1. Japanese 11 By Quincy Griffin 5/24/17
Sports in Japan
Japanese 11
By Quincy Griffin
5/24/17

2. Sports in Japan Presentation Outline
Traditional Sports or Budo
Modern Sports
Recreational Sports
Japan & The Olympics

3. Sports
Sports in general in Nihon is for the promotion of a healthy pastime that develops good discipline, builds character, encourages fair play, and instills sportsmanship.
Nihonjin enthusiastically cheer for the athlete who makes a determined and sincere effort with shouts of “Gambatte!” which means “do your best!”.
Before the introduction of Western sports, Japan had made progress in traditional sports called budo, which were born in the twelfth century and flourished mainly among the warrior class.

4. Traditional Sports or Budo
Traditional ceremonies represent beauty and strength.
Sumo
A form of wrestling, holds position of Japan’s national sport.
The object of a sumo match is for the wrestler to force his opponent out of the dohyo or make him touch the surface with any part of his body other than the soles of his feet.
History goes back to ancient times, it became a professional sport in the early Edo period (1603–1867)
The highest ranks, in descending order, are yokozuna (grand champion), ozeki (champion), and sekiwake (junior champion).

5. Traditional Sports Judo
Means “the gentle way,” developed from an older art known as jujutsu, which generally avoided using weapons.
Practitioners wear Judo-gi when training, which is similar to apparel from Karate.
There are no strikes or kicks.
The World Judo Federation was established in 1952, and Tokyo hosted the first World Judo Championship Tournament in May 1956.
Was introduced as a men’s event in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, it has since been added for women as well.
Practiced by 5 million people in the world.

6. Traditional Sports Aikido
Aikido has its origins in Aiki jujutsu of the Daito school of jujutsu, founded by Minamoto Yoshimitsu (1045–1127).
Ueshiba Morihei (1883–1969) is credited with developing aikido into its present form.
Aikido techniques mainly seek to take advantage of an opponent’s weakness in wrist and arm joints.
Aikido practitioners do not hold competitive tournaments.
Its techniques place emphasis on self defense, which is a principal reason why it is popular among women and those in law enforcement.

7. Traditional Sports Karate
Karatedo, which means “the way of the empty hand,” developed over 1,000 years ago in China.
It was introduced to the island of Okinawa (formerly an independent kingdom) many centuries ago as a form of weaponless self defense.
The art was a latecomer into Japan, having been introduced by Funakoshi Gichin in the 1920s
In karate, every part of the body can be turned into a fighting weapon. But equally important are defensive techniques used to sidestep or block an opponent’s thrusts and kicks.
In a sparring match, called kumitejiai, points are scored by landing thrusts and kicks.
Kata, which involve a series of ritualized movements, are used to judge form and concentration.

8. Traditional Sports Kendo
Among the samurai, the sword was one of the most important of martial arts.
Perhaps because of this tradition, kendo (Japanese stick fencing) places strong emphasis on ritualized behavior in the dojo, and practice sessions tend to be highly regimented.
With the establishment of the All Japan Kendo Federation, in 1952, kendo was revived as a sport and was introduced into the curricula of junior high and high schools.
Practitioners wear protective equipment that covers them from head to hips
Points are scored by striking the opponent’s head (Men), trunk (Dou), or wrist (Kote), or by jabbing the throat (Tsuki).
1st to score 2/3 points wins the match
Shinai (The sword used in Kendo)
made of 4 long strips of bamboo
It is quite light and designed to avoid serious injuries during practice sessions.

9. Kendo

10. Traditional Sports Kyudo (Japanese Archery)
Developed during Japan’s feudal period as a fighting art.
With the founding of the Japan Kyudo Federation, in 1949, the discipline made a new start as a sport.
In a contest, each competitor usually shoots arrows at a target 28 or 60 meters away.
The competitor who hits the target with the greatest number of arrows wins the match.
The difference between Western archery and kyudo is that the latter emphasizes the importance of form, like in Kendo.
Yabusame, or Archery on horseback, originated during the Kamakura period (1185– 1333). It is still performed at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura
The Bow
2.21 meters long
made of wood and bamboo glued together

11. Modern Sports in Japan
Baseball (America’s most successful export to Japan)
Baseball (yakyu) was introduced into Japan from the United States in 1872.
Professional baseball is Japan’s largest spectator sport
Very popular at high schools and universities in the ameteur range
A system of two leagues, with eight teams in the Central League and seven teams in the Pacific League, was adopted in 1950
Two of the teams are owned by railway companies, two by newspaper organizations, and most of the others are under a type of corporate sponsorship arrangement.
The Tokyo Dome or “Big Egg,” in Korakuen, Tokyo, was Japan’s first domed stadium.
Best known is Oh Sadaharu, who played as an infielder for the Yomiuri Giants. During his 22- year career, Oh hit a total of 868 home runs, surpassing Babe Ruth’s 714 and the 755 of U.S. Major League record holder Hank Aaron.
However (Shikashi), Smaller ball and field

12. Modern Sports in Japan Soccer
Japan’s organized soccer body, the Japan Football Association (JFA), was established in
In 1948, the national championship competition became known as the Emperor’s Cup.
In 2002, Korea and Japan hosted the Fifa World Cup. This was the first World Cup to be held in Asia and the first to be hosted by two countries.
In 2010, Japan appeared at the World Cup in South Africa
Soshite, Women have been playing soccer in Japan since the 1920s

13. Recreational Sports Winter Sports
Japan was the first Asian country to host a Winter Olympics back in 1972
Japan’s climate permits a thriving winter sports season
Participation in a variety of international competitive events has raised interest and helped to improve athletes’ techniques. The first international winter tournament to be held in Japan after World War II was the World Men’s Speed Skating Tournament.
The Eleventh Winter Olympic Games in February 1972, held in Sapporo, Hokkaido, attracted 1,006 athletes from 35 countries and marked the first time a Japanese person earned a gold medal, in the 70-meter ski jump event.

14. Japan & The Olympics
Although Tokyo was eagerly promoted as the site for the 1940 Games, they were canceled due to World War II.
Japan hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, which were the first summer and winter games held in Asia.
The 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics marked the third time that Japan has hosted the games. The International Olympic Committee has already selected Tokyo as the venue for the Summer Olympics in 2020.
4th time Japan has hosted

15. Japan & The Olympics
By the 1920 Games at Antwerp, Japan fielded a team of 15 and earned its first awards: a pair of silver medals in singles and doubles tennis.
At the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, Japan took its first two gold medals, in track and field and swimming
Athlete Hitomi Kinue became the first woman to join a Japanese Olympic contingent. She received a silver medal in the 800-meter running event, and her success encouraged more women to take up competitive sports.
131 members represented Japan at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, including 16 women. Japanese athletes earned a total of 7 gold, 7 silver, and 4 bronze medals in track and field, swimming, equestrian events, and field hockey

16. Japan & The Olympics
A team of 101 men and 16 women traveled to Melbourne in 1956, and won a total of 19 medals, including 4 golds.
For Japan, the hosting of the Eighteenth Olympiad in October 1964 was a historical landmark event that signified the end of the postwar reconstruction period and underscored Japan’s high economic growth. Japanese athletes took medals in boxing, gymnastics, wrestling, track and field, weightlifting, and shooting.
One of the most emotional events of the games was in women’s volleyball, where the Japanese team won a hard-fought victory over the Soviet Union to take the gold medal.
The Tokyo Games saw the establishing of 47 new world records and 111 Olympic records. The 16 gold, 5 silver, and 8 bronze medals earned by the Japanese team marked its best Olympic performance in history, placing Japan third in the overall medal standings behind the United States and the Soviet Union.

17. Japan & The Olympics
It’s no surprise that the Japanese have excelled in Judo at the Olympics since 1972 Munich Games, winning a gold medal in each Olympic competition since then.
At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Nomura Tadahiro, a judo competitor in the men’s 60-kilogram weight division, captured his third consecutive gold medal.
Tani Ryoko took home medals at five straight Olympics, from the Barcelona to the Beijing Games, including the second consecutive gold medal in the 48-kg division that she won in Athens.
Uchimura Kohei, male gymnasts, won a silver medal at the Beijing Games and a gold medal at the London Games. He won gold in Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, claiming his 2nd straight title.
Iwasaki Kyoko, female swimmer, won the gold medal in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke at the Barcelona Olympic Games when she was 14 years old, making her the youngest gold medalist in the history of the Olympic swimming competition.
Takahashi Naoko won the women’s marathon at the Sydney Olympic Games and Noguchi Mizuki brought home the gold in that event at the Athens Games

18. Japan & The Olympics
Japanese teams have also brought home gold medals in Olympic ball games, including men’s volleyball in Munich, women’s volleyball in Montreal, and the softball competition (for women only) in Beijing.
The men’s soccer team also won a bronze medal at the Mexico City Olympic Games, where Kamamoto Kunishige was the tournament’s top goal scorer.
Japan won a silver and a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in the men’s wrestling events, marking the fourteenth consecutive Olympics since the Helsinki Olympics for Japanese wrestlers to take home a medal.
In the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Japan won a record 41 medals (12 gold, 8 silver, and 21 bronze), with outstanding results particularly in team competitions.

19. Overall Opinion
Though the Japanese adopted western sports, they stayed true to their roots by keeping the tradition of Budo and Bushido. Japan began on an okay note, when introduced to the olympics. Meaning that they weren’t the best, but they had potential. The world wars held them back, especially after WWII. After sometime Japan became an actual contender when they accumulated enough medals to be third behind USA and Russia. Overall, sports in Japan are a great way to past time, stay in shape, and keep the mind busy. United States is still better in sports across the board, but Japan thrives in their traditional sports and more.

20. Work Cited
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Sport in Japan, 2017, Accessed May 22, 2017, web.
Unknown- University of Michigan, Differences between Nippon Professonal Baseball and Major League Baseball, Unknown, Accessed May 24, 2017, web.
Wood, Robert J., 1997, Accessed May 23, 2017, web.
Yount, Claudia, Readings & Exercises, 2017, Accessed May 22, 2017, web.