Comment on “Professional Asian Football Leagues and the Global Market”

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/aepr.12113
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Date: 01 January 2016
• Author: Tadashi Yagi

Comment on “Professional Asian Football

Leagues and the Global Market”

Tadashi YAGI†

Doshisha University

JEL codes: Z21, Z28

It is my great pleasure to comment on Szymanski (2016). Professor Szymanski has made

several contributions to the field of sports economics, including the authoritative Hand-

book on the Economics of Sport (Wladimir & Szymanski, 2006), and has shown that he

has expert knowledge on the economics of sports leagues (see Szymanski, 2012). Given

his background, I assume that his omission of certain topics regarded as important to the

field of sports leagues, such as revenue sharing and competitive balance, is intentional.

My comments mainly relate to Japan-specific issues, and are intended to expand the

scope of Szymanski (2016) as much as possible.

First, Szymanski discusses the history of national leagues, which is important in

understanding the structure of the Japan Professional Football League (J-League). The

process of the J-League’s establishment, which is discussed in detail in Itaba et al. (2011),

suggests various implications for understanding the development of national profes-

sional sports leagues in general. It is noteworthy that the J-League was established based

on a new concept for a professional sports league that was characterized by a home town

system, a 100-year agenda, a supporter system, and positive relationships with lower level

teams. In this sense, J-League is regarded as a “package-type innovation.” Saburo

Kawabuchi, the first chairman of the J-League, led this innovation by turning away from

what he felt was the negative example of Japan’s professional baseball league, and rather

aiming toward the ideal of developing sports culture via the development of football.

The most important implication from the success of the J-League is that the estab-

lishment of a new sports league needs a new concept. Otherwise, the necessary large-

scale shift of fans from existing professional sports to the new professional sport will not

come to pass. Examples of such failures in new sports leagues are the Japan Volleyball

League and the Japan Basketball League.

Second, Szymanski (2016) states that “[o]ne feature of the football world that is

striking is the simultaneous interest in national team/international competition and

club/league competition.”(p. 3). In the case of the J-League, the top priority was a World

Cup victory. This created the image that the J-League is gearedtoward not only domestic

competition, but also competition at the international level. This image stimulated a

sense of nationality and raised enthusiasm for both domestic and international competi-

tion. This characteristic is quite different from the Japan Professional Baseball League.A

†Correspondence: Tadashi Yagi, Doshisha University, Karasuma-Higashi-iru, Imadegawa-dori,

Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8580, Japan.Email: mla28770@nifty.com

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doi: 10.1111/aepr.12113 Asian Economic Policy Review (2016) 11, 39–40

© 2016 Japan Center for Economic Research 39