Japanese National Games

The is the national premier sports event of Japan. It consists of three stages. The skating and ice hockey stage takes place in January, the skiing stage takes place in February, and the main Autumn tournament takes place in September and October. Its name is often abbreviated to Kokutai (国体).

Outline

The predecessor to the tournament was the Meiji Shrine tournament held from 1924 until 1943, a period including the Pacific War. Since then there was a Summer tournament that focused on swimming, and an Autumn tournament that focused on track-and-field; however from the 61st tournament in 2006, the Summer and Autumn tournaments were combined. On 20 December 2006 the Japan Sports Association, as the committee for the tournament, decided that swimming was to be held before mid-September as of and beyond the 64th tournament in 2009, though this actually came into effect in the 63rd tournament, in 2008. This took into account the peculiar qualities of holding swimming events. Also the golf tournament was moved forward in the schedule.

The previous Summer and Autumn tournaments have fundamentally been held across one prefecture. The two winter tournaments also take place in the same prefecture, making up the entire tournament. It is often the case when a tournament is held in colder areas such as Hokkaido, Tōhoku, Kōshin'etsu and Hokuriku, that both autumn and tournaments are held in the same prefecture. It is very rare that the skating and ice hockey tournaments are held in separate areas. From the 56th tournament in 2001, the National Sports Festival for People with Disabilities was also held.

*At the skating and ice hockey tournaments includes figure skating, speed skating, short track speed skating, and ice hockey.
*The skiing tournament includes giant slalom, ski jump, Nordic combined, cross-country skiing, and mogul skiing.
*The autumn tournament consists of swimming, water polo, bowling, football, track and field, judo, kendo, fencing, wrestling, mountaineering, volleyball, basketball, softball (adults), baseball (high school - hardball and softball). When the summer and autumn tournaments were held separately, swimming, water polo, bowling and football were held in the summer season.
*In addition, from the 43rd tournament in 1988 an exhibition sports event (known as ) was also held. It is an event for people to represent the prefectures they live, work or study in, and involves various active community sports.

During the tournament, the official rankings change in accordance with the number of points earned with the final result being the sum of all four tournaments. The top placing prefecture for both men and women is awarded the Emperor's Cup. The top prefecture for just the women's score is awarded the Empress's Cup.

At first, the summer and autumn tournaments were planned to always be held in Kansai, but after the first tournament in 1946, Ishikawa prefecture were presented the opportunity to host the second tournament. The host prefecture was then rotated throughout Japan.

Entry Qualifications and Age Classifications

*Entry qualifications differ depending on event, but as a general rule participants must be older than (or in) the third year of junior high school. Third year junior high schoolers have been allowed to participate since the 43rd tournament in 1988.
*Age classification also differs depending on event but here are the general rules for swimming and track and field events. Other events follow similar guidelines.
**Youth B: Born between 2 April 16 years prior to, and 1 April 14 years prior to the start of the tournament; third year junior high school, and first year high school students.
**Youth A: Born between 2 April 18 years prior to, and 1 April 16 years prior to the start of the tournament; second and third year high school students.
**Adults: Born before (and including) 1 April 18 years prior to the start of the tournament.
*At one time there was a separate classification for teaching staff in addition to adults. In track and field, there remains an agreement which states that there much be at least one member of teaching staff, or the team's participation will be invalid.
**Even now in preparation for the tournament, prefectures will increase recruitment of teaching staff, and reduce it after the event. Hiromi Taniguchi, once aiming for a career in teaching after graduation from university, was unable to take a position due to small vacancy numbers in the immediate aftermath of the Miyazaki event. Also, following the end of the teaching staff classification, an independent national sports tournament came into existence.
*Up until the 59th tournament in 2004, adults could represent the prefecture in which they lived or worked. However, the following year marked the start of a "Hometown Athlete System" of registration (similar to the State of Origin concept in Australian sport).
**This meant that participants could represent areas where they had graduated from junior high and high school. Thereafter there was an increase in the number of well known "hometown athletes", mainly focused around individual events.
**From 2011 regulations were revised, to allow for participants who were based outside Japan to represent their home towns. Kosuke Kitajima, based at the time in Los Angeles where his coach lived, represented Tokyo in the 68th tournament in 2013.
*In 2005 action was taken to include the participation of professional athletes under the "How to do it from now project". As a result, a selection of professional athletes have appeared at tournaments since then.
**However, as a condition, in sports which are not governed by the Japan Professional Sports Association, judgment over participation is entrusted to each sports governing body.
*As for athletes not holding Japanese citizenship, students enrolled in schools under article one of the School Education Law, may be eligible to participate (the decision is made by the governing body for the respective sport). From 2006, foreigners who have permanent residency became eligible to participate.

Tournament Logo

The logo was created for the 2nd tournament in 1947. The logo is a red torch leaning at a 30-degree incline to the right, wrapped in a blue Obi.

Opening Ceremony

Ever since the second tournament in 1947 the song , written by Takao Saeki and composed by Shinichi Takada, has been played at the opening and closing ceremonies of all large-scale sporting events. Furthermore, it is played at an opening ceremony in which the Emperor and Empress are both in attendance. At the Autumn tournament there is a torch relay following which a main torch is lit and burns until the closing ceremony. Previously there was also an opening ceremony at the Winter tournament, but in line with changes to the tournament from 2010 it was changed to a smaller and simpler starting ceremony.

The torch, which is based on the Olympic flame, was first introduced at the 5th tournament in 1950, and the torch relay at the 12th tournament in 1957. From the 3rd tournament in 1948 a relay event had been held, though this was to carry the tournament's official flag, though this only remained until the 27th tournament in 1972. Afterwards, only the torch relay took place.

Scoring and awards

Points are awarded depending on the outcome of each individual event, with the sum of these points being the method of competing for the Emperor's and Empresses Cups. 10 points are given for participation in each game in the tournament (which includes block-tournaments). Points are not awarded for participation in a block-tournament if the entrant was eligible to participate in the main tournament. In the 64th tournament, the maximum number of participation points available was set at 400 points. The number of points awarded for victories differs depending on the event.

As well as the two main trophies, each event awards trophies and certificates to victorious athletes.

Criticism and Problems

Host Victory Principle

Ever since the 1964 tournament in Niigata, the host team winning the Emperor's Cup and Empress's Cup has generally become the norm. This is not simply down to that team's preliminary scores, but by a number of factors including the ability to field athletes in every competition and the ability to strengthen athletes with the funding going into newly institutions such as venues and event management. In fact, Nobu Nishimura, the lieutenant governor of Yamaguchi prefecture which hosted the 2011 tournament, said at a party "the hosts have an advantage in events with flagmen (events where the result is decided by officials)" and "even if there's "cheating" they will take first place". When he was criticised, he explained his position by saying "I meant the tendency where host prefectures have an advantage, not that it's ok to break the rules".国体「インチキしてでも１位」山口県副知事
(National Sports Festival - Yamaguchi Lieutenant Governor "1st place, even if cheating") - 12 May 2010, Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese)

In a move counter to this custom, as a result of then Kōchi prefecture governor, Daijirō Hashimoto, abolishing it at the 2002 Kochi hosted tournament, host prefecture Kōchi finished in 10th place with Tokyo winning overall. However, this is the only time such an occasion as occurred.

Large Scale Arena Constructions

Recently many host prefectures have built large-scale venues in which to host various events, with a large focus on appearance. Examples include Nagai Stadium, Miyagi Stadium, Ōita Bank Dome, Tohoku Electric Power Big Swan Stadium, Shizuoka Stadium and International Stadium Yokohama. These were generally acknowledged as being built for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but in reality their construction purpose was to be the main arena of the tournaments (however the International Stadium Yokohama was built with the intention of potentially hosting an Olympic games, and Nagai Stadium was renovated rather than built from scratch). The aforementioned arenas are also sometimes used as a base for J. League football teams based within the prefecture, but other arenas are not used very often following the tournament. In spite of no large-scale events being anticipated as taking place there following the tournament, large amounts of tax payer money continues to go toward its maintenance.

Tournament History

Predecessor

*Before the war, there was a tournament, called the Meiji Shrine Tournament, that was held from 1924 to 1943. It had no winter tournament and was held in each area of Kanto, as a general rule commencing in the outer garden of the Meiji Shrine (an area spanning what is now Shibuya and Shinjuku in Tokyo).

Formation

On 26 December 1945 at the Kishi Memorial Gymnasium, Ryōzō Hiranuma (director of the Japan Sports Association), Izutarō Suehiro (chairman of the Japan Swimming Federation

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