The purpose of this study was to clarify the variables determining the attendance in J-league matches, using the 2, 699 J-league matches held between 1993-2005 season as a sample. There have been many studies about attendance demand in other countries, but there have been no such studies in Japan. By making a regression equation consisting of dependent variables such as attendance per match, and independent variables such as variables which determine the number of attendance, we clarified attendance demand. In the selection of independent variables, we added 4 J-league variables (“Existence of Professional Baseball Team”, “Distance from Professional Baseball Team”, “April”, “October”) to the variables used by existing literatures and extracting 21 independent variables. The result of regression analysis showed that the attendance demand model accounting dependent variable "Attendance" was about 51%. Except for 2 variables (“Population” and “Income”), the effect signs of variables agreed with existing literature. The results of variables such as “Distance”, “Income”, “Population” and “Existence of Professional Baseball Team”, suggested the conditions which can boost up attendance in the future.

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The Israel Baseball League (IBL) that started in the summer of 2007 is one example of the expanding of sports in recent years that has an increasing relation with capital. Most IBL players come from outside of Israel. Players from developed countries participate in the league by using the vacation for their self-actualization. On the contrary, players from developing nations come to obtain provisions of life. This means a "CenterPeripheral" relation is occurring, from the areas where professional baseball has been played to the baseball-barren "Deterritorialized" world of Israel. It is thought Jewish nationalism is a great factor supporting the professional league which suddenly started in Israel, where profits can't be expected from the baseball business. In fact, the IBL carries out the function of getting U.S. immigrants to imagine solidarity with the Jewish community in the native state. At present, professional baseball is in the process of developing a global aspect, supported by the MLB, and in North America a business model of "Independent Leagues" that supplements this flow has appeared. It can be said that the IBL is one of the "Independent Leagues" that is also expanding globally. Though sports have spread from "Central" to "Peripheral" nations as a cultural event before, the current expansion is being accomplished as one of the systems of production. We can see one aspect of how globalization has influenced of sports from this example of IBL.

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The present study investigated the relative contributions of psychological, social, and environmental factors to meeting physical activity recommendation by walking among Japanese adults. Self-reported measures of total weekly physical activity, vigorous and moderately intense activity, walking, self-efficacy, pros, cons, social support, health-professional advice, home exercise equipment, access to facilities, neighbourhood safety, enjoyable scenery, frequently observing others exercising, and residential area were obtained from 1932 Japanese male and female adults using an Internet-based cross-sectional survey on February, 2008. Based on the recommendation criteria of the Exercise and Physical Activity Reference for Health Promotion 2006 (EPAR2006), respondents were divided into 3 groups: recommended, insufficient, and inactive. A force entry multivariate logistic regression model was utilized. Overall, 69.0% of responders walked in daily life, for transportation or for exercise. However, only 12.1% walked according to the recommended criterion of the EPAR2006. When adjusting for all other variables, there was no association between psychological, social, and environmental factors and recommended group in males. However, self-efficacy, pros, enjoyable scenery were positively whereas social support and living in both suburban and rural areas were negatively associated with only insufficient group in males. For females, selfefficacy, home exercise equipment, and enjoyable scenery were positively associated, whereas living in rural area was negatively associated with both recommended and sufficient groups. Living in suburban area was negatively associated with only insufficient group. Different psychological, social, and environmental correlates were found in walking behaviours with the recommended and insufficient level as well as for males and females. This suggests that a design of intervention that accounts for the specific correlates with each walking activity level and gender found in the current study may more effectively promote walking due to well-matching the needs and characteristics of the target population among Japanese adults.

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The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the Exercise and Physical Activity Guide (thereafter EPAG), formulated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), and those who have a walking habit. The survey in the study employed the same method as the one adopted by MHLW for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which aimed at evaluating the recognition level of the national health promotion policy. It was conducted on the Internet for 5 days in November 2007. The 1, 726 subjects chosen were above the age of 20 (40.3±12.3 age). Each questionnaire item was compared, and the results showed that there were significant differences in the recognition level of EPAG among the subjects; 40% of the people in the group that knew the contents of EPAG had the habit of walking more than 10, 000 steps a day.

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