2024 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 1-14
The 25th Conference of the Japanese Society of Lifelong Sports convened under the theme “Going back to the roots: Toward the systematic development of lifelong sports studies.” The keynote lecture and symposium primarily addressed the definitions and conceptualizations of lifelong sports. Recognizing the similarities between the academic realms of leisure and lifelong sports, this paper aimed to review the conceptualizations and research methodologies in leisure studies, and subsequently explore research trends and issues in lifelong sports studies through the application of a typology derived from leisure studies. Within the field of leisure studies, researchers have traditionally investigated leisure phenomena from both objective (time, forms of activity, environment) and subjective (psychological experiences) perspectives. The definition of what constitutes leisure is also determined either by researchers (external) or research participants (internal) in leisure studies. Building upon these two dimensions, a typology of research approaches is proposed, which comprises: 1) objective-external, 2) objective-internal, 3) subjective-external, and 4) subjective-internal approaches. A content analysis of published papers in the Japanese Journal of Lifelong Sports revealed a prevalence of objective-external and subjective-external approaches in lifelong sports studies. These findings suggest the necessity for further discussion on the conceptual definitions of lifelong sports within the academic domain, where research with an external vantage point is predominant. Additionally, accumulating research insights through the internal vantage point may enhance the visibility and understanding of lifelong sports in Japan. Such steps seem essential for advancing “the systematic development of lifelong sports studies”.
