2020 Volume 65 Pages 349-366
In 2014, after it was decided that Japan would host the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, discussions about utilizing sports to tackle social issues, referred to as Sport for Development and Peace (SDP), have increased. Additionally, Japanese policies on women’s participation in business have been reinforced since 2012, when the Japanese cabinet office included it as a key aspect of the nation’s growth strategy. With these trends in Japan, Japan’s Second Basic Sport Plan, established in 2017, included the first strategy for development of women and sports in Japan. Therefore, discussions of how sports can contribute to women’s participation in society have increased. While some previous research has focused on either sports policy or sports and women in general, few studies have been conducted on women and sports in Japanese policy development.
Therefore, the present paper examines how the global movement for women and sports and the Japanese national growth strategy can influence women’s position in sports and the perception of gender in sports policy. The data are analyzed historically in an attempt to derive a perception of future directions in Japanese sports policy. The “Development plus sport” and “Sport plus development” models, which categorize development and sport initiatives into 2 categories, were applied in this study as an analytical framework.
To understand the global women and sports movement, documents related to the UN, UNESCO, UN Women, IOC and IWG were analyzed. Official documents related to women and sports published by the Japanese government and the government budget concerning women and sports are also examined.
The results indicated that the most significant improvement in the relationship between women and sports occurred when both the development and sports sectors were simultaneously interested in using sports to improve gender equality. Many of the previous Japanese sports policies had targeted only women. However, from a “Sport plus development” perspective, it is suggested that a gender and development (GAD) approach needs to be considered in sports policy development. This could result in changes to gendered division of labor, social and organizational structure, and regulation. From the “Development plus sport” perspective, compared to other countries, Japan has not actively used sports to contribute to gender equality in society. SDP projects related to gender that have already been implemented in other countries could be applied to gender issues in Japan.
