Japan Up Close Essay Series

Sport is often overlooked as culture, overshadowed by fine art, classical music, literature and theatre. National museums in Japan rarely feature sporting artefacts, while readily showcasing ceramics, sculpture, textiles and instruments. It falls to sports museums, then, to tell Japan’s sporting history.

But these institutions do more than recount history. Their sheer range, covering specific sports, events, teams, and regional achievements, reflects how significant sport is to Japanese society. They span multi-storey dedicated buildings to corners of government offices, stadia, sports centres, even offices above Chinese supermarkets.

My research, taking me from Hokkaido to Okinawa interviewing directors and curators, finds that despite differences in scale and ownership, these museums share much in common. They give fans contact with artefacts that evoke nostalgia and closeness to favourite sportspeople, while balancing entertainment with education. Museums strive for neutral narratives, yet  remain aware that sport carries deep meaning: supporting a team or country is an expression of identity, and a source of local, regional or national pride.

That pride often extends to those running the museums, as with the Yokohama Baseball Museum, a passion project of Seiji Suzuki, who runs it alongside his day job as a rickshaw driver for tourists.

Sport has grown increasingly important to Japan. In 2011, the government launched a national strategy to become a “Sports Nation,” backed by the Basic Act of Sport. This has been paired with an aim to become a “Tourism Nation,” through hosting events like the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, and the 2025 World Athletics Championships. Sports museums bridge these two ambitions, sustaining event legacies and drawing tourists long after the crowds disperse.

This variety reflects Japan’s broader museum culture. The country has 5,771 museums, though only 1,305 are legally recognized under the Museums Act of 1951 (revised 2022); the rest are “museum-like”. Japan ranks third globally for museum numbers, after the United States and Germany, reflecting a deep national investment in cultural heritage, tangible and intangible.

Of course, sports museums are not unique to Japan and can be found across the world, even if the number of institutions in Japan is exceptionally high. Sports are a hugely important aspect of cultures and societies across the world. Sports bring communities together, both as players and spectators; they bring a country together through supporting national teams; sport also brings people from different countries together through the hosting of international sports events. Sports deserve to be recognised like any other part of culture. Sports museums legitimise sport’s importance in society. They act as important places for people to connect with favourite sportspeople or teams, experience nostalgia, and feel pride. As mentioned above, they preserve the memory and legacy of sports events, presenting a public record for consumption. They also contribute economically, motivating tourists to visit places and spending in local businesses.

Next time you are travelling, consider visiting a sports museum.