In the case of sports, gambling influences the character of any game. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the history of keirin in Japanese postwar society, and, further, to consider the relationship between sports and the gambling.
Keirin is the term for professional bicycle racing in Japan, a sport that began in 1948. It is one of the publicly-managed gambling sports called kouei-kyougi. Among professionalsports in Japan, keirin has had the largest number of professionals.
Moreover, there are 50 keirin racetracks spread throughout Japan. The IOC has even decided to adopt the sport as a new event in the Olympic Games to be held at Sydney, Australia.
Yet, despite its successes, keirin usually has not been treated as a sport in Japan.
Keirin has had a poor reputation due to the many problems associated with it in its early years. In various ways, the managing organization of keirin has been taking measures to sweep away those bad images.
They have made efforts to rationalize the system of management and refereeing as well as the administrative system that governs pro-racers. Keirin has grown relatively unpopular since the 1970s. In response, the management organization has subdivided the proracer ranking class into smaller parts in order to complicate prospects for the outcome of the game.
All of these efforts have sought to better the game, to legitimate keirin as a substantive sport.
Keirin has thus been transformed, serving as an example of the process of the modernization of sports. In this paper, I argue, in sum, that concerns over gambling brought about the modernization of keirin as a sport.
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