Sport and Body Politics in Japan (Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society)

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. Cover 1 Sport and Body Politics in Japan 2 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 8 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 12 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction: Researching Sport and the Political Economy of the Body in Japan 16 Part I Configurations of Modernity: Sport, the Body and the Nation 38 1 Modern Bodies, Capital Cities: The Institutionalization of Sport in Late Nation-States 40 2 Creating Space: Urbanity and Modernity in the Japanese Sport Landscape 62 3 Sport, Body Control and National Discipline in Prewar and Wartime Japan 81 Part II New Roles, New Faces: Sport in the Service of Various Masters 96 4 Sport and Gender in the Japanese Classroom 98 5 How to Sell a Public Good: The Current State of Sport Supply in Japan 120 6 Sport and Challenges of the Aged Society in Japan 143 7 Health, Lifestyle Risks and the Japanese Obesity Crisis 161 8 The World Cup Comes to Town: Critical Investigation of the Political Economy of Sport Mega-Events 184 Part III Global Dimensions: Sport and Geo-Politics of the Body 206 9 The Global Game in the Service of Japan’s Foreign Diplomacy 208 10 Sport, Spectacles and Subalternity: Positioning East Asia in World Sports 226 11 Japan, Asia and the New International Division of Sport Apparel Labour 243 Epilogue: Japanese Sport and Global Body Culture 268 Notes 276 References 286 Index 316 By Wolfram Manzenreiter. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 271-299) And Index.