms, prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated, and odds ratio (ORs) were obtained using simple and multiple logistic regression analyses. Mean age of participants was 61.7 years (standard deviation = 11.8), and 10.5% and 34.7% had sarcopenia and depressive symptoms, respectively. Sarcopenic individuals had a significantly higher PR (2.00), unadjusted OR (3.67), and adjusted OR (4.96) compared to non-sarcopenic individuals, with an estimated adjusted PR of 2.7. There was a significant dose-dependent association between SARC-F scores and depressive symptoms in sarcopenic individuals (adjusted P for trend = 0.0028). In conclusion, sarcopenia and depressive symptoms were robustly associated in community-dwelling, middle-aged and older people in Japan. However, the direction of this association is unclear, and a future cohort study will be needed to determine causality.