eastern were fervid long-distance runners for plenty of centuries. at the present time, on a consistent with capita foundation, a minimum of as many eastern citizens entire marathons every year as within the usa or the other kingdom. Marathon Japan is the 1st finished English-language chronicle of the heritage of this crucial a part of eastern activities tradition. It lines the improvement of distance racing starting with the Stockholm Olympics of 1912, while the japanese executive used athletics, and chiefly the marathon, as a way to proceed its overdue nineteenth-century venture of successful the distinction of Western nations and reaching parity with the area powers. The marathon quickly grew to become the 1st occasion in a Western-derived activity during which eastern proved constantly improved to athletes from different nations. through the Twenties and Thirties, eastern runners on a regular basis produced the quickest occasions on the planet, and two times within the interval after global warfare Two—in the Nineteen Sixties and overdue 1970s–1980s—Japanese males back ruled global marathoning. jap ladies likewise emerged as many of the world's quickest within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. in the meantime most people took up distance operating with enthusiasm, beginning within the Sixties and carrying on with unabated this present day, symbolized so much lately by means of mammoth open-entry marathons in Tokyo, Osaka, and different eastern towns related in scale and problem to significant global races in Boston, manhattan, Chicago, London, and Berlin.

In this e-book, Thomas Havens analyzes the origins, improvement, and importance of Japan's century-long excellence in marathons and long-distance relays (ekiden), in addition to the explanations for the explosive progress of distance racing between usual voters in additional contemporary a long time. He unearths the major position of business media businesses in selling activities, specially marathons and ekidens, from the 1910s to this day and explains how operating grew to become a client commodity starting within the Nineteen Seventies as eastern society matured into an age of capitalist affluence. What involves gentle to boot are the relentlessly nationalistic objectives underlying executive guidelines towards sports—above all marathons, the place eastern were so successful—throughout the fashionable period. the general public craze for distance racing, either observing and operating, has created a shared citizenship of civic participation between old and young, female and male, folks of each social heritage and point of schooling. the combo of quickly elite athletes and large numbers of general-citizen runners signifies that Japan this day is really a marathon state.

Marathon Japan will entice Japan experts attracted to smooth cultural and social historical past. it's going to interact leisure runners in Japan and out of the country in addition to someone attracted to the heritage of sports.