The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review on the career of athletes with very high capabilities in their previous or future sports activities in international competitions. Additionally, we elucidate the trends of research on Japan’s athletes’ careers, and clarify future research issues. Papers were selected in accordance with the review procedure, and finally, 43 papers were deemed to fall under the scope of this review and were classified according to their research category.

Four categories were generated: “Competition Retirement”, “Support Systems”, “Employment”, and “Career Development”. We then focused on the shift in research interest in the careers of athletes in the “Career Development” category, and after describing the changes, clarified the research issues. The results, in examination of these changes, are summarized by the following three points.

1) With regard to research trends from 1996 to 2002, due to the decline of corporate sports, which has contributed to the improvement of Japan’s international competitiveness, the issue of athletes pursuing a second career started to attract more attention and began to be incorporated in research that belongs to the category of “Competition Retirement”.

2) Research trends from 2003 to 2010 fell under the categories of “Support Systems” and “Career Development” due to the background of career support systems established by the Japanese government, professional sports bodies, and universities as well as the increased interest in careers for youth players belonging to the J-League.

3) As for research trends after 2011, more papers were found which fell into the “Support Systems” and “Career Development” categories in which career support projects by the J-League and the Japanese Olympic Committee were repurposed to focus on athletes’ professional paths. These included founding start-up companies, and also considered re-education as well as the versatility of athletes’ skills. After 2016, studies in the category of “Career Development” have been actively carried out due to the growing momentum for dual career policies and the promotion of university sports in Japan.

Sumo dates back approximately 350 years to the Edo period. The sport is rich in history and tradition, and has always played an influential role in Japanese society. However, in recent years, the number of violent incidents involving sumo athletes outside of the ring has been increasing. These incidents have placed a spotlight on the Japan Sumo Association and led to a higher demand for more rigorous risk management approaches. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and practical application of current risk management for preventing cases of violent assault in sumo and to elucidate the steps being taken by the Japan Sumo Association to achieve this.

Past violent incidents were investigated to evaluate the effectiveness of current risk management approaches and analyze how these approaches have been applied as a countermeasure. To evaluate the effectiveness of current risk management approaches, all risk events were extracted from both external and internal sources, using the Risk Breakdown Structure, a tool for structuring the risk process. Two main external events are sumo’s traditional customary system and the living environment of sumo athletes. Internal events include the sumo athletes’ physicality, personalities, and mind-set. The validity of these events was reviewed by conducting interviews. The practical application of current risk management approaches was analyzed using self-evaluations and questionnaires.

The results revealed no significant problems in the practicality of current risk management approaches; however, defects were found in the application of countermeasures. These findings suggest that the Japan Sumo Association needs to review its current risk management approaches to reduce the number of violent incidents involving sumo athletes and implement more effective measures.

The purpose of this study is to understand the actual sports life of university students, and to examine the issues revealed by these characteristics and then propose management measures for university sports in order to promote lifelong participation.

A survey was conducted at 41 universities across Japan. The results were categorized by athletic environment into “Members of an athletic club”, “Members of a circle”, “Other exercisers” and “Non-exercisers.”

As a result, more than 50% of the athletic club members exercised more than 6 days a week, which is much higher than the guideline standard for junior high and high schools. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a support system for the academic and career activities that university students should engage in.

Secondly, when participating as a circle member, there was less money involved. Additionally, it is easy for people with little exercise experience to participate. On the other hand, it was found that not even half of the students could use the facilities on campus. Therefore, it is necessary to provide support for the use of facilities other than those belonging to the athletic club.

Third, the percentage of “Non-exercisers” was found to be over 20 percent. The most popular reason they do not exercise is “lack of opportunity.” Therefore, it is necessary to provide them with opportunities to exercise and to improve exercise environment of students before university.