Abstract
The purpose of this literature review study was to summarize the findings of researches on comprehensive community sports clubs in Japan, based on the Sports Promotion Basic Plan since September, 2000, and to suggest the research subjects in the future.
93 researches done after September 2000 were extracted by using the Research Database Cinii (http : //ci.nii.ac.jp/) and divided into 6 categories.
1. Researches on club management
(1) Researches on the processes of club establishment/promotion
(2) Researches on club management
(3) Researches on significant programs/activities
(4) Researches on needs of local residents/club members
2. Researches on meanings of clubs
(1) Researches on functions/effects of clubs
(2) Description of club activities
The most important point to establish/promote comprehensive community sports clubs successfully was explained as “bridging the channels” , which meant making the connections between comprehensive community sport clubs and government, between the new clubs and existing associations, or between participants.
The previous studies were conducted from limited viewpoints such as sociology/business administration studies, but the future subjects should be conducted from a psychological/philosophical point of view. Moreover, there should be more qualitative researches on comprehensive community sports clubs. A possible reason for the previous limitations was that the previous researches were based on the presupposition of necessity to establish those clubs, so that failures/difficulties/troubles were not described adequately. Qualitative researches, such as case studies, field works or ethnographic researches, can give accounts of the realities in comprehensive community sports clubs.
