Harassment Consultation Center NewsVol. 24, June 2018

In the 24th Edition, we'd like to discuss about sports harassment.

Sports Harassment is:
・The bullying or harassment that occurs in club activities, sports teams, etc.
・It often occurs in hierarchical relationships such as mentors and athletes, teachers andstudents, or seniors and juniors.

An athletes’ feelings toward a mentor


Respect for their mentor’s knowledge and skills

Yearning to become like their mentor

Wishing to receive guidance from the mentor, take part in games, and receive specialtreatment
These kinds of thoughts are only due to relationship between "mentor" and"athlete". It is not necessarily because the athletes are fond of their mentor.

The structure of sports harassment
Sports harassment usually takes place under circumstances in which athletes are unable tosay "No".
For any athlete, having the guidance of a mentor is necessary to improve one's skills andachieve success in the field of sports. Many have a very difficult time refusing a mentor’s
instructions, fearing, "I will lose the chance if my mentor does not like me." Some mentors will take advantage of such situations and use it to justify violence.
 Even though athletes might wish to fight against the violence, feelings of wanting
to receive guidance and wanting to flourish in the field of sports are often stronger.
 This kind of situation causes violence against athletes to remain hidden and toescalate.

Preventing sports harassment
How can we prevent harassment and improve instruction method?
There is no universal solution and we can't say that "if we do this, then we can solve theproblem".

As an organization, however, we can create guidelines to show that there is no leniency
towards harassment, and that we take the issue very seriously.

However, it is not enough to just do the above; it is difficult to eradicate harassment
without addressing its root cause.

※ We should start thinking about basic questions: "What is sports?" and "What issportspersonship".

What is sports?
The word "sports" is derived from the Latin word "deporatate", which means the leisure timespent away from day-to-day labor.
Considering that the meaning of sports is “apart from everyday labor”, we should enjoy
playing sports by our own decision, and not as something we should be forced to do.
Basically, "sports" consists of a balance of "play" and "seriousness". Anyone should befamiliar with and can easily take part in it. The most important thing is not the result,
but rather the process itself of doing one’s best to achieve victory and success.

What is sportspersonship?
As with the use of the word "businessperson" instead of "businessman", we have adopted
the gender-neutral word sportpersonship, which has the same meaning as sportsmanship.
While it is important to acquire technical skills and train body, the true value of taking
part in sports is learning sportspersonship.

The core of sportspersonship is "Respect".
One option is to establish rules if problems such as sports harassment occur. However, it
is more important to explain to persons concerned the significance and value of sports andhave them understand sportspersonship, instead of simply enacting a policy or rule.
Sports is an activity where we play fair and behave admirably without bullying others. We
think that endeavoring to respect people who are different from you, such as occupying
different positions, having different values, etc., has the effect of preventing harassment.
Reference: TADAHIRO OGINO Official Website（http://tadahiroogino.com/）

Coming Soon!

＊We will hold a seminar＊
Let us take this opportunity to exchange ideas regarding sports and harassment.
You’ll be able to apply the contents of this seminar to various situations outside of sports aswell.

Title : "Thinking of harassment from sportspersonship"
Date: Aug. 5 (Sun.）1 pm ～ 5 pm ＠Nagoya U. Toyoda Auditorium Conference Room 1
Presenter: Tadahiro Ogino (Former pro baseball player (Chiba Lotte Marines))
For Whom?: People who have an interest in sports and the issue of harassment.
Apply to: Nagoya University Harassment Consultation Center(Limited to 50 people on a first-come-first-serve basis.)

Nagoya University Harassment Consultation Center
Furo-Cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya, 464-8601 School of Engineering, Building 7, B Wing, 2nd Floor
Office Opening Hours: Monday-Friday（excluding Public Holidays）9 am - 5 pm
TEL: 052-789-5806 (Higashiyama) FAX: 052-789-5968 (Higashiyama)
E-mail: h-help@adm.nagoya-u.ac.jp（common email shared by Higashiyama/Tsurumai/DaikoCampuses）
http://www.sh-help.provost.nagoya-u.ac.jp