抄録
The purpose of this study is to clarify the recovery process of the sporting goods retailers in postwar Japan. The process is examined through an analysis of thesporting goods trade newspaper 'Nihon Undogu Shipo'. The results of this study are summarised as follows: 1) When the wartime rationing organization of sporting goods was abolished in May, 1948 and the new one was set up, the change was appraised as the first step to free business. At the same time, owing to the enactment of the Antitrust Act, the restrictions of the new participation in retail were mitigated. 2) The idea of the so-called three strata structure of maker-wholesaler-retailer, which was later formed, had already been established in the same period. The energy to form the strata came from the political activities that demanded the deregulation of the supply of sporting goods and the abolishment of the commodity tax on sporting goods. As the result of these activities, the regulation was gradually abolished by 1956 and the tax was also reduced on a step-by-step basis. The cause of deregulating the sporting goods business was not only the increase of supply but also the difficulty of the planned rationing system. 3) The retailers' cooperative associations had not been so active until they intended to protect their 'right to trade' by facing the threat of department stores and co-op stores around 1954-1955. As most of the retailers were small retail merchants, they sometimes lacked the knowledge of how to train an efficient staff of business. But by 1953 it was emphasized that clerks shouldered the management of their stores and therefore the business policy had to be brought home to them.
