The politics of sport and leisure in japan: Global power and local resistance

This paper was partly stimulated by a dissatisfaction with the recent debates about sport and globalization. It is also meant as a contribution to comparative and political sociology, in which Japan has never fitted particularly well. Rather than seeing the growth of modern sport and leisure in Japan as the product of an unfolding process of diffusion and emulation, attention will be focused on the forms of resistance that have accompanied its development. This approach is outlined in a sketch of movements and campaigns organized over the location of sports and leisure resorts, especially golf courses, in Japan and the Asian-Pacific region.