## Part 4 Building Minds and Bodies from Childhood Through Sports

Sports meet the instinctive need of people to exercise their bodies, generate exhilaration, a sense of achievement, and the mental fulfillment and pleasure of a sense of connectedness with others, and cultivate self-responsibility, self-control, and a spirit of fair play. Sports also contribute to sound mental and physical development, improving physical fitness, relieving mental stress, and preventing lifestyle diseases. With opportunities for exercise expected to fall even further as Japanese society rapidly ages and daily life grows ever more convenient, living a full “sporting life” featuring lifelong participation in sports is of considerable significance.

Sports are also a meaningful mechanism for pursuing the limits of human potential, and the single-mindedness of competitors who devote themselves to competitive sports also contributes to the formation of a vigorous and sound society, raising public interest in sports and inspiring the public with dreams. The following section will explain issues that should be addressed to promote the use of sports to build minds and bodies from childhood.

## 1 Basic Plan for the Promotion of Sports and Subsidies for Sports Organizations (in connection with Chapter 2, Part 1)

In 2000 MEXT approved the Basic Plan for the Promotion of Sports (FY2001-FY2010) as the basic guideline for promoting sports in Japan. Other approaches to support efforts by sports organizations have been pursued, including subsidies from the Sports Promotion Fund established under the National Agency for the Advancement of Sports and Health as well as the Sports Promotion Lottery (“toto”) that started in FY1998 to secure a new source of funding.

All of these programs have been in operation for several years, and sports promotion efforts must be further expanded in light of the progress and success they have achieved thus far.

## 2 Achieving a Lifelong Sports Society (connected to Chapter 2, Part 2)

To realize a society whose members can participate in sports at any time, at any place and up to any age in accordance with their physical fitness, age/skills, interests, and goals (i.e., a lifelong sports society), a broad and comprehensive range of measures must be developed, including supporting comprehensive community sports clubs, building sports facilities, and training/securing sports instructors. Sports promotion efforts must be further enhanced based on the progress and success of the approaches taken thus far.

## 3 Improving International Athletic Competitiveness (in connection with Chapter 2, Part 3)

The record of Japan’s top athletes (top-level competitors) in recent years has been remarkable, as typified by the impressive performance of Japan’s athletes in the August 2004 Athens Olympics. Naturally these accomplishments are the fruits of the efforts of the competitors, their coaches and other people involved, but the measures taken under the Basic Plan for the Promotion of Sports to improve international athletic competitiveness can also be said to have played a part. Sports promotion efforts must be further enhanced based on the progress and success of the approaches taken thus far to improve international athletic competitiveness.

MEXT is implementing measures to address the aforementioned issues from the perspective of promoting education and sports; Chapter 2 will offer a more detailed introduction to the status and success of these approaches.