There is little evidence that increased sport participation promotes development. Nevertheless the growth of sport is valuable because it provides individuals with an enhanced opportunity to engage in an activity that they find pleasurable. The growth of sport therefore more nearly resembles an act of consumption than investment.
　Instead of treating sport as an act of investment with positive spillovers, this paper considers sport in Bangladesh to be a dependent variable. It uses cross sectional data to test the hypothesis that Bangladesh’s economic underdevelopment is causal in explaining why sport participation in the country is at a low level and that this inadequacy is even more marked for girls than boys.
　An examination of data does suggest that Bangladesh’s poverty is causal and that if the country’s economy modernizes, sport participation will increase and gender inequality will decline.
　In recent years Bangladesh has seen its garment and apparel industries expand. But these are low labor productivity, low wage sectors. They therefore have not had a strong positive effect on the level of sport participation or in reducing gender inequality.
　What Bangladesh requires for sport participation to grow and for women to become more personally empowered is success in economic modernization. The country has to increase its technological capability. To do so it will have to greatly enhance the opportunity for the people in the country to attain a secondary school level of education.

View full abstract

　The purpose of this study is to consider aspects and angles of politics surrounding modern sport, by comparing the policy decision-making and institutional structures of the Sports Basic Act of Japan and that of France.
　Firstly, in regard to the policy decision-making of the Sports Basic Act, we analyzed actions and relationships among actors involved in the decision-making processes. As a result, we focused on numerous issues; the political tendency of adjustment at the stage of prior legislative consultation by the bipartisan Parliamentary Sport Federations, the tendency that conflicts of interest and issues between political parties do not become apparent, the status of adjustment by some politicians and the weakness of legislative deliberation, the problem of very short legislative consultation, the change of organization mechanisms of the Direction of Sports, the postponement trend of decision-making of relationships among ministries or agencies, the control of legislation by the bureaucracy, the lack of opportunities for democratic bottom-up consultation, the ambiguity of authority relationships and the absence of antagonistic relations between the nation and sport governing body, the influence of organization by specific experts or related persons such as the Japanese Advisory Board, weakness of sports media and their lack of criticism on policy making, and a weakness of national interest.
　Secondly, in regard to the institutional structure of the Sports Basic Act, we analyze the regulations involved with governance, enforcement, privileges, order etc., and examined the interaction between social forces based on these regulations. As a result, we pointed out the structure of conflict between sporting nation theory and sport culture theory, the significance and effect of introduction of provision of sport rights, the background of the introduction of provision regarding effort of sports organizations and the relationship with the concept of rule of law and governance theory, the confrontation with sports organizations and the Japan Sports Arbitration Agency by the introduction of the sport dispute resolution system, the authority of the Ministry of Education and the structure of relationships among institutions or agencies, and the tendency to avoid political conflict of central and local relations.
　Finally, in order to improve the ambiguity of the decision-making process of sport policy and the ambiguity of the legal system over authority relationships and responsibilities, we pointed out that it is necessary to establish sport rights and basic principles of sport law and promote the rationalization and sophistication of policy processes and institutional structure of sport policy. In addition, we pointed out that it is necessary to consider institutional structure to ensure democratic bottom-up consultation.

View full abstract

　Establishment of staff for promotion of community sport is an important element to guarantee sport as human rights. However, it is a serious problem that the provisions for staff have not been incorporated into the Basic Act on Sport. Furthermore, to consider the role of the staff historically and systematically has been scarcely discussed in research of sport studies.
　Based on an awareness of the issues, the aim of this paper is, firstly, to verify sport policy documents of the Ministry of Education. From the verification of documents, it was revealed that importance of staff for promotion of community sport has been repeatedly pointed out in the documents. But legal provisions of staff do not exist until now. Secondly, to verify the case of sport practice at local government, and also to consider the work of staff that have been raised by a group discussion based on the cooperation of staffs. The object of consideration is a case of adoption of professional staff in local government after 1970s and a case of expansion of community sport caused by the efforts of staff. Through this consideration, the significance and role of staff in local government was revealed.
　Finally, public official is under severe circumstances, reduction of regular staff, but it is required to revalidate the sport practice in community since the 1970s and to clarify the importance of staff again to solve the issue.

View full abstract

　As there are no other therapeutic techniques in the world which have adopted the name of a sport as part of their name, the present paper attempts to answer the question of how “Judo Therapists” acquired their name and fundamental concepts, by providing an analysis of part of the history of its development.
　Based on a short description of the historical development of Judo, it is seen how it is only now, with the widespread popularity and public awareness of Judo, that Judo Therapy could have achieved acceptance as a valid therapeutic technique. Our historical moment is seen to be one cause for why Judo Therapy is not called “Jiu-Jutsu Therapy.”
　Some differences between the foundations of traditional therapies based on “bonesetting” techniques, vs.the approaches employed by Judo Therapy, are investigated. Both traditional and Judo therapies follow traditional basic non-invasive principles, but the latter does not follow the tradition of prescribing drugs. A further discussion describes why the name “bonesetting” could no longer be considered a suitable name for the present practices of Judo Therapy.
　The paper closes with an analysis of the record of proceedings the Imperial Diet (established under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan). It is seen that the sport of Judo may constitute an important element of how Judo Therapy practitioners see their profession and their particular identity as therapists.

View full abstract

　The purpose of this paper is to consider the importance of “resonance” in the understanding of “enjoyment” in social relationships in sports by integration of the concept of “entrainment” and “flow” suggested by Csikszentmihalyi.　
　“Entrainment” is the synchronization of more than two different cycles of rhythm. Synchronization can be observed everywhere as a basic natural phenomenon, and can also be seen in human conversation.
　According to Klages’s “rhythm theory”, rhythm is distinguished from beat. Rhythm is the “flow of the wave” that cannot be divided like beats can. From the viewpoint of the Klages’s “rhythm theory”, “entrainment” could be considered as “resonance”.
　Kameyama describes “resonance” as entering into the rhythmical pulsation of life. This is the origin of “enjoyment” in activities of music or sport. On the other hand, Csikszentmihalyi provided an account of “enjoyment” from the concept of “flow.” “Flow” is understood as the “enjoyment” of one’s personal psychological state, but not necessarily collectively. However, the viewpoint of “resonance” instead of “flow”, may account for the “cooperative flow” in the group sport. So far the study of “flow” as results of cooperative activities has been superficial.

View full abstract