ABSTRACT
The philosophy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely understood in the Japanese sports industry. The purposes of this chapter are twofold: (1) to take a general look at CSR in Japan; and (2) to discuss sports-related CSR from the perspectives of how Japanese companies connect their support of sports to fulfilling their CSR, and how professional teams that operate as business and leagues are enhancing their value by promoting and implementing CSR activities. In Japan, the widely practiced unique system of “corporate sports,” in which corporations hire athletes as regular employees and own sport teams, helped companies to understand the significance of utilizing sports in their CSR activities. On the other hand, the Japan Professional Football League (J League) is using CSR activities as a tool to improve the brand value of the league. Clubs of the J League are incorporated sports businesses and are required to engage their players in social contribution activities in order to deepen relations with the local area, to improve the brand value, and to build a fan base. Clubs and the league must continue the specific philanthropic activities to meet their “discretionary” responsibility, as well as reinforcing the league’s moral standards to meet its “ethical” responsibility, improving the services and hospitality demanded by fans to exercise “economic” responsibility, and adopting the AFC club licensing regulations to enhance league and team governance to carry out “legal” responsibility.
Interest in CSR is growing affront a backdrop of increasing globalization, developments in information technology, and particularly harsh criticism of corporate behavior from general consumers, customers, and society at large. Many Japanese companies have created departments specifically for overseeing CSR and are constructively addressing legal compliance, environmental protection, employment and workplace environments, considerations for human rights, and so on (Mizuo and Tanaka, 2004). This same interest in CSR is rapidly growing in the sports world as well. An overview of the current relationship between sports and CSR in Japan reveals two basic trends. One trend is corporate sports in which a company owns a team and the players are hired as regular employees of the company. This has been widely practiced in Japan as a way of
