Letters Home: Sports Day in Japan

In recent columns, I have written frequently about national holidays in Japan because there are so many in the summer and fall seasons. Today’s topic is about “Sports Day” (Supoutsu no hi or taiku no hi, in Japanese).

Sports Day is also a national or public holiday that is celebrated on a Monday to allow for a three-day weekend, which workers and students appreciate. It is always held on the second Monday of October (this year it is Oct. 14) and was originally designated a holiday to commemorate the opening of the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, but today it largely exists to promote a healthy and active lifestyle through physical activities that most often involve some sort of athletic sport or physical exercise.

Because Japan has such a hot and humid summer, the 1964 Olympics were held later than normal, in October, to avoid the rainy season that comes like clockwork every year during the month of July and sometimes extends into August. However, for the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to the COVID 19 pandemic), the opening of the Olympics was on July 24 which could have been disrupted by the rainy season, but for some reason, the Olympics were held as they normally are rather than trying to hold them in October to avoid the extremely hot and humid weather in Tokyo.

Since Sports Day promotes physical education and athletic activities, it is quite common for schools and even businesses to use this day for some sort of sports-related event. School sporting events are called undou-kai in Japanese and these often include track and field competitions, and even more unusual events like a tug of war.

These events are set up like mini festivals on the school’s grounds and parents come to observe … and even participate!

They normally begin with a small parade of the participants marching out into the playing field, promenading around the track and field, before lining up in their respective classes in the center of the field.

After it officially begins, the participants will often spread out across the field to do stretching. Many people overseas are familiar with the Japanese tradition of “Radio Exercises” that are still done in some sectors of society, like construction workers, before they begin their day’s work.

When I worked in an education office back in the late 80s and early 90s, I was assigned to several schools where I regularly rotated in and out of during school visits. I often had an opportunity to attend the school’s “undou kai” or Sports Day. They always had a lot of pomp and circumstance associated with them each year and the students and teachers took it all very seriously. 

As mentioned earlier, normally the various classes of students would march out onto the sport’s field in unison that resembled a parade of sorts. Then after all the classes made one complete rotation of the field, they all lined up in the center. I seem to remember students walking with the national and school flags and the school band played the national anthem, Kimigayo, before the principal, education officials, or community leaders made short welcome speeches.

If memory serves, everyone in attendance, including the parents who came to watch, then participated in the stretching exercises to the radio exercise music. Several students led the congregated people in doing these stretches.

I read that in 2020, the government officially changed the holiday name to Sports Day from Physical Education Day as a way to offer a broader appeal to the population because everyone can relate more readily to “sports” which indicates some level of enjoyment rather than “physical education” which implies a more stringent and rigorous type of exercise.

When I worked in an education office when I first moved to Japan, I do remember my office setting up some sort of sports-related activity to commemorate this holiday. One year we all suited up and played softball at a community field. Everyone participated and played which made it fun and enjoyable because it was done in good spirits and not in a really competitive way. It is a good way to get colleagues out of the office and doing something unrelated to their jobs with those with whom they work with on a daily basis.

Of course, in true Japanese fashion, afterwards we all went to a restaurant for eating and drinking. This no doubt negated any health benefits we received from the physical exercise we just did.

Many communities now hold these athletic events at local parks to commemorate Sports Day and they will include health booths set up where people can get some type of computer-assisted checks on their physical strength and overall health condition. Japan is very good about focusing on “preventative” health with various opportunities to have one’s health checked by professionals. There are often counselors and health advisors present to answer questions by the public about nutrition, healthy behavior, etc. 

As an example of this pro-health attitude, every year, many work places will bring in portable clinics so their employees can get a yearly physical which includes just about everything from blood work to chest x-rays. My university does this for all of the students and faculty annually.

RV-like trucks come in and we all go through the various stations to get checked out. We are then sent the results and if there are any issues or points of concern, we are encouraged to visit our own general practitioner to be tested further. The idea is to catch a problem early on which in the long run is much cheaper to treat rather than waiting until a condition requires more extensive and costlier treatments.

The photos included with today’s column are from my colleague, Robert S. Murphy, who has a son who is currently in kindergarten and the family recently participated in the school’s sports festival or undou kai.