Handbook of Sport and Japan

The Handbook of Sport and Japan presents a fascinating collection of established and new scholarship, a valuable text for readers who want to use sport as lens to look more closely into a nation. The handbook draws on a diversity of perspectives, disciplines and experiences all of which respond to the challenge of including sport in the study of Japan. The chapters in the handbook convey what taking part in sport feels and looks like, highlighting the sporting accomplishments of Japanese athletes and teams, while also reflecting how the sporting experience interacts with economics, diplomacy, media, culture, demographics, gender, ethnicity and identity. Contributions pose key questions about what conclusions can be made when sport is placed in the foreground of key events in Japanese history, including pre-war industrialisation and empire building, to the post-war economic boom, the 2011 Tohoku Disaster and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Helen Macnaughtan is Senior Lecturer in International Management for Japan at SOAS, University of London, UK. Helen has been the chair of the SOAS Japan Research Centre and was the Convenor of the Centre's Sport Symposia Series. Her research interests focus on topics relating to gender equality, women, work and employment as well as gender and sport in Japan. Her sport research and publications have focused on the history of women's volleyball within the Japanese textile industry and the legacy of their gold medal victory at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics, as well as the history of men's corporate rugby teams and the role of sport in soft power strategy in Japan. Verity Postlethwaite is Vice-Chancellor Independent Research Fellow in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, UK. She also holds a visiting position as a Research Associate at the Japan Research Centre, SOAS, University of London. Her research is broadly focused on international sport events with a particular interest in how sport and other cultural entities have been used in local, national, and international contexts to govern society.

Introduction: Verity Postlethwaite, Emily Barrass Chapman, Helen Macnaughtan-with contributions from Masami Sekine, Geoffery Z. Kohe, Takayuki Hata and Rei Saito;, Part One: Historical Developments of Various Key and Emerging Sports in Japan;, Chapter 1: Baseball, Japan's National Pastime (William W. Kelly);, Chapter 2: A Survey of Rugby in Japan: From Early Play in 1864 to Hosting the World Cup in 2019 (Mike Galbraith and Helen Macnaughtan);, Chapter 3: Crafting Selves, Reproducing Capital: A Century or so of Japanese Golf (Angus Lockyer);, Chapter 4: Boys, be Ambitious: A Brief History and Cultural Analysis of Japanese Basketball (Aaron L. Miller);, Chapter 5: The Development and Popularity of Volleyball in Japan: The Impact of the 'Witches of the Orient' (Iwona Merklejn and Helen Macnaughtan);, Chapter 6: The Gender-related Discursive Function of Japanese Football since Its Professionalization (Yunuen Ysela Mandujano-Salazar);, Chapter 7: In the Ring and Beyond the Apron: Women's Pro Wrestling as Physical Performance (Keiko Aiba);, Chapter 8: Surfing in Japan: From itago Riding to Surfing (Eri Mizuno);, Chapter 9: The Beauty of Winter Sports: The Popularity of Figure Skating in Japan (Masafumi Monden);, Part Two: Relationships Between Elements of the State, Society and Sporting Experiences in Japan;, Chapter 10: From Three-Legged to Two-Legged Races: The Rise of Competitive Women's Sport in Japan (1910s-1920s) (Robin Kietlinski);, Chapter 11: Queer and Transgender Sport in Japan: Seitekishosusha (Gender and Sexual Minority) Athletes and Their Sporting Experiences (Michelle Ho);, Chapter 12: Tokyo's (Non)-Olympics: 1940, 1964, 2020 (Christian Tagsold);, Chapter 13: The Paralympic Movement, Disability, and Sports in Japan (Dennis J. Frost);, Chapter 14: The Influence of Jigoro Kano: From Higher Education to the Japanese Olympic Movement (Helen Symons and Taro Obayashi);, Chapter 15: Intangible Legacy: The Memories and Continuities Between the 1964 and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Focusing on the Olympic Torch Relay (Ai Aramaki and Geoffery Z. Kohe);, Chapter 16: Winter Sporting Cultures and Japan (Takayuki Yamashita, Verity Postlethwaite and Gyozo Molnár).