Handbook of Sport and Japan

The Handbook of Sport and Japan presents a fascinating collection of established and new scholarship, a valuable text for readers who want to use sport as lens to look more closely into a nation. The handbook draws on a diversity of perspectives, disciplines and experiences all of which respond to the challenge of including sport in the study of Japan. The chapters in the handbook convey what taking part in sport feels and looks like, highlighting the sporting accomplishments of Japanese athletes and teams, while also reflecting how the sporting experience interacts with economics, diplomacy, media, culture, demographics, gender, ethnicity and identity. Contributions pose key questions about what conclusions can be made when sport is placed in the foreground of key events in Japanese history, including pre-war industrialisation and empire building, to the post-war economic boom, the 2011 Tohoku Disaster and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Helen Macnaughtan is Senior Lecturer in International Management for Japan at SOAS, University of London, UK. Helen has been the chair of the SOAS Japan Research Centre and was the Convenor of the Centre’s Sport Symposia Series. Her research interests focus on topics relating to gender equality, women, work and employment as well as gender and sport in Japan. Her sport research and publications have focused on the history of women’s volleyball within the Japanese textile industry and the legacy of their gold medal victory at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics, as well as the history of men’s corporate rugby teams and the role of sport in soft power strategy in Japan.
Verity Postlethwaite is Vice-Chancellor Independent Research Fellow in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, UK. She also holds a visiting position as a Research Associate at the Japan Research Centre, SOAS, University of London. Her research is broadly focused on international sport events with a particular interest in how sport and other cultural entities have been used in local, national, and international contexts to govern society.