Sport and Body Politics in Japan

Introducing a broad range of data, methods and theories, this book shows how the interaction of local traditions and global flows has shaped the way sport in Japan has been understood ever since the country opened for cultural exchanges with the western world. Taking into account the great variety of cultural, social, political, and economic relationships and processes that affect cultural globalization, it argues in favor of a variety of approaches and multi-disciplinary analysis from the fields of sociology, anthropology, management studies, political science, cultural studies, and history.

There is more to Japanese sport than sumo, karate and baseball. This study of social sport in Japan pursues a comprehensive approach towards sport as a distinctive cultural sphere at the intersection of body culture, political economy, and cultural globalization. Bridging the gap between Bourdieu and Foucault, it explains the significance of the body as a field of action and a topic of discourse in molding subject and society in modern Japan. More specifically, it provides answers to questions such as how and to what purposes are politics of the body articulated in Japan, particularly in the realm of sport? What is the agenda of state actors that develop politics aiming at the body, and to what degree are political and societal objectives impacted by commercial and non-political actors? How are political decisions on the allocation of resources made, and what are their consequences for sporting opportunities and practices of the body in general? Without neglecting the significance of sport spectatorship, this study takes a particular angle by looking at sport as a field of practice, pain and pleasure.