The Handbook of Sport and Japan presents a fascinating collection of established and new scholarship, a valuable text for readers who want to use sport as lens to look more closely into a nation. The handbook draws on a diversity of perspectives, disciplines and experiences all of which respond to the challenge of including sport in the study of Japan. The chapters in the handbook convey what taking part in sport feels and looks like, highlighting the sporting accomplishments of Japanese athletes and teams, while also reflecting how the sporting experience interacts with economics, diplomacy, media, culture, demographics, gender, ethnicity and identity. Contributions pose key questions about what conclusions can be made when sport is placed in the foreground of key events in Japanese history, including pre-war industrialisation and empire building, to the post-war economic boom, the 2011 Tohoku Disaster and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
