The opinions of the host prefecture's residents on National Sports Festival : The case of Okinawa, Kyoto, and Hokkaido

Abstract

The National Sports Festival, which was started in 1946, has been held annually as a national festival of sports for propagating sports broadly among the nation, uplifting the sports spirit, and improving the health and fitness of all people. Recognizing the values of such event,the central government has been subsidizing the host prefecture to develop its sports facilities and to organize various inhabitant's sports meetings. However, there are some negative tendency in which the festival itself becomes to large and very expensive. The festival rotates annually among prefectures, and finished the first-round in 1987. The host prefectures for the second-round then need to consider the new role of National Sports Festival. The purpose of this study is to investigate the changing role of National Sports Festival by comparing three consecutive sport festivals. This study consists of three different surveys. The first survey was conducted in Okinawa prefecture in Nov. 1987 to analyze the resident's feeling about the last festival of the first-rouund. The second and the third survey was conducted in Kyoto prefecture in Nov. 1988 and Hokkaido in Nov. 1989, respectively. The major findings indicated that National Sports Festival in Okinawa was characterized as a victory oriented festival in which the residents wanted their prefecture to win a championship. On the other hand, both Kyoto and Hokkaido festival emphasized "life-long sport" concept and cut down the operating cost. Such organizational attempt was well accepted by the residents.