Although esports seem to have gained a certain level of social recognition in Japan, it seems they have not been fully accepted socially, due to prejudice and criticism of esports. We examined these aspects of prejudice and criticism towards esports using Guttmann’s framework of modern sports. As a result, we found that esports are considered to be a concept that can be approximated to modern sports, not only as “spontaneous play” but also as “organized competition”, but the two concepts may be confused and misunderstood due to criticism and prejudice against esports. This fact also seems to be reflected in the definition of esports by JeSU: “In a broad sense, it is a term that refers to entertainment, competitions, and sports in general using electronic devices, and is a term used when competitions using computer games and video games are considered as sports competitions”. For example, there is a public tendency to view esports based on criticism from a specific sports ideology or prejudice such as a negative image of computer games, and individuals such as researchers may confuse the two concepts when they discuss the negative effects of esports.
