In sports, where competition is the fundamental principle, the outcome is everything. While victory is associated with numerous values, “defeat” is only identified as negative. However, sports media, including newspapers, often present defeat as positive. In order to clarify this contradictory sentiment, this paper analyzes how defeat is portrayed by the media, and aims to identify why Japanese newspapers attach positive values to losing.
The newspaper articles referenced in this paper tell stories of defeat in athletics from the post-war period to the present (1946-2016). Articles were collected from the Yomiuri Shimbun morning edition; the newspaper index database, “Yomidas Rekishikan,” from the National Diet Library; and the “Nikkei Terekon21.” To find the articles, a search was conducted using the keyword “defeat.” In total, 4,407 articles were collected and studied using document analysis.
According to the results, in situations where “idealism,” such as fighting spirit and grit, was associated with losing, defeat was both criticized and praised. Furthermore, articles that lauded defeat as positive focused on praising teams and individuals for hard work, extensive practice, sincere effort, and discipline. The values that were praised by the articles are widely recognized as honorable in the real world. What lies in the background of these values was discussed in relation to the characteristics of Japanese sports ideology. It is thought that discussing those values has two functions, namely recreating the traditional Japanese identity and consoling the losers in a competitive society.
View full abstract