Ski boots are generally important for assisting progress in ski turn technique as an interface between a skier and a ski. This study is aimed at developing a new ski boot that can improve the results of alpine ski races for Japanese players. In this paper, a new design of a ski boot that is adjusted to the features of the frame of Japanese athletes was experimentally examined. As a result, it was demonstrated that the front part of the upper shell of a ski boot should be lower and the rear part should be higher than the normal upper shell for providing well-balanced quick leaning of the leg in the ski turn. Finally, the effect of the new upper shell was verified in giant slalom and slalom test by Japanese alpine ski players of the first rank.

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    One of the important properties required in sport whistles is production of a more accessible sound in noisy surroundings. Many whistles with various structures have been developed, and the evaluation method of their performances has been based on the conventional sound parameters, sound pressure and tone obtained from frequency analyses. However the relationships between sound parameters and subjective assessment results have not been clarified. Four kinds of whistles were used in this study. Sensual testing results and their sound properties are compared. The limitation of the conventional frequency analyses is discussed by comparison. A new parameter, WSP (Whistle Sound parameter) in which both pressure fluctuation and pressure modulated Frequency was incorporated, was proposed. Then, the validity of WSP is discussed. It was confirmed that WSP was an effective parameter for the evaluation of whistle sound.

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  The Nihon Sumo Kyokai has been making local tours in addition to holding its regular tournaments. Until 2001, the tours were sponsored by companies and operated by the Kyokai itself. In 2002, the Kyokai lost the sponsors and it became difficult to maintain the business model of the tour. So, from 2003, the Kyokai decided to change the business model and began to sell each event of the tour to local promoters.
  In this paper the background and purposes of the change of the business model are examined, and the influence of this change is considered.
  As the result of the change, the Kyokai became free from the financial risk of the tour. But at the same time, the number of events of the tour decreased because the number of local promoters who had ability to take the financial risk of the event was not enough.
  The Kyokai has a philosophy of trying to popularize sumo, and local tours are one of the means to attain it. But it seems there is a trade-off between this philosophy and financial risk of local tours. If the Kyokai wants to hedge the risk, the number of events of the local tours will decrease, so the Kyokai will not be able to attain the philosophy. If the Kyokai has a strong will to attain the philosophy and to hold more events, its financial risk will become larger.

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  The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between perceived service quality, user satisfaction, and behavioral intention. The data used for analysis were provided by a questionnaire survey of 376 members from three different fitness clubs in Shanghai and Guangzhou, China. Based on a review of literature, four conceptual models of service quality, user satisfaction, and behavioral intention were proposed. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. We found that the model in which user satisfaction played a partial mediating role in the relationship between service quality and behavioral intention had the best overall goodness-of-fit for observation data (CMIN=98.79, P<.001, CMIN/DF=3.95, SRMR=.04, GFI=.94, AGFI=.90, RFI=.94, TLI=.95, CFI=.97, RMSEA=.09) . This result shows that service quality does not have only a direct effect on behavioral intention, but also it has an indirect effect on behavioral intention through user satisfaction. Future research and managerial implications were also discussed.

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  This paper examines the impact of the 2002 World Cup held in Japan and Korea on the domestic soccer league of Japan, the J. League. We first consider the impact of World Cups on league attendance in some European countries and then compare this with the Japanese case. We find that demand increased substantially in the years just before and after the World Cup. These effects seem to be associated with new stadiums built for the event.

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  The purpose of this paper is to explain how the bowling industry was able to attract new customers in the 1960s. The concept of the Blue Ocean strategy which is advocated by Kim and Mauborgne, will be applied as an analytical framework. In the early 1960s, while the pachinko or mahjong industry had the largest share of the leisure market, the bowling industry did not compete against these industries, but tried to attract new customers by creating new values.
  To develop the Blue Ocean strategy, it is necessary to decide the factors to be eliminated, reduced, raised, and created in comparison with conventional industry standards. The bowling industry had eliminated the gambling spirit of the game, reduced prices improved convenience, raised TV exposure and the value of female athletes, and created a sense of wholesomeness and fashionability. Through these processes, the bowling industry succeeded in tapping the women’s and young people’s market. In these processes, the industry positioned physical exercise as part of the leisure industry. At the same time, the industry created a new value of sports as “entertainment” .
  It was clear that the bowling industry as a whole had tapped the Blue Ocean but afterward, the inside of the industry became a typical Red Ocean; bowing centers competed using cost leadership strategy or differentiation strategy.

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  Japan’s first professional basketball league, the bj-league, was launched with 6 teams in 2005. The league has expanded its scale since that time. Many organizations in local cities intend to apply to expand franchise opportunities because the operation expense of a bj club is estimated to be 250∼300 million yen annually, which is much lower than that of other major professional sports leagues. However, it is still not easy for the organizations to enter the bj-league. Since the businesses of most local cities in Japan are still suffering from the long economic recession, finding enough investors to cover the expenses is not easy for them. Akita City also faces this situation. Even though an organization in Akita City has prepared to enter the bj-league, it suffers from a lack of investors. It is assumed that to present the economic impact of a bj club to the local business society would be very useful to getting the business society interested in the bj-league. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to estimate the economic impact of the proposed basketball club on Akita Prefecture. According to the results of the input-output analysis, economic impact, including the direct effects and the primary and secondary ripple effects, of the operation expenses of the club and hosting games at the home arena would be 253 million and 172 million yen, respectively. Thus, the total economic impact of the proposed club, was estimated as 425 million yen. The total economic impact will generate income of 170 million yen for companies and individuals, and tax revenues at 5 million yen for local governments in Akita.

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  In this research we analyzed the “Kanto University Women’s Soccer League” , to solve the problem that a lot of students might step out from soccer after they graduated from high school. We classified universities of the “Kanto University Women’s Soccer League” into four types, according to the aspect of difficulty of entrance examinations and performance of the competitions.
  As a result of the analysis, it was clarified that there are no women’s soccer clubs in the so-called “MARCHG (popular, private university group of the Meiji, Aoyama Gakuin, Rikkyo, Chuo, Hosei, and Gakushuin) ” zone. As a lot of students take entrance examinations of universities in “MARCHG” , it can be thought that a distributional bias in universities is one of the reasons why many students don’t continue in soccer clubs after they have graduated from high school.
  From the results of this research, it is considered that establishing women’s soccer clubs at universities in “MARCHG” will lead to the development of women’s soccer in Japan.

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