Introduction

This paper sought to find the impact the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games had on popular sports in Japan. To do this it was clear that defining the terms "impact" and "popular sport" was imperative. Sport has long been a cornerstone of Japanese culture. When one thinks of Japan one might envision more traditional Japanese sports like Judo, Karate or Sumo which have gained worldwide recognition and popularity. When this paper defines "popular sport in Japan" however, it does not only talk about these traditional sports, it also considers sports like baseball or football which although not originating in Japan are wildly popular there now. The popularity of a sport is measured through a variety of statistics like participation and viewership, so we decided to focus on the latter as there was more recent data to be found. To define the term "impact" it is necessary to acknowledge a wide variety of possibilities. We decided to mainly narrow this down to the potential economic and political impact of the Olympics on popular sports in Japan. It is important to note that the COVID-19 pandemic had an undeniable impact on popular sports in Japan at this time as well, and although we mention these impacts briefly in comparison with our findings, it is not the core of our research.

Tokyo as the Olympic Host Country

On September 7, 2013, The International Olympic Committee voted Tokyo as the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Although the hosting of the Olympic games can be a topic of debate in terms of economic benefit or strain, it has been proven that despite the large costs of organizing it, there are numerous economic benefits including increased import and export through strengthening international economic ties¹, about a 10% increase in Real GDP levels in the years preceding the Games mainly due to increased investment in construction and increase in tourism.² Though this paper is not about the pros and cons of hosting the Olympics, it is important to note that this plays a role on the political/economic front because the Olympics is a driver for said initiatives.

This political/economic front could however be halted by the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic which could be viewed as a hybrid threat to Japan. A hybrid threat is defined by the article of Ilevbare and McPherson as: "a situation where a foreign power engages in activities to undermine the ability of another nation by exploiting domestic unrest instead of engaging in direct military actions". Which means that because of COVID-19 it undermined Japan's ability to use the Tokyo Olympics as a soft power tool to garner more economic power.³

Historical trends in policies

If we seek to understand the impact of the Tokyo Olympics on the popularity of sports in Japan it is important to look back to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the trend of policies relating to sports that have been implemented since then. Indeed, as Mayumi Ya-Ya Yamamoto stated, the period between the awarding of the Tokyo Olympics in 1959 and the actual games in 1964 was crucial in shaping the Japanese government's involvement in sports. The Olympics came to be seen as an opportunity to gain prestige in both the national and international domains. In response to this opportunity, the government enacted the 1961 Sports Promotion Law which determined the objectives to be achieved and the areas they should be achieved in. The government had also become heavily involved in investing in infrastructure and developing sports structures (¥2.06 billion over 6 years), and furthermore sought to promote the health and physical fitness of the general public.⁴

This new infrastructure included cutting-edge transportation like the Metropolitan Expressway and the high-speed Tokaido Shinkansen line (東海道新幹線) which made travelling easier for the many spectators, visitors and athletes. New facilities such as the landmark-building Nippon Budokan (日本武道館) or the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (国立代々木競技場) were also included. Most of these facilities were built to be used in the 1940's canceled Olympics, reused in the most recent Olympics and are still used day to day for sports activities in Japan.⁵

Overall the 1964 Tokyo Olympics can be considered a success story, both for Japan's economy and for its Olympic legacy. Especially with it being the first time for Japan to host the Olympics. It was also the first-ever worldwide satellite broadcast, allowing between 600 and 800 million people to follow the games from their homes across the globe. This influenced ticket prices which were much higher than expected. All these factors played a key role in Japan's economic growth and sporting boom of the times.⁶

However, following the end of the games, the growth of the sports sector stagnated (mainly caused by the government taking a more passive stance) and we found a dull era in terms of expansion. From the early 1980s on out the sector did see a reflourishment, only this time it is argued to be driven by private capital investment.⁷ In the latter part of the 1980s the government did catch up and once again became more actively involved in promoting sports policies, even though their objectives were not necessarily related to sports. For example, the 1987 Resort Law sought to establish resorts in 42 different areas to expand their domestic market and gain the interest of international investors. By doing so they subsequently provided more leisure and recreational opportunities (also meaning more sports opportunities) for the greater public.⁸ Aside from that we also saw the implementation of the 1988 Active Health Plan which reinvigorated the call to the citizens of the country to become more actively engaged in physical activity.

Dive into the 21st century: MEXT and JSA initiatives

The main agencies for sport-related policy making in Japan are the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and its child agency the JSA (Japan Sports Agency). The first impactful sports policy created by the MEXT, Basic Plan for the Promotion of Sports 2000-2010, was a 10-year plan consisting of a series of clear quantifiable objectives. The 3 pillars of these objectives were: life-long sport participation (50% of adults participate in sports on a weekly basis); international competitiveness (3.5% of medals at the Olympic Games); development of school PE and sport. Although the final results of this plan never got evaluated, it marks the start of Japan trying to portray itself as a 'sporting nation' within its own borders by more actively trying to engage the public in sports and outside of its own borders by attempting to increase its international competitiveness. An important note that has to be added is that despite the MEXT claims their objectives are aligned with the 3 pillars, we can, in reality, see funds being stripped away from the lifelong sport participation and school PE in favour of funds for high-performance sports. (2002-2007). It is thus also possible that the government's unwillingness to evaluate the Basic Plan is correlated to the actual division of funds.

In the lead-up to the Olympic games (2013 onwards), both the MEXT and the JSA engaged in numerous initiatives on the sports front. The MEXT placed a focus on the "enhancement of Japan's international competitiveness" through investments in sports medicine and science research and enhancing the performance of Japan's top-tier athletes through creating national training centres and assisting sports organizations.⁹ creating a "lifelong sports society". Increasing the number of PE classes in Elementary- and Junior high including: supporting Comprehensive Community Sports Clubs, which is a network of sports centres nearby schools that should incentivize physical activity and increase the health of the younger generation.^10^ Lastly the MEXT had a higher sport-related budget than before and invested in multiple- Olympics related- projects including: increasing citizens' participation in sport (0.3 billion yen), the High-Performance Support Project (2.2 billion yen) and more.¹¹ The JSA, founded with the goal of improving Japan's international competitiveness and international contribution through sport, first created The Sport Basic Plan in 2012 with a focus on international competitiveness. This was implemented through increasing sports opportunities for children, improving sports facilities, and overall promotion of sports in local governments, schools, and sports organizations. This is realized through creating sports environments by expanding the aforementioned Comprehensive Community Sports Clubs networks.¹² Following the First Sport Basic Plan, there was a Second Sport Basic Plan created in 2017 and the Third Sport Basic Plan from 2022-2026.¹³

Effect of the Initiatives

When looking at statistics to gauge the effects of the initiatives, it is important to note that correlation does not equal causation, in terms of policies and investments made, and increases/decreases in statistical numbers as well as taking other factors into account such as the coronavirus. Looking at the total amount of market size of the Japanese sports participation industry there is a clear trend ongoing that can easily be connected to COVID-19 and its policies. There is a need however for a deeper look to be taken at the individual parts of the market size of the industry, each year.\ The big picture suggests that from the end of 2019 when Japan grew more cautious of the risk that the COVID-19 virus might also spread to its own country, Japan took action. Every year the sport participation industry's market size diminished with the continuation of the outbreak and only in 2022 it bounced back a bit because slowly people were getting vaccinated. By looking at the more detailed part of the statistics it becomes clear that, even though spectating at stadiums generally follows the same line as the above-mentioned bigger picture, the sports apparel market and the facility utilization fees differ. Both the apparel market and the utilization fee numbers still dropped until at least 2022.

When looking at the impact of COVID-19 on the sports environment during the first year of the outbreak in Japan, however, a comparison is made between June and October 2020 and February 2021. According to the World Health Organisation, in June 2020 the average weekly number of Corona patients was 534 which grew to 3952 in October and jumped to a whopping 9022 weekly cases in February of 2021.¹⁴ These numbers would suggest that the restrictions on sports events, gym facilities and parks would grow more strict, but the numbers of a survey (figure 2) done by Alexandru Arba suggest otherwise. According to the survey, the first 5 months of the outbreak were the most strict, while 4 and respectively 8 months later the restrictions became looser and people could go back to attending more live events for example. In June 2020, 7% more events got canceled, 9.4% more sports facilities were closed and 7.1% of parks could not be used anymore.\ In October 2020 and February 2021 an average of 70.3% of people noted that nothing particularly changed while in June 2020 only 58.1% said the same thing. These numbers are supported by the fact that in June 2020 2.5% of people began to do sports less frequently while at the same time 4.1% of people also began to do sports more frequently at home. It is particular that the percentage of sport participation at home falls as well as rises in June 2020 compared to the other 2 dates, suggesting that COVID-19 in Japan did have an effect on people's daily life, but that it did not necessarily have an effect on particularly the sports life of those people. The only thing that changed through the span of a year was restrictions on facilities becoming looser, which could possibly be connected to a change because of successful policy.

Factoring out Corona however, there is also a noticeable trend that can be established in relation to the above-mentioned efforts of the JSA and MEXT on sports-related policies and investments. In a survey conducted by Macromill; Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting of 2000 correspondents on their facility utilization fees to understand "the market size of the sports participation industry in Japan".¹⁵ There is a noticeable decrease in facility utilization fees from 2018 onwards which seems to correlate with the increased investments of the MEXT and JSA to promote the people to engage in sport (Figure 2) by investing in sports clubs and therefore having the members pay fewer membership costs. Furthermore, in a survey conducted by Sasakawa Sports Foundation on 5005 respondents, measured the impact of the coronavirus on the sports environment¹⁶ from 3 separate time frames as seen in Figure 3. From roughly the beginning of the outbreak onwards (June 2020), the survey shows that despite Japan being known for its strict COVID-19 rules, there seems to be a decrease in hurdles experienced by the people when it comes to the ability to do sports, seen in the the fact that there was an increase in "no particular change" noted in the ability to exercise and the lessening of sports competitions being canceled.

The Impact of the Tokyo Olympics on Sports Viewership in Japan

As mentioned in the introduction we mainly focus on 2 types of data concerning when measuring popularity: Viewership and popularity. The data above reveals a significant decline in the percentage of individuals expressing an interest in sports, both in terms of active participation and viewership (as previously mentioned about the impact of Covid-19). The preference for watching sports is higher overall, but there has been a sustained decrease in the number of individuals who enjoy watching sports since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tokyo Olympics did not have any notable influence on this downward trend.¹⁷

Viewership

Comparing the year before the COVID-19 outbreak to the first year of the outbreak, shows that there was a difference in live sports spectating. Every statistic, from High School baseball and sumo to Professional baseball shows a clear distinction between the amount of spectators before and the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The smallest change of the surveyed sports is only 1% being Sumo. But the biggest drop in live viewership was professional baseball with a fall of 5.2%. (Figure 5)\ The changes are not long term however, because according to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health¹⁸, people are likely to return to the stadiums when most of the restrictions are lifted.

Although the percentage of individuals attending sports events has increased, it has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. On average, spectators attended events slightly fewer times, but the expenditure per attendance has increased. ¹⁹

When comparing the viewing frequency of significant sports events over the past few years, a higher percentage of respondents reported a decrease in frequency, including a significant decline for some. ²⁰

Professional baseball had the highest attendance with 25.17 million visits, followed by high-school baseball with over 9.7 million visits. However, these figures decreased compared to previous years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on live spectating. ²¹

Baseball, soccer, and tennis have seen a decrease in popularity among the top sports that people frequently watch.

Participation

Regarding participation, walking, jogging/running/marathon, and gymnastics/training/aerobics remain popular activities to address the lack of exercise, but there has been a decline in participation rates. The proportion of individuals engaged in any form of sports has also decreased. ²²

According to a survey by Alexandru Arba²³, the average sport participation rate of Japanese citizens changed through the Covid-19 times. She compares sports participation data from February 2019 until January 2020 (early stages), to data from February 2020 until January 2021(middle stages of the outbreak). Although the percentages don't change remarkably if you look at every sport individually, when you look at the big picture however, there is a drop in sports participation. People who did not participate in any sports/physical activity in the first stages of the COVID-19 outbreak to the second stage changed from 45.7% to 49.6%. While a difference of 3.9% is not much, it suggests that the Covid-19 pandemic had at least some effect on sports participation in Japan.

Conclusion:

Based on the results of the research conducted, it can be concluded that the Tokyo Olympics did not have a notable influence on the overall downward trend in sports viewership or participation in Japan. The data indicates a significant decline in the percentage of individuals expressing an interest in sports, both in terms of active participation and watching sports, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The decline is reflected in the decreased popularity of sports such as baseball, soccer, and tennis among the top sports watched. The market size of sports participation and spectating at stadiums has also shown a significant decline. This contrasts the ongoing efforts of the Japanese government in promoting both the popularity and participation of sports for its citizens, as well as the chances to gain prestige in significant sports events. Even though the start of the government\'s involvement in promoting sports can be dated back to the early 1960s, the revamped efforts really kicked off at the start of the 2000s. Despite the government\'s continuous efforts, sports attendance and participation diminished intensively since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and to this day have not bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, it became clear that traditional sources of sports-related information have become less popular, while social media platforms and video streaming sites have gained more popularity, suggesting an interesting topic for the Japanese legislative bodies to research when implementing the next sports-related policies.

EXTRA: The Impact of the Tokyo Olympic Games on... the Tokyo Olympic Games

The 2020 Olympic Games introduced multiple new sports to the Olympic stage including surfing, skateboarding, karate and sport climbing. Besides those, there were also returning sports that came back to the Olympic stage like Baseball/Softball.

After being voted out of the program in 2005, baseball/softball returning with the Tokyo Olympics makes a lot of sense seeing as baseball is the most viewed and one of the most popular sports across all of Japan. Not only do the Japanese love their baseball, they are also good at it themselves. With their men's baseball team ranking number one in the world rankings and in softball their women's team are in the runners-up spot.

The IOC (International Olympics Committee) decided to debut sports such as skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing in an attempt to bring the sports to the youth. "F*** the Olympics," echoed replies through social media channels.²⁴ The response of the skating community to "Olympic skateboarding" was at best neutral. There are two types of competitions: "park" and "street". Points are based on the variety of tricks, the height of jumps, spins, etc.

Surfing was added to the roster which has been a priority for the International Surfing Association (ISA) since back in 1995. Which now finally has been achieved. For the surfing competition athletes are competing on shortboards and are scored on the speed, power and flow of their rides. Each round with four athletes getting a 25-minute heat each. Then the judges decide who continues to the next round.

Karate also made its debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which wasn't taken very well by all groups. Karate is normally seen as an art of self-defence rather than a competitive sport, which some find underestimates its spiritual depth. There have been struggles to form an Olympic standard for the sport seeing as there are large differences in existing styles and which forms/techniques would be seen as legitimate. The first attempts of adding the sport to the Olympic roster were back in the 1970s, now finally having been added to the roster. The way the IOC integrated the sport is with two competitions. The athletes compete in kumite (sparring) and kata (form) events. The former is a competition based on precision, power and quality of the hits you land on your opponent. Whilst the latter is a solo performance of strikes and blocks, chosen from 98 officially recognized forms.²⁵

Bibliography

Figure 1: (Sasakawa Sports Foundation, White Paper on Sport 2017)

Figure 2: Macromill. (October 27, 2022). Market size of the sports participation industry in Japan from 2017 to 2022, by segment (in billion Japanese yen) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved May 23, 2023, from [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1272786/japan-market-size-sports-participation-industry-by-segment/]{.underline}

Figure 3 "Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on the Sports Environment in Japan 2021," October 26, 2021. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1171644/japan-change-sports-environment-coronavirus/]{.underline}.

Figure 5 Statista. "Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Live Sports Viewing in Japan 2021," October 27, 2021. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1272067/japan-change-sports-live-spectating-coronavirus/]{.underline}.

Figure 4,6,7,8: see(17)

Figure 9: Sasakawa Sports Foundation. (December 31, 2022). Number of attendances at live sports events in Japan in 2022, by sport (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved May 23, 2023, from [https://www.statista.com/statistics/923908/japan-leading-live-sports-events-rate-by-annual-spectators/]{.underline}

Figure 10: Sasakawa Sports Foundation. (February 26, 2021). Most popular sports and physical activities to participate in amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Japan as of February 2021, by type of activity [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved May 23, 2023, from [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1171270/japan-sport-participation-rate-amid-coronavirus-by-type-of-activity/]{.underline}