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Sports mega-events, like the Rugby World Cup, are often considered as a major platform for the celebration and reinforcement of nationalism. However, there is an emerging strand of research which contends that the host nations are increasingly presenting themselves with diverse, inclusive and cosmopolitan characteristics and, in turn, forms of nationalism have undergone some noticeable changes in more recent times. In this paper, we pursue an argument that Japan as the host of the 2019 Rugby World Cup projected the nation with a cosmopolitan outlook ultimately to sustain or even strengthen national interest and identity through the process of 'cosmopolitan nationalism'. Methodologically, the research deployed critical discourse analysis to examine media representations of Japan as the host nation in general, and its national team in particular, within one of the leading Japanese newspapers as well as a range of other publicly available resources and materials in relation to the Rugby World Cup. In result, the study reveals the ways in which the discourse of 'One Team', embracement of foreignness and incidents of international exchanges during the event were mobilised to generate 'thin' cosmopolitan moments and, at the same time, were incorporated into the narratives of Japan's success on the world stage through conditional acceptance of foreignness and diversity. Consequently, this paper offers both a theoretical underpinning for and empirical evidence of the emerging linkage between sports mega-events and cosmopolitan nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper draws on two ethnographic research projects in Japanese university sports clubs to examine the role alcohol plays in the social and cultural education of students. Over the course of a four-year membership, the university sports club is a site where members learn to negotiate drinking. This negotiation is demonstrated by the range of strategies members employ when engaging in one of the many official drinking parties that punctuate the university sports club calendar. Knowing how to drink is seen as an important byproduct of being a member and this knowledge is acquired via the pedagogical relationships established between junior and senior members. On graduating university Japanese students are literally expected to become full members of society and it is the habitus related to social interaction (including drinking) rather than that related to sport, which has enduring capital. Alcohol plays a central role in many aspects of Japanese social interaction and the university sports club is a site par excellence for the training in and mastery of such skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an attempt to address the paucity of research on sport in Asian settings, this paper uses a case-study approach to examine young Japanese men's participation in pre-game rugby rituals. Drawing on Durkheim's seminal work, it is argued that the pre-game ceremonies have much in common with rituals conducted in similar western settings. However, many of the ritual activities were performed in distinctly Japanese ways, suggesting that they also express and confirm dominant local values and mark rugby as a discrete cultural practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Japan has an increasing population of aged people. This will lead to social problems and changes concerning both individuals and society at large. From an historical perspective, this paper outlines the past, present and future changes in the Japanese population structure and its human relationships. Individual abilities and interests will prevail over those of the group. The Japanese idea of group harmony must survive, however. The importance and real meaning of physical activity and related services for the old are emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, Lee Thompson, a key foundational scholar in the development of the sociology of sport in Japan, whose work has helped bridge understandings from the West, considers the distinctive character of socio-cultural inquiry about sport in Japan. In assessing the trajectory of the field in Japan, Thompson notes that Japan has not been one of the ‘social science powers’ and that its theoretical and methodological lenses were often reliant on strategies developed in the West. In addition, the influence of Japanese scholarship in the field has been stifled because of limited dissemination in outlets publishing in the English language. A key challenge is for the theoretical and geographic range of research published in Japanese scholarly outlets to be mirrored in the breadth of work published by Japanese scholars in English language outlets: with the increased demands of globalization and neo-liberal reforms, there are increased pressures to publish in international (English language) journals. In looking to the future, the dangers of ‘Western hegemony’ in publication standards and the tensions in giving standing to particularized Asia-centered alternative discourses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the corporate re-imagining of ‘the nation’ by focusing on the representation of Japanese school sporting culture, bukatsu, through Nike advertising in Japan. Bukatsu serves an important site for the analysis of cultural globalization because it is located not only at the global–local nexus but also at the intersection of Japanese traditional principles, youth culture and sporting practice. Using a multiple-method approach including contextual and textual analyses, along with interviews with advertising personnel, the article reveals that values, experiences and identities of the local cultural intermediaries play a key role in reflexive, yet subjective, incorporation of bukatsu lifestyle within a television commercial in Japan. Thus, it is argued that the subjectivity and reflexivity of the local cultural intermediaries need to be considered as key constituents for representation of national identity within the discourse of corporate nationalism. Overall, the article highlights the complex, interdependent and reflexive relationship between the global and the local by examining links between the ‘glocal’ advertising representation and Japanese sporting identity within the ‘circuit of culture’ (du Gay et al., 1997). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to draw attention to the phenomenon of the so-called 'borderless athletes' who transcend ethnicity or national borders in the sporting world. This approach applies Fukuoka's (1993) conceptual framework to clarify how the identities of these 'global' athletes are defined and accepted within Japan. In general, the article focuses on the naturalization of 'sports stars' in Japan in terms of governing bodies and sports associations. In particular the study examines the case of Canadian-born players in Japanese ice hockey, the strengthening of nationalism in the case of soccer star Waguner Lopes and the role of the media. Overall, the article addresses the assimilation of particular foreign athletes as a result of globalization into the Japanese sporting world and their sub-sequent transformation within local Japanese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)