Cover -- Table of Contents -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Sport and Japan -- Verity Postlethwaite, Emily Barrass Chapman, Helen Macnaughtan -- Part 1: Historical Developments of Various Key and Emerging Sports in Japan -- 1. Baseball: Japan's National Pastime -- William W. Kelly -- 2. A Survey of Rugby in Japan: From Early Play in 1864 to Hosting the World Cup in 2019 -- Mike Galbraith and Helen Macnaughtan -- 3. Crafting Selves, Reproducing Capital: A Century or so of Japanese Golf -- Angus Lockyer -- 4. "Boys, be ambitious": A Brief History and Cultural Analysis of Japanese Basketball -- Aaron L. Miller -- 5. The Development and Popularity of Volleyball in Japan: The Impact of the "Witches of the Orient" -- Iwona Merklejn and Helen Macnaughtan -- 6. The Gender-related Discursive Function of Japanese Football since Its Professionalization -- Yunuen Ysela Mandujano-Salazar -- 7. In the Ring and Beyond the Apron: Women's Pro Wrestling as Physical Performance -- Keiko Aiba -- 8. Surfing in Japan: From itago Riding to Surfing -- Eri Mizuno -- 9. The Beauty of Winter Sports: The Popularity of Figure Skating in Japan -- Masafumi Monden -- Part 2: Relationships between Elements of the State, Society and Sporting Experiences in Japan -- 10. From Three-Legged to Two-Legged Races: The Rise of Competitive Women's Sport in Japan (1910s-1920s) -- Robin Kietlinski -- 11. Queer and Transgender Sport in Japan: Seitekish?s?sha (Gender and Sexual Minority) Athletes and Their Sporting Experiences -- Michelle Ho -- 12. Tokyo's (Non)-Olympics: 1940, 1964, 2020(1) -- Christian Tagsold -- 13. The Paralympic Movement, Disability, and Sports in Japan -- Dennis J. Frost -- 14. The Influence of Kan? Jigor?: From Higher Education to the Japanese Olympic Movement -- Helen Symons and Taro Obayashi.