Comment on “Role of Sport in International Relations: National Rebirth and Renewal”

• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Author: Akihiko Tanaka
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/aepr.12128
• Date: 01 January 2016

Comment on “Role of Sport in International

Relations: National Rebirth and Renewal”

Akihiko TANAKA†

The University of Tokyo

JEL code: F5

Cha (2016) skillfully illustrates and analyzes various aspects of the political impacts of

sport and major sporting events especially the Olympics and argues that sport and major

sporting events have at least four political functions: the promotion of nation building,

the assertion of independence in the international system, the augmentation of national

soft power, and the symbolization of national rebirth and renewal. Cha presents many

fascinating episodes to show how sport and major sporting events promote these four

political functions. To that extent, the paper is a success. The Tokyo Olympics in 1964

was and the Tokyo Olympics planned for 2020 will be powerful symbols of Japanese

political narrative of its “birth and rebirth.”However, in order to answer why and under

what conditions sport and sporting events can fulfill these four functions, the paper

probably needs more conceptual clarifications and an exploration of the causal interac-

tion between sport and politics.

First, there is no such thing as sports in general that affects politics. As Cha argues,

“sport creates emotion.” But there are differences among sports in the degree that they

arouse emotion nationally and internationally; although Japan has its own Japan Cricket

Association, cricket does not cause “joy or anger among countrymen” in Japan. The

sport has to be nationally popular if it is to make a political impact on the public. In

order to influence international relations in addition to national politics, the sport has to

be popular in many countries too. Sumo may now be politically significant between

Japan and Mongolia, but it is mostly a cultural curiosity in many other countries.

Nationally popular sports or efforts to create nationally popular sports may be politically

useful for nation building. But in order to assert political independence or to use it as

soft power in international relations, the sport has to be internationally popular too.

What explains the popularity of a certain sport nationally and/or internationally? Cha

discusses the case of baseball in Japan and indicates that both the characteristics of the

sport and the political needs of the nation reinforced each other to make baseball more

popular and useful for nation building. Can we make similar arguments in the cases of

other sports in other countries?

Second, sport and major sporting events should be differentiated. In fact, Cha ana-

lyzes the various impacts of major sporting events, mostly the Olympics, more than any

specific sport. When it comes to major sporting events, hosting and performance should

†Correspondence: Akihiko Tanaka, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of

Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. Email: tanaka@ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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doi: 10.1111/aepr.12128 Asian Economic Policy Review (2016) 11, 156–157

© 2016 Japan Center for Economic Research156