Recent History of School Turf Movement and the Role of Supporters

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal the recent history of school turf in Japan and the role of the supporters. The information of school turfs were collected and put in order. Two school turf growth periods were found. The first one is 1970's. Ministry of Education and some local governments promoted school turf. Some of those turfs remains until today. But others disappeared soon. One of the reason is that the areas of school grounds were not enough broad to hold turf on it. Another reason is that the work is too hard for teachers in charge. In the following two decades, only a few school adopted turf on the ground. In the late 1990's, the second period of growth began. Differences between the first and second period were found. Many persons began to be interested in turf. There may have been some influence from the world cup soccer games. They voluntarily began activities by individually or in groups for supporting school turf. The activities are including donation and attendance to the workshop of planting and maintenance. Nonprofit organizations for supporting school turf were founded one after another. Ministry of Education (Presently, Ministry of education, culture, sport, science and technology) and local governments have made budget to subsidize school turf in these days. The area of school ground per the number of the pupils is increasing. The technology concerned to the turf has made progress. Comparing to the first wave of the school turf in 1970s, the present condition for school turf seems to be much better.