A Study on “Publicness” of Sport Policy : Referring to the Sport Policies in Korea and China

The purpose of this study is to clarify the features of sport policies in Korea and China from a viewpoint of "publicness," and to make a suggestion about Japanese sport policy by making a consideration on "publicness" of their sport policies. In this study three standpoints of "publicness" are used, which are the type of bottom-up or top-down, the "new public commons," and "publicness" based on sport culture. In Korea, the policy to integrate a nation through sport was enforced in and after the era of the third Republic in which the administration placed emphasis on elite sports providing the pension plan for the major athletes. In the era of the fifth Republic, the sport policy was highly estimated in order to prepare for the Asian Games in 1986 and the Olympic Games in 1988. In the era of the sixth Republic, the policy for lifelong sport was launched on the foothold of the Olympic success. We can see that the President and political leaders employed and carried out the sport policies in the top-down process. In China, the transition from a planned economy to a socialist market economy have started with reform and opening-up since 1978. As regulation on sport policy was eased, sponsorship from enterprises was permitted and sport promotion lotteries were operated. Sport activities were not limited within the public administration, but were conducted in cooperation with enterprises and universities. In spite of reform and opening-up, it didn't deny the sport system as national unity but improved the system by releasing competitive sports to a market economy and accepting support from it. The sport system enclosed in the public sectors merely started to have a connection with the private sectors that were empowered by an improved market economy, and this didn't mean generation of the "new public commons." Concerning "publicness" based on sport culture, sport promotions are made on the idea of considering sport not as culture but as effective means in both Korea and China, and this also applies to Japanese sport policy