SPORT AND DEV



 

Japan's major sport events, from Tokyo 2020 to Kansai 2027, have translated international legacy frameworks into domestic policy and community practice, highlighting progress and gaps between global standards and local realities, and aiming to stimulate regional economic activity and social change.

Legacy has become a global norm in the planning and evaluation of major sport events (MSEs), yet its real impact depends on how effectively it is embedded in local contexts.

Drawing on Japan’s experience from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games through the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics and looking ahead to the World Masters Games 2027 Kansai, this article explores how international legacy frameworks have been translated into domestic policy, community practice, and sport-for-development initiatives.

It highlights both progress made and persistent gaps between global standards and local realities.


Legacy as an International Norm

Since the early 2000s, the importance of “legacy” has been increasingly emphasised in the hosting of MSEs, particularly the Olympic and Paralympic Games, under the leadership of the IOC.

The focus has gradually shifted from the successful delivery of competitions to the longer-term social, economic, and environmental impacts of events.

A major milestone was the establishment of ISO 20121 (Event Sustainability Management Systems) in 2012, which provided an international standard for sustainability management in event operations.

First applied comprehensively at the London 2012 Games, this framework has since informed the planning and delivery of subsequent editions, including Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024, and Milano–Cortina 2026.

In parallel, the OECD published guidelines in 2023 on effective infrastructure development and the assessment of social, environmental, and economic impacts of MSEs. Together, these initiatives have formed a shared international reference framework for hosting MSEs.

As a result, legacy and sustainability are increasingly recognised as international social norms in sport governance.

Host countries are now expected not only to deliver successful events, but also to demonstrate how international standards are adapted to their own social, economic, and cultural contexts.

Against this backdrop, this article explores how Japan has translated the concept of legacy into society through successive events.


Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games

The Tokyo 2020 Games marked a critical turning point in embedding the concept of legacy within Japanese society. Today, the term is widely recognised as a shared language for explaining the social value and broader significance of sport events in Japan.

Despite unprecedented constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a wide range of legacy-oriented initiatives were implemented nationwide.

According to the report by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Games addressed social, environmental, and economic dimensions broadly aligned with OECD frameworks. Among these, the most distinctive outcome was the visualisation and accumulation of practical knowledge related to an inclusive society.

One prominent initiative was the Host Town initiative, through which local governments across Japan welcomed national teams for pre-Games training camps and grassroots exchanges with residents.

In addition, Olympic and Paralympic Education (OPE) was expanded nationwide, while large-scale volunteer participation promoted civic engagement.

Tokyo 2020 also contributed to raising domestic awareness of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) as a field of international cooperation.

Sport for Tomorrow (SFT), positioned as Japan’s international contribution initiative during the bidding process, engaged a wide range of stakeholders and played an important role in popularising sport-based international cooperation.

At the same time, SFT attracted criticism due to its strong emphasis on achieving a numerical target of 10 million beneficiaries and the limited transparency surrounding its measurement methodology.

While Japan formally fulfilled its international commitment, the initiative’s long-term impact and legacy value remain contested.


Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics

 

Building on the experiences of Tokyo 2020, Japan adopted its Third Sport Basic Plan in 2022, explicitly positioning the inheritance and development of Olympic and Paralympic legacies as a national policy priority.

Within this framework, the creation of social legacies through MSEs was identified as a key challenge.

The Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics emerged as a practical arena for deepening the shared understanding of social legacy developed after Tokyo 2020. The Games placed strong emphasis on accessibility, social awareness, and environmental improvements for people with hearing impairments, with diversity and inclusion positioned as central themes.

Several municipalities that had previously participated as Host Towns during Tokyo 2020 continued to welcome the same national delegations for the Deaflympics.

These efforts reinforced trust-based relationships between local governments and international partners, highlighting the importance of continuity in legacy creation.

In addition, many municipalities promoted disability awareness education in collaboration with schools. These initiatives demonstrate how MSEs can be embedded within local education systems, contributing to longer-term social change beyond the event itself.


World Masters Games 2027 Kansai

In 2027, the World Masters Games (WMG)—an international multi-sport event grounded in the philosophy of lifelong sport—will be held in Japan’s Kansai region.

A defining feature of the Kansai edition is its decentralised hosting model, with competitions spread across multiple cities including Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe.

This design reflects a deliberate attempt to address Japan’s long-standing challenge of excessive concentration in the Tokyo metropolitan area, aiming to stimulate regional economic activity and human mobility.

Japan has experienced more than three decades of economic stagnation since the early 1990s, during which sport-led economic revitalisation has often been highlighted as a policy option. However, Tokyo 2020—held largely without spectators—was unable to generate substantial tourism demand or consumption-driven economic legacies.

Learning from this experience, WMG 2027 Kansai aims to attract international participants and visitors across the region, leveraging sport tourism as a driver of economic impact. Some estimates suggest economic ripple effects of approximately ¥140 billion (around USD 1 billion).

Furthermore, following the Osaka–Kansai Expo in 2025, which welcomed around 21 million visitors, WMG 2027 is expected to serve as a bridge event, sustaining international interest and mobility in the region.


MSE Legacies and International Cooperation

Even before the term “legacy” became widely used, Japan has conveyed messages of domestic development and responses to social challenges to the international community through the Olympic and Paralympic Games—namely Tokyo 1964, Sapporo 1972, Nagano 1998, and Tokyo 2020.

These events have played an important role in communicating Japan’s identity as a peace-oriented nation and a responsible member of the international community in the postwar era.

Since the Tokyo 2020 Games, the importance of legacy has been clearly positioned within national sports plans, and subsequent MSEs have been designed to contribute directly to pressing social issues such as inclusivity and regional revitalization.

In Japan’s international engagements, knowledge on sustainability-oriented infrastructure development is also beginning to diffuse across borders. A notable example is the selection of Azusa Sekkei—an architectural firm involved in the development of the National Stadium for Tokyo 2020—as a contractor for the main stadium of the Brisbane 2032 Games.

Looking ahead, a key question for sports policy is how Japan can internationalize the “soft” dimensions of legacy—particularly the social impacts of initiatives embedded in local contexts—and feed them back into global practice.

As a mature nation that does not rely on rapid economic growth, Japan is once again being challenged to redefine how it can contribute internationally through sport.