A Study on the Promotion and Development of Sports at YMCA in Japan <Summaries of the Doctoral Theses>

This study aims to provide a demonstrative account of the promotion and development of physical work, which was run by YMCAs in Japan's major cities from the Taisho Era to the Showa Era before World War II. Results of this study revealed that the various branches of the YMCA acted as one of the representative nuclei of social sports in cities throughout Japan from the Taisho Era to the Showa Era before World War II. In other words, the YMCA ensured to members a location for regular sporting activities as physical work and ran athletic meetings to demonstrate the various types of skills that members developed during these activities. By holding demonstrations, they allowed members of the public to watch a range of sports and apparatus gymnastics, in the process introducing and advertising sports. Furthermore, they increased the number of sports fans by actively instructing school students and teachers on these sports, and increased the number of people playing sports by training coaches. This method of physical work that was conducted by the various branches of the YMCA to promote and develop sports has provided a range of suggestions in considering policies for promoting and developing sports in Japan