The aim of this article is to consider the notion of “public” from a few points of view, and to explore how the term “New Public Commons” relates to the site of children’s sports.
　Though it is a highly nuanced word, the term “public” has three main sides to it, namely that it is “official,” “common,” and “open.” In a legal or political context, the “official” component relates to rights and institutional securities. “Common” indicates that it is not in reference to one specific person, but to everybody, and “open” means that everybody equally has access. We can ultimately see that when it comes to sports, the notion of “public” leads us to a discussion about individuality.
　Therefore, this article will use Mizushima’s arguments to examine how individuality in the public sphere (as outlined by Habermas’ theories) relates to the institution of children’s sports. Children’s sports can be used as a means to evaluate the level of “publicness,” of a community and this article endeavors to examine the ways that “publicness” has been implemented through such institutions.

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　While previous research has looked at discussions on “new public sectors,” none has looked at “new public commons” with respect to sport since the Democratic Party’s 2011 plan to become a “Strategy for Sports Nation.” The aim of this plan is to look at efforts towards “promoting the formation of sport communities” through considering “the formation of new sport communities based on independent clubs,” and “the formation of ‘new public commons’ based on previous efforts by the Board of Education.”
　However, what remains unclear is how we differentiate between the hopeful results of regional sport policies that see “sport as a solution to regional issues (such as child rearing),” and those that might negate previous efforts by the Board of Education and that will tangibly impact “old public sectors.”
　This article will focus on the symposium’s theme of “Who Supports Children’s Sport,” critiquing theories on “new public commons” while discussing the possibilities of establishing “non-profit, public-private partnerships” sport organizations.

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　According to a declaration by the Japanese Cabinet Office, “individuals, citizens’ groups, local organizations, businesses, and governments” can work together to achieve social benefits in the “New Public Commons.” In other words, the “New Public Commons” was established based on the cooperation of the community sector, the private sector (market) and the public sector. The purpose of this paper is to clarify how a sport association can gain support from or work together with these sectors by using a case study method.
　In this paper, we deal with a movement to build a skateboarding court, in which several teenage boys collected signatures - more precisely, they began campaigning and delivered a petition supporting the building of a skateboarding court to the prefectural assembly and the town assembly with more than one thousand signatures they had collected. We describe these young men’s involvement with skateboarding, and the circumstances of the signature-collecting campaign and the negotiations between the skateboarders and the town hall. The “publicness” of sport is discussed using Kato’s theory of publicness and Kiku’s ideas deduced from it that are applicable to this case.
　What drove the skateboarders to begin their movement for building a skateboarding court was their craving for skateboarding. To date, sport promotion by local governments has been justified by the notion that sport activities contribute to public welfare. In this case, however, we can see that those young skateboarders tried to establish sport publicness because of their craving to enjoy skateboarding. This is a kind of self-interest, in Kato’s terms, shiri-shiyoku, though the negotiation with the town hall came to a deadlock mainly because they do not like to be enclosed in association-oriented system. It can be concluded that the sectors’ approval of self-interested sport is a base for establishing sport publicness.

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　This study focuses on enjoyment of watching by the supporters in the stadium. The ways of the watching games enjoyment of the supporters are various for each football clubs and their communities. In particular, the members who belong to the supporter’s group are watching a football game while interacting with each other in the stadium. The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of “interaction” about relationships that supporters build each other.
　The object of investigation is “ULTRA OBRI”, which is the most enthusiastic in the supporter groups of “AVISPA Fukuoka”. This study conducted the fieldwork for the “AVISPA Fukuoka” home games (2005-2009), interview to the leader of “ULTRA OBRI” and questionnaire survey to the “ULTRA OBRI” members. Based on these results, the study clarified reciprocal relationship among members in the stadium, extracting the organizational structure and the characteristics of the group.
　In order to describe the activities of “ULTRA OBRI” concretely, this study considered two sides; the basic characteristics to form an organization and the support performance. Through the analysis of the supporters’ activities, the relationship about “Forum” they constructed was revealed. This “Forum” is the interaction which is neither too close nor too distant. The supporters watched football games, while constructing the relationships by using this interaction.

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　In the field of sports sociology, work on “sport and the welfare of the physically disabled” has been written from two particular standpoints. The first focuses on the achievements and contributions that society has made towards addressing the challenges of involving the physically disabled in sport. The second assesses the progress towards normalization being made in the world of sport by discussing the possibilities of participation for handicapped individuals in sport. In these standpoints, the conceptualization of themes such as “normalization” and “popular participation” are constrained by the question of what social and welfare services exist for the handicapped.
　However, further consideration must be given to the concrete concerns that exist for the physically disabled when it comes to their ability to take part in sport. This paper addresses this question by the fieldworks in one particular event, Nagoya City Handicap Marathon. The following features will be considered:
1) The actions being carried out in the meetings and by the management of The Society for Creating a Better Life for Persons with Severe Physical Handicaps (Yokusuru-kai) in Aichi Prefecture, an organization dedicated to helping those with severe physical handicaps live independent lives.
2) The objective of the marathon to allow members of Yokusuru-kai the opportunity to “run through the city center.”
　This paper points out ways in which these two features of the handicapped marathon are related to issues in the lives of the severely handicapped, as well as the varying ways in which they have helped in the social welfare and minimization of impediments for handicapped individuals.

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