In Pursuit of the Sport for All Society in Japan

Realization of Sporting Utopia

Abstract

Just turn of the 21^st century, Japanese government established the Basic Plan for the Promotion of Sports. This basic plan aimed to accelerate the realization of the Sport for All society in Japan. The Sport for All society means to prevail the enhancement of wellness and social welfare to all citizens through sport participation. In order to realize the Sport for All society, the sporting Utopia, the Sport Basic Act and Sport Basic Plan have been enacted after 2011 in Japan. This movement to realize the sporting utopia has become one of the main and serious political issues in industrial and post-industrial societies for the last two decades. This article is comprised of three phases such as sport policy, community sport clubs, and sport promotion. The author paid special attentions to comprehensive community sport clubs, so-called comprehensive clubs, which have been expected to accommodate local residents to develop sporting lifestyle. However, the recent global athletic medal races have become too excessive to keep most countries from reaching a sporting Utopia. Japan has been no exception. In this sense, 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games will be expected to create the legacies and become the catalyst for realization of the Sport for All society.