Distribution of School-based Extracurricular Sports Activities in Japanese Elementary Schools: A Municipal Map of Implementation Status

Abstract

School-based extracurricular sports activity (SBECSA) has widely spread in Japan as a means for youth to play sports or exercise. Especially in junior high school and high school, SBECSA is actively conducted with a high participation rate of students. There have also been reports that elementary schools in some Japanese municipalities also have SBECSA. However, there has been little information about which municipalities conducted SBECSA in elementary schools. Therefore, the present study aimed to clarify the existence of SBECSA in elementary schools in each municipality, and to create a municipal map of implementation status. A complete enumeration questionnaire survey was conducted with all 1741 municipalities’ educational boards. Question items were in regard to the existence of elementary schools’ SBECSA in their municipalities. Answerers were requested to choose one response from the items; “almost all elementary schools have SBECSA”, “some elementary schools have SBECSA”, “there were SBECSA (about 10 years ago), but now there is no SBECSA”, “there weren’ t any SBECSA before 10 years ago”, “we don’ t know”, and “we don’ t answer” . To increase the response rate, a second survey was conducted with Sports Associations or similar sports related organizations in each municipality. Additionally, a third survey was conducted with educational boards again at the same time as the feedback of results was given. As results, 88.0% of all municipalities’ implementation status was identified (response rate = 92.5%). And 23.0% of all municipalities were shown to have SBECSA in elementary schools, although 64.9% did not have it. More than half of the municipalities in Aomori prefecture, Chiba prefecture, Aichi prefecture, and Kumamoto prefecture have SBECSA in elementary school. Based on the results of the present study, it is suggested that further development of the youth sport environment should be discussed. In addition, means to decrease the burdens on teachers who coach and manage SBECSA must be considered.