The 40th Workshop

26 January 2021
Theme: The General Public's Awareness and Interest in the Paralympics in Japan and in Some Selected Countries after the Tokyo 2020 Games
Lecturer: NAKAMURA Masahiro and Hanae Endo, Research Fellows, The Nippon Foundation Parasports Support Center
KOBORI Makoto, Associate Professor, School of Global Studies and Collaboration, Aoyama Gakuin University

In 2014 and 2017, the Paralympic Research Group conducted a series of surveys on the "General Public's Awareness and Interest in the Paralympics in Japan and in Some Selected Countries." A third survey was conducted in October 2021, after the Tokyo Paralympic Games, focusing on seven countries (Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, and Brazil), together with the Makoto Kobori School of Global Studies and Collaboration at Aoyama Gakuin University. At this workshop, we report on some of the findings on Japan from the latest survey.

We will first present an overview. Most respondents were exposed to sports on a regular basis in some way, such as reading articles about sports and watching sports. The percentage of respondents who knew what the Paralympics were was 77.1% in 2014, 75.2% in 2017, and 82.8%, the highest percentage, in the latest survey. However, it also became evident that 84.2% of the respondents had never had any experience related to the Paralympics (for example, directly or indirectly watching Paralympic Games, or participating in parasports events) before the Tokyo Games.
Nearly half of the respondents were influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic when evaluating the Tokyo Games. Before the Games, 32.6% were opposed to holding the Games and 24.9% were in favor, but after the Games, 56.7% said, "For people with disabilities, it was good that the Games were held."
As for watching the events during the Paralympic Games, 67.8% "watched news about the Paralympics on television" and 48.2% "watched events on television." The top three most watched events were wheelchair basketball (23.5%), wheelchair tennis (23.1%), and swimming (22.1%). However, the most memorable for those who said they watched the Games was the Opening Ceremony (33.4%). The survey also found that 45.5% of the respondents did not watch any event (including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies). As for future Paralympic Games, around 20% said they wanted to watch the Games indirectly through for example television and the internet.
Next, we will report on the results of cross-tabulation between the survey questions and the three basic attributes of gender, age, and disability. In terms of trends by gender, sports consumption behavior was more prevalent among men, while women were more knowledgeable about the Paralympics, watched the Tokyo Games more, and evaluated the Tokyo Games more positively than men. In terms of trends by age group, those in their 50s and 60s had more knowledge about the Paralympics, watched the Tokyo Games more, and evaluated the Tokyo Games more positively than other age groups; while those in their 20s had a higher percentage of respondents who wished to participate in parasports events and in parasports-related volunteer activities and to learn about disabilities in the future. In terms of disability status, those with disabilities and those who have family members or friends with disabilities tended to be more knowledgeable about the Paralympics and have stronger future behavioral intentions in relation to the Paralympics. However, there tended to be a slight difference between those with disabilities and those whose family members or friends have disabilities in how they evaluated the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Specifically, on the question of whether "Hosting the Tokyo Paralympic Games was good for people with disabilities," people with disabilities overall gave a lower evaluation.

Cross-tabulation analysis of the questions revealed four trends: (1) those who were influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic when assessing the Tokyo Games had a negative view about holding the Games; (2) those who are actively involved in sports on a daily basis watched the events and actively collected information about the events during the Tokyo Paralympic Games; (3) those who are actively involved in sports on a daily basis and/or those who actually watched the Tokyo Paralympic Games viewed the Tokyo Paralympic Games positively; and (4) those who had a high opinion of the Tokyo Games had strong future behavioral intentions with respect to the Paralympics and parasports.
These results suggest the possibility of a virtuous cycle, where those who are actively involved in sports and parasports on a daily basis and/or those who actually watched the Paralympic Games will have a positive evaluation of the Games and of the social impact of the Games. On the other hand, those with little exposure to sports in their daily lives or with little interest in sports generally will not watch the Paralympic Games and, therefore, tend not to have an affirmative view of the Paralympic Games. In order to involve people with little experience or interest in the Paralympics and parasports, one idea for the future may be to go beyond the confines of sports and parasports and to spread information about the Paralympics and parasports in tandem with various other concepts, such as the currently widely discussed topics of SDGs and education for sustainable development.

In examining the legacy of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, we attempted an analysis from the perspective of people's views on whether the Tokyo Paralympic Games should have been held and their attitudes towards an inclusive society. Those who were opposed to holding the Games yet had a high opinion of the Games tended to be very open to an inclusive society, showing a strong correlation between a positive view of the Paralympic Games and acceptance of and openness to an inclusive society. Those who maintained a neutral attitude about holding the Games tended to be less accepting of an inclusive society. Although a more elaborate analysis is needed to identify these causal relationships, we were at least able to confirm a positive correlation between a positive view of the Paralympic Games and acceptance and openness to an inclusive society not only for people with disabilities, but also for other people such as sexual minorities and people of different races.

A co-occurrence network analysis of answers to the open-ended questions suggested the following: the spread of COVID-19 created a reaction to holding the Games; Japanese athletes aroused emotions and empathy in people who saw the athletes in action; and those who watched the Games for the first time expressed surprise. In terms of gender, the results suggested that men tended to have an impression of the Paralympic Games as "competitive sports," while women tended to have an impression of the Paralympic Games linked to welfare as "sports where people with disabilities work hard."

Some participants of the workshop suggested that it will be important to conduct these surveys continuously in order to verify the legacy of the Tokyo Games.