Abstract
ABSTRACT
In June 2022, the Japan Sports Agency’s Commission of Inquiry published a proposal to
shift junior high school extracurricular sport activities to the community. One reason given was
to reduce the burden on teachers involved in extracurricular sport activities：another was to
guarantee sport opportunities for junior high students in the future. Attempts to transfer extracurricular
sport activities to the community were made in the 1970s, but they did not spread
nationwide, and such attempts made in certain regions eventually ended. Doubts and concerns
were voiced by various quarters regarding the most recent proposal, and it became clear that
there were many difficulties pertaining to realization of the plan.
A major factor in the failure to transition to the community is the lack of adequate public
sport facilities in local living areas. The fact that the development of public sport facilities is an
important element in the promotion of community sport has been on the policy agenda since
the period immediately following World War II, but for a long time, progress was slow. In the
1970s, municipalities across the country finally started to develop public sport facilities, but
from the 1980s onward, the speed of development waned because of budget cuts in the name of
“administrative reform.” After peaking in the mid-1990s, the number of public sport facilities
has continued to decline.
To realize the transition to the community, conditions that support community sport and
the construction of public sport facilities must be implemented. The possibility of transition to
the community will only become a reality when appropriate conditions enable the development
of a variety of voluntary sport clubs. Furthermore, sport clubs must be ready to play a role in
the transition.
https://ror.org/03jyr9x65 
