what is japan’s national sport

I want to know what japan's national sport is.

Sumo Wrestling

Arguably, baseball, soccer or sumo. Sumo is the traditional sport but baseball and soccer have far more fans.

A national sport does not necessarily need to be the most popular sports in the country. For example in the United States baseball is known as the national sport or past time, even though American football is more popular then baseball, even basketball is highly popular, however baseball remains the national pasttime.

In Japan, Sumo wrestling, Judo, Kendo and karate are traditionally viewed as Japan's national sports.

Of course thepopular sports in Japan are baseball, football (soccer) etc.

Readers E/J dictionary says;
national: kokka no (of the nation), kokumintekina (enjoyed by most nationals), zenkokutekina (nation-wide) etc.

If you meant the former, the "kokugi (sport of the nation)" is sumo, and usually nothing else at all.

If you meant the latter, I'd say the sports enjoyed nation-wide by many nationals young and old in Japan are baseball and soccer.

well you could define it as the sport actually played by the most people, and in which case I seem to remember reading somewhere that is rugby !

Really? I wouldn't imagine that to be the case. Since rugby is a strenous contact sport played only by young men (in Japan at least), that cuts out a lot of the population, and it also isn't offered at all schools.

People of all ages and both sexes play tennis, and so many school boys play baseball, that it is really hard to imagine rugby being more popular as far as numbers of players go.

The Japanese rugby team isn't that successful at international level, so Japanese boys aren't really inspired to take it up like they are with soccer or baseball, where Japan does well.

Rugby is apparently a popular sport in Japan with the 4th most registered players in the world, but baseball is probably the most played sport in Japan, followed by football/soccer which has a growing following.

However, depending on your definition of sport perhaps Pachinko may be the most popular sport in Japan.

I always thought it was Janken / Yakyuken :)

I don't think rugby is as popular in Japan today as it was back in the 80s or earlier. In the 80s definitely all the pretty "JJ" type girls in fur coats used to fill the seats.

Depending on your definition of "popular" it could be ping-pong though. Everyone plays it wearing yukata on their way back from the onsen bath :)

it is sumo wrestling but baseball and soccer are more popular

It's like asking what is America's national sport...baseball? football? basketball? You will get a variety of interesting answers.

A lot of people play badminton, but I would not call it their national sport.

It's like asking what is America's national sport...baseball? football? basketball? You will get a variety of interesting answers.

Technically and historically speaking, in the US, the "national sport" or "past time" is Baseball.

Doesn't have anything to do with popularity. Football (American football) is the most popular, but Baseball is generally regarded as the "defacto" national sport of the US.

In Japan, baseball is the most popular, but Sumo wresting and karate and considered defacto national sports of Japan.

Hi John,

Do you have anything to support your "defacto"? I would say football is Americas national sport.

it's all explained here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_sport

Thanks for the reference.

Here's an interesting perspective.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/lib-old/ssportsite/natorg.html

I'm doing a report like deal on Japanese national sports is Sumo Wrestling the only thing, or would baseball count since based on my studies it seems to be popular?

Baseball is certainly very popular, Different people would give you different answers on whether on or both are Japan's national sports, so you can probably make your own conclusion and then write about it in your report!