Current Status and Issues of Sport Management Education at Japanese Universities

Abstract

The number of universities with sport management-related departments and courses have rapidly increased throughout the country, and program offerings have diversified. In this present study, we aim to clarify the present situation of sport management education in Japanese universities and examine whether it has changed in the past decade (Matsuoka, 2008). A list of sport management programs was compiled after review of literature (Inoue, 2012; Ishibashi, 2017; Matsuoka, 2008; Ogasawara, 2013). Eighty-four universities were found in this process. A content analysis of program’s websites and syllabi were conducted to identify the unique features of the programs. Results indicate that 44 universities (52.4%) housed the sport management program in the faculty of management and economics. Results also suggest that there were no major changes regarding the proportion (52.4%) as compared to ten years ago. Lastly, the numbers of faculty members were less than two at about 80% of the programs.