 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Sports in Japan" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Sports in Japan are a significant part ofJapanese culture.Traditional sports, such assumo andmartial arts, as well asWestern imports likebaseball,association football,basketball andtennis are popular with both participants and spectators.
Sumo is consideredJapan'snational sport. Baseball was introduced to the country by visiting Americans in the 19th century. TheNippon Professional Baseball league has been Japan's largest professional sports competition in terms of television ratings and spectators. Martial arts such asjudo,karate andmodern kendō are also widely practiced and enjoyed by spectators in the country. Association football has gained wide popularity since the founding of theJapan Professional Football League in 1992. Other popular sports includefigure skating,rugby union,golf,table tennis andracing, especiallyauto racing. Some new sports were invented by changing elements of imported sports.
Sumo shows an important side of traditional Japanese sport, a religious occasion as well as a sporting event. Many sumo rituals are closely associated withShinto belief. It is believed that some ancient sumo matches were purely religious events with predetermined outcomes as an offering tokami, with some matches regarded asdivination – e.g. if a well-liked fisherman competed and won, a good catch was predicted for the year.
The Kamakura period was a starting point for many martial arts.Kyūdō became popular askyujutsu, literallybow skill, as a pastime for the samurai class.Yabusame also started as a sport in this period, but is now considered a sacred ceremony.
In theEdo period, sports became a popular way to spend time. The only problem was that they were often accompanied by gambling. A notice to punish playing and betting on sumo without authorization was repeatedly posted to little effect. Kyūdō was encouraged byshōguns anddaimyōs as a pastime, and contests as well as record making attempts were held. On April 26, 1686, a samurai namedWasa Daihachiro competing in theTōshiya made an unsurpassed record of shooting 13,053 arrows and hitting the mark 8,133 times over a 24-hour period. This is even more remarkable when one considers the shooting range for this attempt, a 120-meter-long corridor with a ceiling of only 2.2 meters. In theOlympic Games, archers shoot over a distance of only 70 meters. Martial arts likejujutsu were popular but schools avoided inter-school matches, leaving room only for intramural matches.
After theMeiji Restoration, various kinds of Western sports were introduced into Japan. Playing sports was adopted as a school activity and matches between universities became popular. During the 1870s,track and field events,baseball,football,rugby union,cricket andice skating were introduced. In 1911, anAustrian gaveskiing instruction to the Japanese army. In those days, Western sports were played by a few people, but through the educational system, they spread throughout the country. Western sports were initially stressed as a form of mental discipline, but Japanese have now come to enjoy them as recreational activities.[1] Professional sports, the most famous being baseball which continues even today, started in the late 1920s but persistent rumors of bribes and a general attitude that sports should be for players or as a hobby persisted. Matches between schools attracted large crowd until afterWorld War II when airing sporting events onradio andtelevision became common.Manga with sports-themed stories (colloquially calledspokon) have also played a part in attracting readers to slightly less popular sports, such as volleyball,[2] association football,[3] basketball,[4] or American football,[5] although there are also stories focusing on more popular sports like baseball.[6]
Other sports liketable tennis andfencing have been popular at different times. Baseball was a staple of early television, andboxing and sumo were aired periodically. Initially, running live sports games was viewed with skepticism as it was believed that fans would rather stay at home if they could watch for free. But, as it actually increased interest and sold more merchandise, airing of sports on television became popular.
Judo has been recognized as an official event in theOlympic Games since the1964 Summer Olympics inTokyo. It is also one of the four main forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced internationally today.Keirin racing has also become an Olympic Games event since the2000 Summer Olympics inSydney.
Motorsports have become quite popular in Japan, especially during the latter third of the 20th century. Japanese car manufacturers use a relatively new form of motorsport that is distinctly Japanese and is now being exported abroad.
Japan hosted theTokyo 2020 Olympics, which were postponed until 2021 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
The most popular professional sports in Japan arebaseball,association football (soccer),sumo wrestling,basketball, andgolf. Note that most practitioners in the martial arts are not professional, but amateurs.
| Favorite professional sport | 2005[7] | 2011[8] | 2013[9] | 2016[10] | 2017[11] | 2018[12] | 2019[13] | 2020[14] | 2021[15] | 2022[16] | 2023[17] | 2024[18] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseball (Nippon Professional Baseball) | 51.7% | 45.1% | 48.4% | 42.8% | 45.2% | 48.1% | 42.8% | 45.5% | 37.9% | 45.9% | 53.1% | 51.8% |
| Association football (J. League) (WE League) | 22.8% | 28.9% | 36.0% | 26.2% | 25.0% | 24.8% | 22.8% | 26.0% | 17.6% | 24.0% | 24.3% | 24.4% |
| Sumo wrestling (Ōzumō) | 17.1% | 15.1% | 15.8% | 21.8% | 27.3% | 20.7% | 20.1% | 21.4% | 20.0% | 20.1% | 18.5% | 20.1% |
| Do not care about sports | 24.4% | 22.0% | 18.9% | 24.0% | 18.2% | 18.2% | 18.7% | 20.2% | 27.8% | 20.3% | 22.3% | 20.0% |
| Basketball (B.League) (W League) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 6.0% | 7.4% | 6.5% | 9.1% | 6.3% | 9.6% | 8.9% | 15.2% |
| Golf (Japan Golf Tour &JLPGA Tour) | 16.9% | 19.9% | 16.0% | 13.4% | 13.7% | 13.9% | 9.4% | 15.4% | 12.8% | 13.6% | 10.4% | 12.3% |
| Tennis (Japan Open) | N/A | N/A | N/A | 20.6% | 21.7% | 18.5% | 19.8% | 20.0% | 14.0% | 13.4% | 9.9% | 10.6% |
| Boxing | 7.8% | 7.7% | 7.8% | 9.8% | 9.2% | 10.3% | 6.7% | 9.6% | 6.7% | 8.5% | 8.7% | 7.9% |
| Motor racing | 6.2% | 7.7% | 7.0% | 7.0% | 5.2% | 6.1% | 5.0% | 8.0% | 4.2% | 6.1% | 5.4% | 5.9% |
| Puroresu (pro-wrestling) | 4.2% | 3.1% | 3.5% | 4.7% | 3.8% | 4.4% | 3.3% | 4.5% | 2.2% | 3.8% | 4.0% | 4.1% |
| Others | 8.0% | 5.7% | 7.8% | 3.7% | 7.8% | 7.0% | 8.5% | 4.9% | 7.0% | 7.6% | 5.1% | 5.8% |
| Gridiron Football (X-League)[a] | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Futsal (F.League) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Notes:
In addition, there are professional sports forgambling purposes; some fans enjoy them as spectator sports without betting money.
There are opportunities to play various sports for all ages, and school plays an important role in community. Kindergarten and lower elementary school students can play in a private sport club that can be joined for a moderate fee. Most martial arts can be started as little as 5 to 6 years old. When a student starts 5th grade, school offers free after-school activities for its students to participate. Middle and high schools also encourage their students to join school sport clubs.
Prefectural and national-wide level contests and tournaments are held every winter and summer for all sports. Some of the tournaments, such asNational High School Baseball Championship, have a very high level of popularity among fans, comparable to professional sports.
.jpg)
The second Monday of October is anational holiday of Japan,Health and Sports Day. This date, originally October 10, commemorates the opening day of the1964 Summer Olympics held inTokyo. The event was documented inTokyo Olympiad by filmmaker, Kon Ichikawa. Japan has hosted many international competitions including the1972 Winter Olympics inSapporo, the1998 Winter Olympics inNagano,2002 FIFA World Cup, and the2006 and2009 World Baseball Classic. Tokyo also hosted the2020 Summer Olympics.[19]
The2019 Rugby World Cup, or 'RWC 2019' was hosted by Japan. This was announced by RWCL Chairman Bernard Lapasset in Irish capitalDublin[20] at a specialIRB meeting on 28 July 2009, along with the host of the2015 Rugby World Cup,England.
Many major figure skating events are regularly held in Japan. The Grand Prix event, theNHK Trophy, has been held in various cities throughout Japan every year since 1979. Japan has also been host of theWorld Figure Skating Championships andISU Grand Prix Final numerous times. In 2009, it held the firstISU World Team Trophy in Tokyo, an event set to take place every two years. Figure skating is also a commercial success in Japan, and made-for-television competitions and ice shows like theJapan Open are broadcast across the nation. Along with countries such as theUnited States,Canada, andRussia, Japan is widely considered to be a leading country in the sport.
Sumo wrestling is the national sport in Japan. Sumo wrestling is believed to have originated in Japan, with its governing body being theJapan Sumo Association. It is considered agendai budō, which refers to modernJapanese martial art, but the sport has a history spanning many centuries. Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, fromShinto.
Life as a wrestler is highly regimented, with rules regulated by theJapan Sumo Association. Most sumo wrestlers are required to live in communal sumo training stables, known in Japanese asheya, where all aspects of their daily lives – from meals to their manner of dress – are dictated by strict tradition.
The history ofboxing in Japan began in 1854 whenMatthew Perry landed atShimoda, Shizuoka soon after theConvention of Kanagawa. At that time, American sailors often engaged in sparring matches on board their ships, with their fists wrapped in thin leather. It was the first example of boxing conveyed to Japan. In addition, anōzeki-rankedsumo wrestler namedKoyanagii (小柳 常吉) was summoned by theshogunate, and ordered to fight a boxer and a wrestler from theUnited States. There were three fought matches, using different martial arts' styles, before Perry and other spectators. Koyanagi reportedly won.[21][22]
In Japan, every professional boxer must contract with a manager under the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) rules,[23] and is required to belong to a boxing gym which has exclusive management rights for boxers as a member of each regional subsidiary body ofJapan Pro Boxing Association under the Japan's conventional gym system.[24] Two professional boxers belonging to the same gym have not been allowed to fight against each other unless one of them transfers to other gym, because it might disrupt the gym system.[25] However, it is often quite difficult for boxers to transfer between the gyms due to the matters on transfer fees, match fees and so on.[26]
In the2009–10 season all four reigning World Champion singles skaters were from Japan. Figure skating events in Japan are well attended and TV broadcasts attract a large audience. The major surge in its popularity has come mainly within the past decade with the success of its native skaters, but there have been avid fans in the country for international skaters for much longer. SkaterDorothy Hamill is known to have received pearls from the Japanese royal family in the 1970s. Figure Skaters in Japan also enjoy some level of celebrity – some likeMao Asada andYuzuru Hanyu (the first Japanese male figure skater to win an Olympic gold medal) becoming household names and gaining large sponsorships. The NHK Trophy, a major figure skating Grand-Prix event, is hosted in Japan every year.
Skiing is also popular and taught in schools in northern parts of the mountainous country. In particular, Japan has been producing goodski jumpers since theSapporo Olympics in 1972, when Japanese athletes won all three medals in the 70 Meter Jumps withYukio Kasaya getting the first gold for Japan in Winter Olympics. In the 1990s,Noriaki Kasai andKazuyoshi Funaki scored many wins in theFIS Ski Jumping World Cup. More recently,Ryoyu Kobayashi won the overall title in the 2018–19 season. In the women's arena, the four-time season championSara Takanashi is renewing her world record of most wins in the World Cup.
Table tennis is popular both as competition and recreation. From the 1950s to 1970s, Japan was one of the strongest countries in the world, producing13 World singles champions. After long struggling years, they regained momentum in the 2010s and won many medals in theWorld Championships and theOlympic Games, though experiencing difficulty in surpassing China.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) has been the most popular combat sport in Japan since the 1970s, and the country is considered a world power. The first example of this sport in Japan was the historic fight between Japanese fighterAntonio Inoki and American boxerMuhammad Ali. The classic match between a professional boxer and a professional wrestler turned sour when each refused to engage in the other's fighting style, and after a 15-round stalemate the match was declared a draw.
The Japanese promotionPRIDE Fighting Championships was one of the most important organizations in the world, and was called "the Mecca of MMA" because it brought together the best fighters in Japan and the world until its demise in 2007. Today there are promotions such asRizin Fighting Federation (the most important in the country),Pancrase,Shooto andZST.
Baseball is historically the most popular team sport in Japan. It was introduced to Japan in 1872 byHorace Wilson, who taught at the Kaisei School inTokyo. The first baseball team was called the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was established in 1878. Baseball has been a popular sport ever since. It is calledyakyū (野球) in Japanese, combining the characters for "field" and "ball".
Hiroshi Hiraoka, who was in theUnited States studying engineering, introduced the game to his co-workers at Japan's national railways in 1878. He and his co-workers created the first baseball team, the Shimbashi Athletic Club, and dominated other teams which popped up in Japan. However, it was not until 1896 that a team from Ichikō, the eliteUniversity of Tokyo preparatory school, defeated a team from theYokohama Country & Athletic Club 29 to 4 that the sport took a dominant hold in Japanese popular culture.[27] The match was the first recorded international baseball game inAsia. After that victory, several other universities in Japan adopted the sport, and it quickly spread throughout Japan. Since then, teams from Japan have traveled to learn from their American counterparts.Waseda University was one of the first teams to cross the ocean to improve their skills. In 1905, the team traveled to the United States, where it played college teams from around the country. Other universities in Japan made similar trips, and U.S. teams traveled to Japan to play.
From 1913 to 1922, AmericanMLB stars visited Japan and played against university teams. They also held clinics on technique.Herb Hunter, a retired major league player, made eight trips to Japan, from 1922 to 1932 to organize games and coaching clinics.
Baseball is also played in Japan's junior and senior high schools. Each year in March and August, two tournaments are held at Koshien Stadium for senior high school teams that win a prefecture tournament. References tohigh school baseball (kōkō yakyū (高校野球)) generally refer to the two annual baseball tournaments, played by high schools nationwide culminating at a final showdown at Hanshin Kōshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Japan. They are organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation in association with Mainichi Shimbun for the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in the spring (also known as "Spring Kōshien"), and Asahi Shimbun for the National High School Baseball Championship in the summer (also known as "Summer Kōshien"). These nationwide tournaments enjoy widespread popularity, arguably equal to or greater than professional baseball. Qualifying tournaments are often televised locally and each game of the final stage at Kōshien is televised nationally on NHK. The tournaments have become a national tradition, and large numbers of frenzied students and parents travel from hometowns to cheer for their local team. It is a common sight to see players walking off the field in tears after being eliminated from the tournament by a loss.
Association football is the second most popular team sport in Japan, behind Baseball. TheJapan Football Association (JFA) is the governing body of Japanese football. The JFA organizes themen's,women's, andfutsal national teams.
Association football was introduced to Japan during theMeiji period byO-yatoi gaikokujin, foreign advisors hired by the Japanese government, along with many other foreign sports, likebaseball. The first Japanese football club is considered to beTokyo Shūkyū-dan, founded in 1917, which is now competing in the Tokyo Prefectural amateur league.
In the 1920s, football associations were organized and regional tournaments began in universities and high schools, especially in Tokyo. In the 1930s, theJapan national football team was organized and drew 3–3 withChina to win their first title at theFar Eastern Championship Games. The Japan national team also competed in the1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the team had a first victory in an Olympic game with a 3–2 win over powerfulSweden.
The Japan national team is very successful at an international level, and has competed in the1998,2002,2006,2010,2014,2018,2022 and2026 FIFA World Cups. Its best result was reaching the Round of 16 in 2002, 2010, 2018, and 2022. The Japanese national team has also competed in six AFC Asian Cups, with the team being the Champions in1992,2000,2004 and2011 AFC Asian Cups. The team's highest ranking was 9th in the world in February 1998. Japan has competed in many other footballing events including theConfederations Cup, theEast Asian Football Championship, and theCopa América.
TheJ.League is the most popular football league in Japan and has grown rapidly in just a few decades-with teams such asFC Tokyo andKashima Antlers regularly competing in continental competition and the league drawing the talents ofAndrés Iniesta andFernando Torres.
The women's national team has enjoyed major success at theWorld Cup, winning the2011 edition in Germany and finishing as runner-up in the2015 edition in Canada.
The national team's colors are blue and white, Japan's main colors in most international sporting competitions.
.jpg)
Especially since the emergence ofYuta Tabuse andTakuya Kawamura, basketball has received a recent revival and become a popular sport in Japan.[28] TheJapan national basketball team won theFIBA Asia Championship twice and has qualified for the event 25 out of 26 times.[29] Japan was host to the2006 FIBA World Championship which was played in the host cities ofHamamatsu,Hiroshima,Saitama,Sapporo andSendai and on 9 December 2017, Japan was announced as co-host the2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup with Philippines and Indonesia some matches will be in host city ofOkinawa City.
The prime basketball league in the country is theB.League.
In 2010 theJapan Basketball Association recognizedTakehiko Inoue, the creator ofSlam Dunk, for the series' role in popularizing the sport in Japan as part of its 80th anniversary celebrations.[30][31]
In 2019,Rui Hachimura was selected ninth overall in the draft by theWashington Wizards of the NBA. He is a son between a Beninese father and Japanese mother.
The Japanese nationalhandball teams are controlled by theJapan Handball Association.
Ice hockey is a minor sport but growing in popularity.[32] Currently, four Japanese teams compete in theAsia League Ice Hockey.
Rugby union is a moderately popular sport in Japan. TheJapanese national rugby union team, controlled by theJapan Rugby Football Union, has been to everyRugby World Cup since 1987. The country hosted the Rugby World Cup in2019, where they qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time.[33] Japan's first win in the Rugby World Cup was againstZimbabwe in1991, which was also one of the national team's first wins. They also caused significant upsets in the 2015 World Cup, beating two-time champions at the timeSouth Africa, and the 2019 World Cup, beating second ranked in the world Ireland 19–12. The Japanese rugby team has been playing in international tournaments since the 1930s.
In2016, theSunwolves joinedSuper Rugby as that competition's first Japanese team and first from the Northern Hemisphere. Super Rugby began in 1996 as Super 12, involving franchised teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and had involved only those countries until 2016. The competition became Super 14 in 2006 when it added two teams, and adopted its current name of Super Rugby when it expanded to 15 teams in 2011. The 2016 season saw the addition of three new teams, including the first-everentry from Argentina. The Sunwolves play home matches mostly atChichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo, with select "home" matches also played inSingapore.
The first recorded instance of rugby being played in Japan was in 1874, when British sailors staged a game inYokohama. The sport was introduced to students at Keio university in 1899, by ProfessorEdward Bramwell Clarke andTanaka Ginnosuke. Japan's first international match took place on 31 January 1932, when a trade delegation from Canada brought theCanada national rugby union team, who were also playing their first game. The Japanese won 9–8.
In 2015 an amateur form ofmud tag rugby was invented.
Volleyball is popular in Japan, where the sport enjoys much coverage by national broadcasters. The sport is played by many junior and senior high school students.[34] The top regional teams play in theJapanese Volleyball League. Since 2006, Japan is the permanent host of theFIVB Volleyball World Cups.[35]
At the 1964 Olympic Games on home soil, Japan became the first country in historyto win Olympic gold in women's volleyball. Thewomen's national team has since achieved Olympic podium placements multiple times, including an additional gold medal in 1976. The women's team now ranks seventh in the world.[35] Themen's national team has been less successful, having missed the two most recent Olympic games, but have qualified for the upcomingTokyo 2020 Olympics.[36]
Haikyu!!, a manga and anime series about high school volleyball, has gained a significant amount of popularity all around the world.[37]
Japan featured a women's national team inbeach volleyball that competed at the2018–2020 AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.[38]
TheX-League is the top league in Japan. It was founded in 1971, it has 60 teams split into four divisions. The final game is theJapan X Bowl.
In 1999 Japan won the first ever1999 IFAF World Championship, and also won in the2003 IFAF World Championship. Japan hosted the2007 IFAF World Championship, but placed 2nd to theUnited States. Japan placed 3rd in the2011 IFAF World Championship.
Additionally, Japan has eight major college football leagues. These leagues are the top level of college football in the country, with the East and West champions playing in the annualKoshien Bowl inNishinomiya. The eight leagues are:
The winners of theJapan X Bowl andKoshien Bowl play each other in theRice Bowl.
TheJapan men's national lacrosse team has qualified for theWorld Lacrosse Championship eight consecutive times (1994–2022). At the most recent event (2022), it finished 5th out of 23. They defeated Team England 7–6 in double overtime with 19-year-old Rinta Fujioka scoring the game-winner.[39]
Japan has sent national teams to theUnder-19 World Lacrosse Championships.[40]
Japan Bandy Federation[41] was established in 2011 and the same year enteredFederation of International Bandy. JBF sent a team to2012 Bandy World Championship[42][43] and has participated ever since. Already in 2012 they started having plans to build a full-sized bandy arena similar toMedeu.[2] In 2017 a successful deal was struck withShintoku onHokkaido, where the new venue will open in December 2017.[3] Many cities are interested in hosting teams.[44] In terms of licensed athletes, bandy is the second biggest winter sport in the world.[45]
