Where goes Japanese Physical Education and Sport

Where goes Japanese Physical Education and Sport ?

Dear Visitor,

The Head Office of JSPE (Japanese Society of Physical Education) has planed to hold Symposia for the term of 1996-1999 ending to cerebrate the 50th anniversary meeting. Under the serial theme, "SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE OF JSPE, DIVISION OR/AND UNIFICATION ?", the first one has been held past year at University of Chiba with the sub theme, "In quest of Scientific Identity of Physical Education", and this autumn, the second one came to "Discussion of Basic Conceptions: Body, Exercise and Health".

     I am pleased to provide you with a report on the latter Symposium. This report will never take form of official report like as a seamless piece of bi-lingual translation made from papers presented by lecturers, but quite a kind of commentaries described freely by the coordinator of the Symposium who has as well had honor to participate in the previous one as a lecturer. Therefore, following text will be inevitable to get mixed with somewhat personal view which reflects arguments brought in at the symposium preceded. Rather I intend to make allusion to this consequence. Take notice that the using of abbreviations and explicative devices might be made at choice. All those who may feel something too much incentive or arbitrary, are welcome to amend it or open debate on this website.
   I hope this makes Sporthist real international forum over a barrier of language.
   With kind regards.

Prof. Dr. Shigeo SHIMIZU

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Symposium of the Head Office of the JSPE.

at Hotel Niigata, 16:30-18:15, October the 7th, 1997.

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE OF JAPANESE SOCIETY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION, --- DIVISION OR/AND UNIFICATION ?

---- II ----

Discussion of Basic Conceptions: Body, Exercise and Health

Lecture 1: HOW DOES THE JSPE DEAL WITH THE CONVERSION OF NOTION OF HEALTH ?

by Terumi MORI (Univ. of Tsukuba)

Lecture 2: TO WHAT HAVE WE BEEN IMPELLING THE HUMAN "BODY" OR ITS "MOVEMENT" ?

by Tokuro YAMAMOTO (Nara Women's Univ.)

Coordinator: Shigeo SHIMIZU (Univ. of Kobe)

Document

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PRELIMINARY REMARKS

    Since those few years, JSPE has been shocked by the most serious question about its pedestal settled on the university. The legal base of the "Health and Physical Education" ( abbr. "HYPE" in below ) as compulsory subject included in the basic course of study of university --- called "the General Education at University" --- has been fundamentally revised, and turned into a matter of administrative choice depends on every decisions made by the supervision of each university. It is afraided that these decisions happen to make in amount a gradual decrease of the post for the general HYPE, unless there is positive reason for expecting it as compulsory subject in concurrence with other various subjects available for professional and intelligent trainings shared by specialties --- faculty, department or institutes, etc. ---, among which takes place the Faculty of Education.
    Without mentioning, the general HYPE should not be confused with the professional HYPE at the faculty of education, that is for a profession of teaching HYPE at school on legal bases of the license, differs from the general HYPE reserved for all the university students. This difference of competence could be related to distinction of the categories of post; the one for the professional education, the other one exclusively for the general education. Here, we don't go into the meander of how has been dealt with the administration of post for the two HYPEs in different universities. After all, great many universities have posts only for the general HYPE, whereas a lot of others have those for both categories mixed, and some of the rest for each HYPE completely separated in a same university. Any way, it is on these categories of post that JSPE has been substantially profited up to now to organize its academic stand point. Therefore, the identification of profession assumed by JSPE has belonged for a long time more or less to the Pedagogy, whether it may be of general HYPE or of professional HYPE.
    After JSPE has started in 1949 under the influence of After War Policy, the general HYPE has grown up constantly in accordance with the growth of young population getting across to school, then pushed to fill up higher education, and up the GNP indeed. But once those numerical upraises was presumed to turn into decline, it was appear that the transition of the cohort of age rebounds in general much more directly on the administration of school education than on the university. But, the professional HYPE has damaged also. From about 1985, the Ministry of Education has launched out into promoting to make non-licensed teacher training course. There were too much teachers for less classes. Faculty of education was invited to anticipate the curtailment of supplying teacher, however, with no other perspective for new principle of profession but with a vague idea forth to the conversion of the mode of life to the 21st century. Great many people of JSPE are pretending that the Sport Science is going flourish in it, because the uprising QOL foresters nation-wide health interest. However, the possibility of para-medical professions, for example, isn't always preserved for us.
    In parallel with the changing of university's HYPEs, it is wondered whether the school HYPE may be able to keep getting its numerical importance in concurrence with the school program hoped to be reduced as a whole. In fact, the school itself has encountered to the policy of the five days' week system, since those seven or eight years. Moreover, it was long before that the school education, especially public education, had suffered much from such various problems as the juvenile delinquent, the learning disabilities or the refusal to attend school, etc.. The diagnosis was mainly brought on to check up inadequacy and formalism of the school. Today, the opinion grows up to set trend to accept that the school curriculum, from primary to high school, should be totally transformed in purpose of preparing life-style of Japanese society on coming century.
    Under these circumstances, the school HYPE needs to reinforce itself by a justification pertains to secure the place in the changing curriculum and school system. JSPE is hoped to take charge of supporting it. Here, "Health" and "Sport" is looked as keyword for the enhancement of HYPE.
    Looking at the vicissitude of the curriculum of HYPE after the War, we could find in sequence so many official principle enough changeful as, if translate freely, "for Life", "by System-Learning", "to Physical Fitness", "from Motor-Learning Essentials", "on Delightful Activities", etc.. And, along by these tripping, an enduring movement strongly supported by the two distinguished research groups has elaborated influential but unconformable theories of practice, the one is built up on a kind of socio-cultural theory called the "Undou-Bunka"; the other one on a kind of somato-social theory, the "Karada-Tsukuri".
    No less than those movements, play theory is even influential so far as it is infiltrating into current official principle. Play theory seems to have brought effect to plow up vast field of popular culture where "sport" is planted in. Really, we have been having certain optimism about the fertility of contemporary Japanese demographic background in favor of the health needs and the sport enthusiasms mingled with media-spectacles. Many people of JSPE are apt to opine that sport installs in the culture and it shall promise new horizon of our profession, no matter the situation of school. Shall we take it as the soil where we could undertake some professional advances ? Certainly, it is true that enormous graduates of HYPE, including non-licensed, would scatter and venture all over attractive horizon for getting job non defined. Doesn't it open preponderantly to various professional exploitations linked to every competence ? Sociologist will be happy to assess the socio-cultural mine of sport as social phenomenon. Even Bourdieu, even Dunning never designates our socio-professional portion.
    Should JSPE sell off its identity to the propagated notion of popular culture ? However we may cry out sport to be culture, or whatever JSPE may change the denotation to any others, that was once JSPE has discussed without result, it had been essential for us to accumulate intelligent products highly consistent with the culture in its proper sense. Who of us can merits a man of culture ? Does any one of us has ever got an Order of Cultural Merit ? In short, the culture is illusory, at least when we look modestly into our situation of socio-professional principle. Certainly, in the Japan Science Council, we have many independent societies set out from the research subsections of JSPE. Besides, around JSPE, we happen to have a lot of independent academic groups prefixing some sport. Many people of JSPE don't like any longer to see themselves clinging to "PAIDOTRIBES" with predilection. It will be superficial to take this abundance as a phase of JSPE's development. It is nothing but perturbation. Division is evident, rather than unification. We are losing JSPE's gravity on "Us". For what "We" are in the world ?
    Thus, JSPE has to recognize that its autogenetic pedagogical stand point is going to be totally threatened. Is it too much to say that JSPE seems to be fascinated with a popular science for popular culture ? Well. But, it is incredible to consider that JSPE's academic base seems to be at risk together with its educational base. Those who have a profession of some HYPE must be adorable for the health and physical fitness in their person because of their scientific knowledge: MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO. Nothing is more curious than this hypothesis. Isn't it educationist's habitus ? Whatever the worst depression, for example, may happen, academic base of economy does never be a matter of question ! Let us leave this issue for going on to the discussions of the second symposium. So much, we have settled preliminary remarks.

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HOW DOES THE JSPE DEAL WITH THE CONVERSION OF NOTION OF HEALTH ?

    Prof. Mori, with his long career of taking leadership in the research field of School Health Education, reviews, first of all, the origin of institutional conjunction of "Physical Education" and "Hygiene".
    For a long time, the Hygiene has been looked as dissimilar to Physical Education. When, in 1949, a faculty was established at the Tokyo University of Education for the purpose of investigating the physical education, the Hygiene was indispensable by reason of supporting the section of physical education. The scientific bases of Physical Education had to rely greatly upon the competence of medical doctors. Therefore, the "Health" and the "Physical" was linked up to build up sciences of "Physical health" and "Physical exercise". At the same time, the teaching physical education in the curriculum of secondary and high school was renamed as the Teaching HYPE. It was the beginning of the school HYPE. The professional area of hygienist has contested against this fusion, and intended to extract their own partition. While hygienist's assertion didn't get any results on school level, they have got own posts at university's HYPEs, in which the lecture of Health Science fell into the specialty of medical doctor, completely separated to the specialty of Physical Educationist even in the same HYPE group. On the other hand, the school HYPE has needed to prepare a competence for teaching the knowledge of the hygiene as well as the physical exercises, and it has made necessary to reorganize the license of HYPE teacher on the bases of faculty. The difference between the general HYPE and the professional HYPE is still mentioned in the preliminary remarks.
    As Health Educationist for the professional HYPE, prof. Mori points out that the health education was linked with the physical education by three keywords: body, exercise and health. He appreciates a honeymoon of "body" and "health" in the earliest period of HYPE. These were then accordant to the WHO's idealism of health. He is doubtful, on the contrary, of a hypertrophy of occidental notions of "body" and "physical exercise" under the trend of recent cultural enhancement of sport, so much exceeding that the "health" could be no longer symbiotic for them. In this context, R. Dubos' refusal against the "illusion" of health progress derived from the scientific objectivism had to be referred to. Health should be conceived rather as the proper accommodation and sufficiency of individual person than as the fulfillment of absolute criterion like as the longevity. The criticism of Dubos was prospered least to the opinion. In contrast, parallel with the development of the Public Health Service and the Medical Care, the health education has worked out to familiarize the interest of scientific knowledge for preventing and discovering soon the sickness. Moreover, a huge market of health industry has been nourishing the individual health needs. It seems that the more health interest is provoked by the equalitarianism, the more aspiration to health makes itself illness. Does any educationist's stratagem happen to get rid of such a double-bind as that health education pollutes sound health ?
    After all, Prof. Mori considers that these trends not alike despairing. It is hopeful that the vision of Quality of Life and Self-Realization of Health will come up to retrieve the conception of holistic human health. Looking at a humanistic impact of the movement of Health Promotion, he stresses the recent conversion of notion as well as the importance to build up the attitude of self control on each one's health conduct. Remember the Dubos. Far beyond the therapeutics and the medical system, there are remarkable examples of autonomy grapple with making a city of health or a community of health conducing to the normalization. He concludes that, since the Health has grown up and run across the social context, so much as it could no longer remain a subsidiary of the Physical Education, JSPE should be expected to involve in this conversion for a breakthrough in its crisis.

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TO WHAT HAVE WE BEEN IMPELLING THE HUMAN "BODY" OR "MOTION" ?

Prof. Yamamoto's main argument develops into unavoidable suspicion reached from the modern science to the human intelligence itself. Deeply influenced by Nietzsche's denial of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, he attempts, from historian's view point inspired by E. Koenig, to dredge away JSPE's most reliable scientific bases to which the objectivity of "Body" and "Human Motion" is beyond dispute. Most of all, these two words are to be reexamined sweepingly, if JSPE ambitions to designate itself as an academic organization specializing the Human Science which must integrate variety of expertise on the Human being. For all those JSPE's people who deal with the Body and the Human Motion from the side of experimental sciences more or less be willing to ignore a metaphysical part or an unknown part of these words. In reticence, they think the humanity is in the "Black box", no matter where it may come from. Whereas, from the other side, the humanity is in the historical, social and cultural phenomena, and is able to be described by some interpretative description; it shouldn't be reduced at all to the parameters however numerous it may be. The division among JSPE's people is apparent as likely as neither the Body nor the Human Motion could make any confiding discussion from both sides.

    It is in this context that prof. Yamamoto, as historian even physical educationist, has made his argument get back to the primordial question about the scientific recognition at the earliest period of the modern physical education.
    In "Gymnastik fuer die Jugend" (1793), J.Ch.F. Guts Muths considered the sense as a principal part of the body. In accordance with J.-J. Rousseau, Guts Muths affirmed the importance of perfecting the sensory organs as apparatus of the Reason, and attempted to prove their trainability. With his conviction, human being can get into the world of the Truth by the merest avoidance of sensorial inaccuracy. The Truth shall glorify human being. It is essential for Guts Muths to eliminate the cause of error. Therefore, he was going to scale the sense of his pupil, and to correct its inaccuracy by the exercise of the sensory organs. Thus, he structurized a "sensory technique" in pupil's body, itself adjusted to the numerical values. Prof. Yamamoto takes up this process of adjustment as a matter of question. Even if Guts Muths professed invincibility of the human nature, it could be even natural that sensory perception errs. Doesn't the measurables alienate pupil's body ? Those who are familiar with Rousseau's objection based on the notion of the nature to J. Locke's presupposition of Tabla Rasa, will discern prof. Yamamoto's pedagogical stance, but with more resemblance to Rousseau's excess condemning artifact of the human intelligibility.
    With regard to the notion of Human motion, the same logic is discovered in Balzac's "Theorie de la demarche" (1833). Balzac wrote episodically. In despair of relying upon scientific descriptions about the mechanistic details of the human motion, he flung Borelli's book to the floor, and cried that the scientific analysis warps walking, and distorts human body. Suddenly, he remembered Rousseau's devilish accusation against the depravation of human nature, and was surprised that scientist's right mind scarcely differs from lunatic's absurd mind.
    Civilized human being mis-identify their body and motion as an intellectual standard. It isn't abnormal that the Human nature errs. Human intelligence had better tolerate it. Prof. Yamamoto can't help to evoke the gestapo's cruel animalism, and he stresses this contrariety in order to lead his argument to conclusive question: whether are we an animal of disorder (depraved) ?
    The 19th and 20th centuries society, with the Industrial Revolution and the changing of the mode of production and of war, has needed docile body and adjustable health and coordinating motion as the human resources or as the merchandise, Physical education has taken big part of the standardization of individual person, in full conviction that the measurable fact shouldn't be doubted by every particular sense. It has become common that the sense is negligible at scientific speculation. Thus, the education as a whole run into the integration of a high quality man power in a society. Prof. Yamamoto asserts that, since the physical education has contributed up to now to make out an ideal type of figure and performance, impelling our body and motion to have non-defective animalism, to make symmetrical conduct, JSPE should make fresh start from thinking deeply the significance of the diversity of body and motion for finding out the notion creditable to them. And lastly, he appreciates, so far as in this context, the recent effort made by the groups (mentioned in above) of "Karada-Tsukuri" and "Undou-Bunka" to look for the way to consolidate the Body and the Culture by reciprocal examination from their update practical theories.

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It was difficult to make any productive discussion with these subtle topics for such a great audience as about 300 packed into. With many apologies to have left some of those who might have stood up, the coordinator concluded the symposium with a summary that JSPE should be invited to think out how we can make a scientific discussions on the health, the exercise and the body "IN A MODE OF THE FIRST PERSON". Well timed, Dr. Kataoka, prof. of Univ. of Tsukuba, published, as an article of the Journal of JSPE, the result of his philosophical research deeply concerned to the symposium. For closing this report, his article should be joined here after as a document. This is transcribed by S. Shimizu from the English summary in the Journal of JSPE (vol.42, no.3, p.113-127).

14th November, 1997 S. S.

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A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF DIFFERENTIATION/SYNTHESIS THEORIES ON SCIENCEIS OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT:

SUGGESTIONS FROM 13 AUTHORS (1972)

by Akio KATAOKA

(Prof. Dr. Univ. of Tsukuba, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences)

    An attempt was made to critically review the characteristics of theories on differentiation and synthesis of the sciences of sport and physical education using a framework of analysis based upon scientific philosophy. The basic problems to be solved are:
1. Where can we find the knowledge that we need ? What fields of science are there ? What directions are they taking ? What characteristics do they show as a whole, why ?
2. How is the relationship between the sciences of physical education and sport developing ? What relationships exist among general abstract notions such as "body", "movement", "physical education", "sport", and "physical fitness" ? Where is the denotation of our field and what is its connotation ?
    These two problems need to be answered before creating a framework. The framework for this review is based on 13 interrelated special research branches categorized by the JSPE and 21 registered societies having research connections to physical education and sport sciences of the Science Council of Japan. There are 4 standpoints for review:
(1) technological cognitive systems,
(2) value frameworks,
(3) practical human bodily phenomena,
(4) subjective standpoint of the practician.
    The technological cognitive systems are divided into 4 sub-systems, which are groups of technological knowledge gained from:
(1) sciences focusing on the mammals and mankind,
(2) philosophical-anthropological sciences,
(3) sciences of the natural environment, and
(4) sciences of the social environment.
    The value frameworks along with its social needs make up each society. Human practical bodily phenomena are the sources for data which are produced by cognitive and evaluative frameworks, and the subjective standpoint of practician is that of evaluation of this knowledge is done in accordance with their requirements. The materials of this study are theories by 13 authors published in a monograph in 1972, because these still influence the general direction of scientific complexing in Japan. The thoughts of these 13 authors were reviewed, and several tendencies were evident among them. After review, 3 more problems needed to be answered:
1) What is the influence of the contemporary era on research ? The 13 authors had no interest in environmental-technological problems on earth when theorizing about "differentiation and synthesis". They were interested mainly in physical education science as the core science for integration.
2) What scientific paradigm do we need as a substitute for "analysis and syntheses" ? The answer is expansion of the notion of science such as teleological explanations through system theory and meta-system theory.
3) How do we understand the paradigm of "theory and practice" ? Many of the 13 authors found the synthesizing moment of sciences in practice. The present author, however, shows that the synthesizing moment lies in the framework itself and not in practice.
    These authors presupposed a paradigm of "theory and practice", "body and mind", and "natural science and spiritual science", and were latent followers of the binominal frame of reference. The present author suggests that there are 5 factors of the synthesizing moment: theory, technology, evaluation, practice, and the human being from the standpoint of philosophical pluralism.

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