Big believers in team spirit, the Japanese embrace many sports with almost religious fervour. It's not uncommon for parts of the country to come to a complete standstill during crucial moments of major baseball matches and sumo basho (tournaments), as fans gather round television screens in homes, offices, shops, bars, and even on the street. Baseball is actually more popular than the home-grown sumo, and hot on the heels of both sports is soccer, which since the launch of the professional J-League in 1993 has enjoyed phenomenal popularity.
Martial arts
, such as aikido, judo and karate, all traditionally associated with Japan, have a much lower profile than you might expect. Tokyo with its many
dojo
(practice halls) is the best place in the country in which to view or learn these ancient sports. The TIC at Yurakucho
in Tokyo has a full list of
dojo
that allow visitors to watch practice sessions for free.
If you're interested in attending any sporting event, check the local media, such as the
Japan Times
and
Tokyo Classified
, for details. To get tickets it's best, in the first instance, to approach one of the major advance ticket agencies: Ticket Pia, for example, can be found in most main cities. In Tokyo, Ticket Pia also has an English-language telephone booking line (tel 03/5237-9999). Major games and events sell out quickly, so a second approach is to go directly to the venue on the day and see if you can get a ticket from the box office or a tout outside; expect to pay well over the odds, though, if it's a popular game.
In terms of participation sports,
golf
is the most popular, with some fourteen million golfers in Japan, and more courses and driving ranges than you can swing a club at. The current recession has taken the shine off the sport being used for business meetings and as a status symbol, but fees for playing a round remain out of the reach of all but the most dedicated visiting golf fan.
More accessible outdoor activities in this mountainous, volcanic country are
skiing
during the winter and
hiking
and
mountain climbing
during the summer. If you're interested in such pursuits, it's worth getting in touch with the Tokyo-based
International Adventurers Club
(IAC) or its sister club for the Kansai region, the
International Outdoor Club
(IOC), both of which provide informal opportunities to explore the Japanese countryside and mountains in the company of likeminded people. The Web sites
www.skijapanguide.com
and
www.outdoorjapan.com
are also mines of useful information.
Baseball
Baseball
first came to Japan in the 1870s, but it wasn't until 1934 that the first professional teams were formed. Now Japan is
yakyu
(baseball) crazy and if you're in the country from April to the end of October during the baseball...
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Sumo
There's something fascinating about Japan's national sport
sumo
, even though the titanic clashes between the enormous, near-naked wrestlers, some weighing well over 100kg, can be blindingly brief - the average weight is 136kg, while Konishiki...
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Soccer
Soccer
, introduced to Japan in 1873 by an Englishman, Lieutenant Commander Douglas of the Royal Navy, was initially slow to take off. However, when the
J-League
, Japan's first professional soccer league was launched amid a...
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Aikido
Half sport, half religion,
aikido
translates as "the way of harmonious spirit", and blends elements of judo, karate and kendo into a form of non-body-contact self-defence. It's one of the newer martial arts having only been created...
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Judo
Probably the martial art most closely associated with Japan,
judo
is a self-defence technique that developed out of the Edo-era fighting schools of Jujutsu. All judo activities in Japan are controlled by the
All-Japan Judo Federation
...
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Karate
Karate
has its roots in China and was only introduced into Japan via the southern islands of Okinawa in 1922. Since then the sport has developed many different styles, all with governing bodies and federations based in Tokyo. At one of the main...
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Kendo
Meaning "the way of the sword",
kendo
is Japanese fencing using either a long bamboo weapon, the
shinai
, or a lethal metal
katana
blade. This fighting skill has the longest pedigree in Japan, dating from the...
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Skiing
Every winter so many Japanese head for the slopes to perfect their
ski
technique, or just to hang out in the latest designer gear, that if you don't join them you'll feel left out. It's easy enough to arrange a ski day-trip, especially since...
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Mountaineering and hiking
Until the turn of the century few Japanese would have considered climbing one of their often sacred mountains for anything other than religious reasons. These days, prime highland beauty spots such as Kamikochi
are widely popular with day
...
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Beaches, surfing and diving
As Japan is an archipelago, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it is blessed with some pleasant beaches. The truth is that industrialization has blighted much of the coastline and that many of the decent beaches are covered with litter and/or polluted....
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