Research themes

The majority of the reviewed articles addressed social and cultural themes (71.2 percent: n — 37), suggesting that sport tourism research in Japan tends to be examined from a sociological perspective. Murata (2012) argued that Japanese sport tourism research has primarily been focused on the political and industry functions, such as the impacts of sport tourism on local communities. Sport tourism research in Japan has also been characterized by social-psychological perspectives, such as studies that have examined the intention of sport tourists to return to the destination in the future (Sato et al., 2009), motivations and constraints (Nishio et al., 2013) and destination image (Yumita & Harada, 2015). These social-psychological experiences are likely to influence sport tourists’ spending behaviours; therefore, these publications have valuable practical implications for the sport tourism industry. Although these articles were categorized into a social/cultural aspect, they are closely related to the economic realm.

Seven articles (13.5 percent) investigated economic aspects of sport tourism with an emphasis on economic impact (e.g., Kang, 2004; Kato & Yeh, 2010; Kudo, 1998; Nishio, 2011). This research theme, embracing issues such as employment creation, aligns with the Basic Policy to Promote Sports Tourism proposed by the Japan Tourism Agency in 2011. Although the series of sport tourism research projects conducted by Nogawa (N ogawa, 1992; Nogawa & Yamaguchi, 1994; Nogawa et al., 1995) was not included in this category, they did examine the spending behaviours among Japanese sport tourists as a subtheme within their studies. For example, Nogawa (1992) found that Japanese outbound sport tourists at the Honolulu Marathon spent less money while visiting Hawaii compared to general tourists owing

A systematic review of sport tourism 93 to the former’s lack of discretionary time to shop and due to their age cohort (20s and 30s) with its associated discretionary income constraints. While not included as part of the sample of academic articles in this review, the Saitama Sport Commission (n.d.) reported eight billion yen as the economic impact of hosting sport events in their sport commission business from April 2015 to March 2016. This ‘grey’ literature merits further investigation and suggests that some municipalities and sport commissions may have valuable data that could be productively utilized for secondary data analyses.

Only five (9.6 percent) of articles in the review addressed environmental research topics, although this research theme is particularly important in the context of sustainable sport tourism development (Higham & Hinch, 2018; Murata, 2010). One of the challenges of sport tourism in the environmental domain is the speed at which new sports are developed and diffused, often leading to mass participation with all of its associated impacts (Higham & Hinch, 2018). For example, the number of golfers and golf courses in Japan increased rapidly from the 1980s into the 1990s, with substantial implications in terms of land use and the environmental impacts of the traditional maintenance practices in these dedicated green spaces. More recently, trail running seems to be following the same trend, with the number of trail running events increasing by 20 percent from 2014 to 2015, reaching a total of 276 events (Yamakei Research Institute, 2016). It was calculated that the participant population was 200,000 trail runners in 2014 but that the population with the ‘intention’ to participate was estimated at 700,000, indicating a major growth potential for this sport (Japan Management Association Research Institute, 2014).

Both sports involve the use of natural resources. The likely negative impact on the environment brought about by golf and trail running courses has been noted at a basic level but more insight is needed. The management of the impacts of sport tourism in natural areas is a complex task because: (a) measuring the impact of tourism is fraught with difficulty; (b) baselines rarely exist from which to assess change in the natural environment; and (c) the impact of tourism can seldom be disaggregated from the direct or indirect impact of other human activities (Higham & Hinch, 2018). Given that the Japan Sports Agency promotes outdoor sport tourism as a way of taking advantage of Japan’s abundant natural resources, further development of advanced insights into the relationship between sport tourism activities and environment should be one of the priorities for research. Similarly, the impact of seasonality should be examined because sport tourism, particularly outdoor sport tourism, is strongly characterized by seasonal variations (Hudson & Hudson, 2015). While these seasonal variations may be challenging from a business perspective, they may be beneficial in terms of the sustainability of the natural resources. Furthermore, it is not just wilderness and rural settings that need to be studied in terms of the environmental aspects of sport tourism; urban settings also have important environmental implications that should be considered (Higham & Hinch, 2018). In particular, the three major sportevents in Japan may give rise to negative impacts on local communities (e.g., increases in rates and rents, community displacements), security concerns and vandalism. Sport tourism research related to the urban environment is likely to be a significant line of inquiry in Japan for the next 3 years given the schedule of international events.

Lastly, most of the studies in this systematic review were descriptive. Gibson (1998: 57) made a similar observation of the broader field of sport tourism 20 years ago, stating that ‘there is a need to expand the use of theory to all realms of sport tourism so that the dynamics underlying sport tourism might be better understood and explained’. Theory provides a systematic explanation of observed events and ‘it extends the generalizability of the findings; improves the rigor and confidence in the research; provides a structure for integrating and building upon previous findings; and moves beyond the endless, repetitive cycle of purely descriptive research’ (Vaske, 2008: 17). By taking advantage of the characteristics of interdisciplinary fields, sport tourism phenomena in Japan should be systematically analysed based on relevant theories found in other fields.