The inclusion of judo as an olympic sport: A symbolic space built to assert national japanese identity

Abstract

This work analyzes the meaning of the inclusion of judo as an Olympic sport for political and identity purposes. This study examines the instrumentalization of the Olympic inclusion of judo by Japan - both in the failed Tokyo 1940 Games and the celebration of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, for the emphatic configuration of a symbolic space of national assertion to present the Japanese nation with some characteristics which spread the essence of its national identity. And how this instrumentalization ended up creating the paradox of a process of global sports transformation of judo which finished escaping its original nature.