Winter Sporting Cultures and Japan

Scholars and media sources contest the origins of winter sporting cultures in Japan. For example, many scholars cite an Austro-Hungarian Army officer in the 1910s as systematically introducing skiing as a means of transport and recreational activity. However, in the post-World War II era, especially in the 1960s, there was a rapid growth in winter sports' popularity and infrastructure. Further to the domestic development, Japan has successfully hosted two Winter Olympic Games (Sapporo, 1972 and Nagano, 1998) and the first Winter Paralympic Games by a non-Western host country (Nagano, 1998). Given the sport and cultural signafance of winter sports in Japan and lack of related academic engagement, Such cultural representations are considered through three parts in this chaper: firstly, the participation in winter sports by Japanese citizens; secondly, the tourism industry and Japanese winter resorts; and finally, the use of the Winter Olympic Games to promote and leverage representations of Japanese culture on a global stage. This chapter will survey and present evidence for Japanese and international winter sporting cultures, using academic, government, sports organisations and media sources. The final part of the chapter will re-visit the context of the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics and how representations of winter sports in Japan manifest in political and global imaginaries. It will invite thinking about how winter sporting cultures represent specific Japanese-ness and the relationship between Japan and the world. This chapter concludes with reflections on the political and economic implications of the representations of Japanese society in winter sporting cultures.