The following research aims to discuss an issue that has been thought to belong within the "private" sphere - menstruation of female athletes. The research tackles menstruation beyond the realm of an individual's own physical experience, and extend the understanding of the issue in relation to an individual's "social" standing. Arthur Kleinman (Kleinman, 1988=1996) raised the point that the individual experience of suffering should be interpreted in terms of "illness", and underlined the need for taking the patient's local knowledge system, social relationships, and the respective social contexts and meanings into consideration when approaching such experience. Thus, the research adapted the perspective of "illness" as suggested by Kleinman and attempted to utilize this perspective in understanding the players of soccer team "K" and their meaning of suffering. Results revealed that players often experience three different types of menstrual suffering: 1) suffering expressible to anyone regardless of sex, 2) suffering expressible only to females, and 3) suffering expressible to no one. The research further indicated the different types of suffering each meant different levels of suffering. The third type of suffering, especially demonstrated that the social context bars females from expressing their suffering to other females, even though menstrual suffering is a common experience among females. In other words, the research revealed that menstruation is not only an issue between different sexes, but instead entailed double-sided concerns - different types of menstrual suffering and "perceived status" based on the player's characteristics. Therefore, this reseatch studies the difficulties female athletes face due to menstruation not in terms of a simple male/female dichotomy, but instead by analyzing those difficulties with respect to the social order and relationships within a team. With such understanding in mind, the research suggests the need to establish the topic, "Sociology of Suffering."

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The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between the knowledge about sexual minorities and gender views, homophobia, transphobia and the sense of value for sport. The participants were 2,763 college students who were in the departments related to physical education or sports in Japan at the time of study (male students: 1,493, female students: 1,270). The questions regarding sexual minorities were created by authors. The four scales used in this study include: gender views (the Short-form of the Scale of Egalitarian Sex Role Attitudes: Suzuki, 1994); homophobia (the Index of Homophobia: Hudson & Ricketts, 1980); transphobia (the Transphobia Scale: Bornstein, 1998); and the sense of value for sport (the Psychosocial Functions of Sport Scale: Spreitzer & Snyder, 1975). The result shows that those who gave more correct answers to the questions concerning the knowledge about sexual minorities tend to hold more egalitarian beliefs on gender equality. They also tend to be less homophobic and transphobic. Those students, both female and male, who had more correct knowledge about sexual orientation and biological sex tend to be significantly less homophobic and transphobic. Therefore, the result suggests that having the knowledge about the diversity of sexual orientation and biological sex is a crucial factor for the better understanding of LGBT. On the other hand, those who gave more wrong answers to the questions concerning the knowledge about sexual orientation and biological sex tend to have stronger sense of value for sport. This tendency of prejudice was more salient among male participants. The correlation between a support of sexual binary system and a stronger sense of value for sport showed in this study requires further examination.

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In 2015, Ministry of Education published a report about sexual minority students, including those with Gender Identity Disorder, and it promoted the discussions about sexual minorities in school. Hidaka （2015） pointed out that very few teachers had taken any courses about LGBT at their universities, and highlighted their misconceptions and lack of knowledge about sexual minorities. This demonstrates the importance of providing students in Teacher Training Course with the opportunity to learn about sexual minorities. For example, sexual minority students often experience difficulties when they have Physical Education class that is gender segregated. In the reports published by HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH （2016） and by the Ministry of Education, the problems and supports concerning Health and Physical Education （H.P.E） class are especially stressed. It shows the importance of understanding of sexual minority students in these classes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of school teacher trainees about sexual minorities in order to make suggestions for the university teacher training courses for the inclusion of sexual minority students in H.P.E. 　　The result of this investigation shows that normative masculinity tends to make sexual minorities invisible and reinforces homophobia and transphobia. Moreover, students who major in H.P.E demonstrated this tendency more than other students. This study demonstrates that the root causes of this result are binary gender system and heterosexism in sports. On the other hand, students who have learned about sexual minorities tend to be more interested in learning about them, and students who have some information about sexual minorities tend to be less homophobic and transphobic. Thus, it is necessary not only to have courses about sexual minorities in teacher training, but also to consider the ways in which such information outside the class could accessed.

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This presentation features three main parts. First, I offer the theory of “celebration capitalism,” elucidate its principle tenets, and explain how it relates to Naomi Klein’ s “disaster capitalism.” I argue that celebration capitalism is helpful for organizing our thoughts on the modern Olympics and best captures the political and economic dynamics at the core of the Games in the 21st century. Second, I draw from specific Olympic Games to demonstrate how celebration capitalism takes shape in specific policies and practices in the host city. Drawing from my research on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the 2012 Summer Games in London, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, I also show how the tenets of celebration capitalism can stimulate anti-Olympics activism. Third, I explore how celebration capitalism is playing out in Tokyo as the city prepares to host the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics.

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