Is Japan a Developing Country of Sports? (Part 1)

Osaka – Saturday, March 6, 2010

The title of this article is from a statement of Hiroyasu Shimizu, the gold medalist of Nagano Olympic male 500m speed skating. Mr. Shimizu said that Japan is a developing country of sports, which was introduced in a recent article of one of the Japanese popular newspaper. This has caused a big repercussion, being mentioned in many other Japanese media. Mr. Shimizu had won silver and bronze medals in other winter Olympics but was could not participate in the Vancouver Olympics so he watched the whole Olympic Games with reporters. And on March 5 he announced in a press conference that he will finish his playing career at the end of this season.

The primary reason that Japan is/might be a “developing country” in sport is that assistance, in particular financial, is not sufficiently given to athletes, according to the newspaper article and a brief discussion among the panelists in a recent TV programme, together with some other reasons.

1. “Hard” support is not sufficient from the government and other organization compared with other developed countries.

The biggest reason is the insufficiency of “hard” support and assistance, especially financial, from the government and other public administration. Also most companies that athletes belong to are unable to sufficiently support athletes, especially in the recent severe economy, to complement it.

1) Budget allocated by the government is insufficient.

Budget allocated by the Japanese government for sports is much smaller than many other developed countries of America, Europe and Asia. According to the data introduced in the TV programme, the largest budget allocated is Germany. Japan’s budget is below one-tenth of Germany, and much less than that of Korea.

A panelist pointed out that simple comparison of the data is inappropriate because the figure for Japan is only of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) that is responsible for Olympics but not for Paralympics, which falls under the responsibility of MHLW　 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Even such point is considered, the panelists agreed that financial assistance from the government is not sufficient and it is highly desired that budget is allocated strategically, under the concept of “selection and focus” similarly to corporate strategy.

2) Sports system is poorly-resourced and necessary facilities are insufficient.

Many sports need facilities and equipments such as skating rink, swimming pool and athletic stadium, but they are insufficient, or rather, simply unavailable for some sports. The most prominent is unavailability of skating rink. This was emphasized by Shizuka Arakawa, the female figure skating gold medalist for Torino Olympics, after winning the gold medal, mentioning how the existing rinks had/has been closed, and was mentioned in many media.

3) Few companies/organizations are capable of supporting athletes, especially in the current business environment.

Only a few companies/organizations can support athletes, and less and less can continue to support. Most Japanese athletes benefit from support from schools and/or facilities of the public when they are student, and after graduating, they manage to continue being athletes with support from the company/organization they belong to. However, companies/organizations that are capable to support are extremely limited from availability of resources. What is more, with the recent downturn in economy, many of them has been closing the sports club they had been owning and managing to support athletes, including those with tradition, high performance/reputation and top-class athletes.

As a result, many athletes in Japan have difficulty in making a living and continuing to play sports as athletes meaning obtaining resources (e.g. financial for training and taking part in tournaments). They usually manage by part time jobs.

2.“Soft” support is also insufficient compared to other developed countries.

“Soft”, mental support is also insufficient compared to other developed countries.

1) General public pay attention to sports only during Olympics and other international tournaments.

The whole country pays attention to sports only when Olympic Games, World Cup and other international tournaments are held. This is mentioned by Mr. Shimizu and other top-class athletes, which may attribute to how the media deliver information to the general public, including the timing and coverage to some extent.

In addition, some sports do not at all win attention of the mass media and general public. A good example mentioned by the panelists is sports of Paralympics, which is quite true; there is almost no media coverage on Paralympics and the general public is not really aware of it. The author feels that there are many other minor sports in Japan whose situation and reason are quite similar that deserve attention.

2) Sport is not recognized as a highly “cultural activity”.

When people in Japan are asked which of the two, enjoying arts/paintings and playing golf, is more “cultural”, many people would say the former is. This is mentioned in the discussion of the TV programme, although definition of culture is rather ambiguous and diverse. Whether Japanese people in general value highly of enjoying arts/paintings or not is a question to the author, especially comparing with people from other countries with rich traditional culture in this field, but she fully understands what the panelists meant. This kind of recognition also might be one reason for the fact that general public pay attention only during Olympics and other international tournaments.


In the next article, a few examples of support and assistance from organizations to athletes recently delivered by news media will be introduced.