Current Status of Physical Education and Sports Coaching in Japan: Focusing on the Social Development

スポーツ教育学研究＜招待講演＞ 2014. Vol.34, No.1, pp. 45-52

Information about the Japanese society of Sport Education conference 2013 19th Sat. October 2013, Nihon University (Tokyo, JAPAN)

Current Status of Physical Education and Sports Coaching in Japan: Focusing on the Social Development

Akemi Umegaki School of Health and Sport Sciences, Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, Japan

1. Introduction today is that rather than simply make children Professor Shinya Yamanaka, the winner of the participate in sports, sports can become effective Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, devoted means to build character if the sports are based on himself to judo during his years in junior high and appropriate instruction (Shields and Bredemeier, high school. In his high school yearbook, he looked 1995). Just as appropriate instruction programs are back on the weakness that he experienced through necessary to improve athletic skills, appropriate judo and described the importance of winning in the instruction programs are also necessary for character battle against himself (jiji.com, 2012). Sports provide building. valuable opportunities to think about one’s state of This study examines the history of how sports mind and relationship with society, and to gain the have been established as an educational method and ability to realize great dreams. When facing such discusses vision on future sport education through an examples, we tend to jump to the conclusion that examination of the principles that have linked sports sports are an effective way of building character. with education in the modern era. Then, this study Nevertheless, there are negative opinions to the introduces principles concerning sport education in proposition that sports build character, and various Japan and major examples of actual practices in discussions are being exchanged (Coakley and Pike, physical education and sports coaching. 2009. pp. 112-114). Actually, there is no end in sight to doping scandals involving famous athletes. For 2. From a muscular Christian to an independent example, Lance Armstrong, the seven-time winner sports person of the Tour de France, confessed to doping for many First, this study surveys the history of how sports years in a television show in January 2013. Winner of started to be used as educational means. Through five Olympic medals Marion Jones was also involved this examination, the problems of the principle of in a doping scandal, as was Tyson Gay, who once was muscular Christianity, which added educational an anti-doping symbol. The stripping of Olympic values to sports, are pointed out based on modern medals after Olympic Games have ended seems to perspectives, and the necessity of principles that have become a regular event. Sports seem as if they support sport education instead of muscular are teaching players to violate the rules and skillfully Christianity is suggested. disguise such actions. The word sport originally meant a diversion or to Then, how should the two conflicting aspects of refresh. Sports have been practiced for a long time as sports be understood? One perspective supported a pastime of the upper class to idly spend time, or as

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barbaric and disorderly entertainment for commoners the end (McIntosh, 1979; Mangan, 1981; Loland, involving gambling and heavy drinking. 2002). The history of sports, which seemed irrelevant to This section focuses on the point that building education, becoming recognized as educationally character through sports was inseparable from the valuable is extremely short. Sports became linked Christianity that players internally accepted. This is with education after the modern era. It started with because participants in sports back then were able to the voluntary and autonomous sport activities behave ethically in sports thanks to their backbone. conducted by students in public schools in the mid-19th We may have generalized such behavior of participants century. The background of this story is the educational in sports with the internal belief of Christianity and reform conducted by Thomas Arnold, the headmaster opted for the optimistic perspective that participating of Rugby School (Mangan, 1981). Arnold succeeded in in sports results in a noble character. A criticism on the development of Christian gentleman, which was the sportsmanship developed based on muscular suggested as an educational goal, by using the prefect- Christianity is that it is a word that emphasizes men fagging system, which was an autonomous organization and is linked with the ethics of the upper class (Simon, of students, and by allowing extracurricular sports 1991. p. 43). activities rather than prohibiting them. After the Based on the above idea, instead of sports code educational reform of headmaster Arnold, the concept based on specific religious ethics, it is more desirable of using sports as a means of building character started to become independent and propose an ethical code to spread widely. of conduct that supports participants in sports within There were two main factors that saw this concept the world of sport. In addition, a mission of sport widely accepted throughout England. education is to guide children in better directions One was political necessity. The British Empire through appropriate instruction programs based on back then was facing the urgent task of nurturing new principles created instead of muscular gentlemen who would govern colonies extending Christianity. from the tropics to the Arctic including India, Africa, Oceania and North America. Sports were effectively 3. New principles involving sport education in used as a means to build the strong bodies and Japan fortitudes required to govern colonies. This section examines the basic concepts The other factor was the effect of Christianity as concerning the development of social skills through discussed by McIntosh (1979) and Mangan (1981). physical education and sport education in Japan from The Christian gentlemen that Arnold advocated as an two perspectives; physical education in schools and educational goal were people who streamlined their sport policies. entire lives and whole-heartedly committed to The first point to focus on is physical education in everything. They rejected unhealthy sports involving schools. In Japan, “zest for life” (ikiru chikara) was gambling and heavy drinking, but eagerly engaged in proposed as a new principle of educational policy in streamlined and sophisticated sports with the 1996. “Zest for life” refers to “comprehensive ability purpose of building strong bodies and minds. Such with rich humanity,” such as the voluntary ability to physical manliness was justified by Christianity, and find problems, the ability to effectively use knowledge the principle that found ethical values in sports was and skills, and the ability to build good interpersonal called muscular Christianity. Based on this principle, relationships in addition to acquiring knowledge and “fair play” was developed as an ethical code of skills (Central Council for Education, 1996). Several conduct for players to respect other participants, to years later in 2003, the OECD (Organization for be good winners and losers, and to do their best until Economic Cooperation & Development) released

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“Key Competencies” as a universal educational skill development of social skills among young people, the (Rychen and Salganik, 2003). Act stipulated that sports “also have a significant These refer to new skills that differ from the influence on character building through cultivating conventional perspective of academic abilities, which the spirit of respecting and cooperating with others, only focused on the acquisition of knowledge and and the attitude of respecting fairness and discipline skills. In order to survive in a rapidly changing society or self-control, as well as through fostering the which is going through globalization and the advanced practical capability to think or make judgments.” use of information, the ability to engage in smooth (MEXT, 2011) communication with various types of people skillfully Meanwhile, the Japan Sports Association, which using knowledge and skills is more necessary than has been the leading advocate for the promotion of the amount of knowledge. sports in Japan and the Japanese Olympic Committee, Meanwhile, the principle of zest for life was also which has been promoting operations concerning the found in the 2008 Courses of Study. New policies were Olympic Games, adopted the Declaration on Sport in proposed for physical education, and the focus shifted Japan: Sport Mission in the 21st century in 2011. to the wide range of educational possibilities of sports. Here, they also declared the value and meaning of The basic policy of the 2008 Courses of Study clarified sports, which deepen relationships among people. An that physical activities promote the development of especially important point here is that they advocated physical ability, as well as emotion and intelligence, a new concept concerning fair play. The following is a and result in improved communication skills and the portion of the declaration. nurturing of reasoning skills (MEXT, 2008a, 2008b, 2009). As seen here, there is great expectation for the “The fundamental values of sport come from the effects of exercise and sports on the development of spirit of fair play, in which personal dignity is based the social skills of children in today’s Japan. The goals on respect for one’s opponent. With its basis of and contents of instruction in the subject of physical mutual respect, sport promotes genuine goodwill education are organized and integrated into (1) skills, and friendship, in which people open themselves (2) attitudes, and (3) knowledge, thinking and up honestly to others, and accept others as they judgment, and specific contents of instruction are.” (Japanese Olympic Committee, 2011) concerning these three frameworks are clearly provided. The contents of attitudes include motivation This study focuses on the point that fair play is toward motor learning, cooperation (attitude to founded on the relationship of mutual respect with support the learning of other members), fairness opponents. Expanding the interpretation of Rawls (attitude to comply with the rules and manners), (1964, 2001), who studied the principles of justice, responsibility (attitude to fulfill assigned roles), and participants who receive the benefit called respect for participation (attitude to participate in discussions) others from opponents become responsible for (MEXT, 2008a, 2008b, 2009). fulfilling mutual benefit by respecting their opponents The next point to focus on is the aspect of sport in return 1). policy. Sport policy in Japan is entering a period of Sports can be understood as a system of major transition. One example is that the Basic Act interdependent cooperation of various people including on Sport was established in 2011. The Basic Act on players, the audience, officials and citizens who are not Sport included the “sport right,” which stipulated directly related with the games but support sport “Living life happily and fruitfully through sport is the culture as tax payers. Given this assumption, all right of all citizens.” It also described the value and participants naturally become responsible for meaning of modern sports. Focusing on the complying with the rules and maintaining order. This

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is because it can be interpreted that the beneficiaries being aware of protecting the happy and fruitful lives of sports, which is a system of interdependent of others, to nurture players who can pay attention to cooperation, are bound by the rules of sports and have such relationships, to support these players at the the right to ask all participants to be responsible for same time, and to nurture citizens who contribute to complying with the rules. The behavior of players is the development of sport culture. restricted within the relationship of mutual dependency with their opponents, the audience, employers or 4. Examples of actual physical education and sponsors and citizens who are tax payers, although the sports coaching in Japan relationship may somewhat differ between professional At the end, this section introduces examples of and amateur players. At the same time, this means actual physical education and sports coaching in Japan that players can ask for all stakeholders to be by separating them into examples mostly consisting responsible for complying with the rules and paying of community sports and cases including physical mutual respect. For example, professional players may education in schools. ask for their audience and employees to be orderly 4.1. Examples of actual practices in community spectators and behave based on respect for the rights sports of the players in return for the fair play expected by This section introduces actual examples of sports the audience and employees. In addition, amateur coaching in community sports. players seem to be required to behave while The Japan Sports Association, which marked its understanding the relationship with citizens who are 100th anniversary, is conducting a campaign titled tax payers more than professional players. “cheer up Japan through fair play.” This campaign set Then, what kind of relationship should be built fair play using two categories: “fair play as actions” specifically? The Declaration on Sport in Japan and “the spirit of fair play.” “Fair play as actions” provides hints for this question. It is to open included to respect the rules, opponents, and themselves up honestly to others, and accept others referees, to do one’s best in competitions, and not to as they are, and to build relationships based on such become arrogant after winning or sulky after losing. mutual dependency. The construction of mutually “The spirit of fair play” included to become able to dependent relationships is essential for effectively decide whether one’s own ideas and actions are good functioning fair play, which is based on the relationship or bad and to have a mind (spirit) that can make among people who participate in sports. decisions that one can be proud of upon reflection This implies the possibility of a new code of sports (Japan Sports Association, 2012. p. 17). based on relationships among people that is beyond The memorandum of intent of this campaign was the code of sports, the meaning of which used to be distributed to national sports federations, prefectural mostly dependent on sportsmanship, which meant sports associations, and sports instructors who are the voluntary compliance of individual participants in effectively using it in actual instructional settings. sports. Rephrasing the mission of sport education The structural interpretation of fair play as a code of mentioned earlier, the mission is to nurture players sports from two perspectives of “action” and “spirit” who guide such relationships in a better direction and the proposal of specific goals of actions mean that under the new principle based on relationships among a good environment is being developed for sports the people and citizens who support such players. instructors and players to materialize fair play as That is, the mission of sport education in the future to actual actions. be advocated is, in addition to the code of conduct that Another example is the efforts of Japan Football individuals should comply with, to play (or behave) Association (JFA), the organization that is actively while constantly respecting the rights of others and advocating fair play. JFA operates based on the

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concept of “players first” and has established a Specific examples include studies of classes based on system to implement integrated training of players Team Building through Physical Challenges by from U-12 and U-23 to the national team. An overview Glover and Midura (1992) and Midura and Glover of the player training system is published on the JFA (1995), Sport Education Model by Siedentop (1994), website. The important points here are that JFA has and TPSR model (Teaching Personal and Social set forth reinforcement programs based on global Responsibility Model) by Hellison (2003). standards, and the code of conduct for players is A study of classes on team building based on extremely emphasized in addition to the improvement physical challenges is introduced first. Takahashi et of soccer skills and the promotion and implementation al. (2001) conducted physical challenges classes (six of fair play. hours) targeting sixth graders (34 students). Physical JFA is encouraging players to acquire good habits challenges are an exercise program intended to build so that they can control themselves outside the teams while students work on challenging exercises soccer pitch, in addition to their actions related to in groups and enjoy the pleasure of accomplishing their play on the field. Specifically, JFA stipulated five something as a group. This program uses exploration daily habits as goals of actions to players: be exercises that always require group cooperative responsible for their belongings; follow the rules; relationships (Takahashi et al., 2001. p. 66). In this greet each other; always think about what to do as a class, the following actions were encouraged to soccer player; and actively and positively engage in promote cooperation within groups: (1) to discuss every action. with other members concerning strategies to solve Another point to focus on is that fair play as a code problems; (2) to cooperate, encourage, and praise of conduct is encouraged in various settings. For each other within groups; (3) to come up with a pose example, games of players age 12 or younger employ to strike when a group completes a task; and (4) to a green card system. In this system, a green card is reflect on and mutually evaluate actions. In addition, given to a player who exhibits good actions, such as questionnaires concerning building teams (self- being kind to an injured player, apologizing to others evaluation by students) developed by Komatsuzaki et or shaking hands with others when the player al. (2001) are being conducted to verify the effects of commits an unintended foul, voluntarily declaring learning. As a result, these studies are reporting that that a ball has gone out of bounds or stopping team students positively built teams through physical members who might engage in problematic actions. challenges. JFA is encouraging fair play by praising the positive Next, studies of classes concerning sport education actions of players and teaching the virtue and values models are described. Otsu et al. (2010) conducted of life (Japan Football Association, online). physical education classes (17 to 18 hours) incorporating a sport education model targeting three 4.2. Actual examples of physical education in classes in fourth grade, fifth grade, and sixth grade in schools elementary schools. To evaluate the effects of this This section introduces actual examples of physical model on the social behavior of children, questionnaires education in schools. As discussed earlier, there is concerning team building (self-evaluation by students), great expectation for the educational possibilities of questionnaires concerning manners during classes exercise and sports on the development of the social and games (self-evaluation by students), observation skills of children in Japan. Under such circumstances, and analysis of the relationship-building behavior of schools are implementing physical education children during physical education classes (observation programs developed in the United States to nurture by others), and observation and analysis of the actions social skills, and their effects have been reported. of teachers to encourage fair play (observation by

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others) were conducted. As a result, the study physical education classes in which TPSR is reported that significant changes were recognized in conducted (intervention) between physical education the social behavior of the students through the use of classes without TPSR (base line). To verify the this model and by teacher actively encouraging fair effects of instruction, this study used social skills play using a point system to give points to students scales for junior high school students (self-evaluation who accomplished the goals of actions. by students), observation of the behavior of selected Takahashi et al. (2001) and Otsu et al. (2010) also students (observation by others), observation and described changes in the awareness and transformation recording by third parties and class organizers of the actions of the students observed during the (observation by others), and reports based on the free physical education classes. As discussed by Hellison writing of students (self-observation). As a result, the (2003), however, an important point of the study found the following through the implementation development of the social behavior of children is to of the TPSR model. (1) Among social skills, significant make children internalize good behavior and guide improvement was seen in actions to improve them so that they can engage in the good behavior relationships (actions involving support for friends outside of physical education classes. The TPSR and kindness). (2) Results indicating a transfer of the model is encouraging students to engage in good learning were seen based on reports of the students, behavior outside of physical education classes, in such as that they started to teach their friends in other words transformation into individually and classes outside the physical education classes and did socially responsible behavior as a goal of action. chores in their homes. (3) Improper behavior during Studies that implemented the TPSR model of classes decreased among selected students who Hellison (2003) were also conducted in Japan to realize exhibited a tendency of engaging in delinquent such transformation of learning. Umegaki et al. (2006) behavior and instead showed a tendency to increase set a group (59 students) which implemented the the frequency of proper behavior in the intervention TPSR model and a control group (27 students) which period. did not during physical fitness exercises (9 hours) targeting college students and observed its effects. To 5. Summary verify the effects of instruction, the study collected This study summarized an overview of sport reports based on the free writing of students (self- education implemented in Japan, focusing on the observation), conducted questionnaires concerning social development. This is not yet a completed team building (self-evaluation), and used social skills practice as an implementation to realize fair play scales developed in the field of psychology to evaluate based on relationships among people as discussed social behavior outside of physical education classes earlier. Nevertheless, there is great expectation for (self-evaluation). As a result, the study found that the the effects of exercise and sports on the development experimental group exhibited a significant of the social skills of children, and the effects need to improvement in social skills compared to the control be verified in the future through actual practices group. They also engaged in responsible actions or based on new principles. tried to do so outside of the physical education classes based on the reports of the students. Notes In addition, Umegaki et al. (2011) verified the 1) The ideas presented here are based on the study effects of the TPSR model based on the ABA design, noted below. a single-case experimental design, targeting ninth Suzuki, M. (2005). John Rawls on fair play and a graders (38 students). This is a study designed to theory of political obligation. Hogaku seijigaku examine the effects of intervention by inserting ronkyu. Journal of law and political studies, 65: 31-

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