Japan's National Characters And Their Effects Towards The Development Of Japan's Professional Sports

Japan's professional sports have been developed for nearly 8 decades since Japan's professional baseball league was set up in 1930s. Although Japan's professional sports'appearance was about 60-70years later than that in Britain or in America, through exploring, practice and learning from other foreign countries, Japan's professional sports have already formed a certain scale and its own characteristics which brought about the learning boom in Asian countries.Japan's professional sports were inevitably affected by their social development, political policy, economic conditions and other external factors. Meanwhile the national character has played a subtle role in the development process of Japan's professional sports.The strong curiosity, being good at re-creating things, the pragmatism, the collectivism, the loyalty, the sense of hierarchy and valuing the reputation are obvious characteristics in Japan's national characters. This paper will summarize the history of Japanese professional sports and analyze how the national characters affected them. This paper attempts to offer a theoretical reference on studying the Japanese professional sports in China and provide some enlightenment to China's professional sports. The main conclusions are as follows:First, the national characters are formed in the process of the social change, which are not constant. Different ages have shown different national characters in Japan. However, these characters all have Japanesque stamps .Second, Japanese national characters, which are formed in the long history, are affected by the social development, political policy, economic conditions, geographical or cultural factors etc. At the same time, the national characters have a host of impacts on Japanese ideology and the code of conduct.Third, the strong curiosity, being good at re-creating things, the pragmatism, the collectivism, the loyalty, the sense of hierarchy and valuing the reputation are obvious characteristics in Japanese national characters. These national characters have played a subtle role in the development process of Japan's professional sports.Four, the national characters of strong curiosity and being good at re-creating things prompted foreign sports to blend in Japanese society quickly. Keeping International communication and cooperation has improved the technical level of Japan's professional sports effectively. The pragmatism and valuing the reputation gave birth to the new item of the Kickboxing and the Keilin.Five, the pragmatism made some Japanese professional sports'program and rules been changing constantly to meet needs of the market and social needs. This not only promoted the cooperation between the Japanese Professional Sports Association and the mass media, but also impel the state-owned professional sports bring forth the fresh in the way of voting.Six, Japanese have an intense sense of collectivism. This character made the organizational structure in Japan's professional sports clubs present a kind of heavily hierarchy system which is similar to the Japanese society. In Japan's professional sports clubs personal interests are far less than collective interests. The character of strong curiosity and innovation spirit formed the Diversified mode of operation in Japan's professional sports clubs.Seven, the strong sense of collectivism and being loyalty to the clubs sustained the unity and harmony in Japan's professional sports clubs, which also led to the development of Collective sports in Japan. The character of valuing reputation formed the trait of thinking highly of the process.