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The ‘Benefits’ of Hosting: Japanese Experiences from the 2002 Football World Cup

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Abstract

Sports mega-events have considerable significance in re-imaging strategies of urban growth in highly developed economies. This inquiry into the relationship of the 2002 Football World Cup, public policy and regional development in Japan has been prompted by theoretical considerations on the changing background of regional politics in the 1990s and empirical observations of current trends in sports politics and professional sports. The introductory discussion of losers and winners in the World Cup reflects on the basic question of why regional authorities invest in sports promotion. A theoretical section sums up academic discussions on hosting politics, while an empirical section provides data on the anticipated and actual effects in Japan. The findings imply that local governments placed different hopes and expectations on the tournament, depending on the environment and conditions surrounding the host authorities. Regions with more soft assets tended to attach less value to the event, since they envisioned less need to enhance regional image. The comparison of survey data with macro-economic figures does not establish a direct relation between the degree of involvement of regional authorities and economic performance, but demonstrates that in mature economies the business of mega-events has no or, at best, a negligible effect.

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Notes

  1. Japan also benefited from the favourable development of currency exchange rates. FIFA calculations were based on the US dollar, which plummeted 10 per cent against the yen between 1996 and 2002. At the time of the World Cup, ¥100 was worth approximately €0.85 and US$0.84.

  2. Figures for 2002 quarters I–IV (change from same period in previous year): Q1 267,143 (−1.0), Q2 264,002 (0.2%); Q3 267,970 (1.9%), 278,965 (−0.3). Data taken from the monthly Survey of the Household Economy (kakei chôsa) by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Public Management. Historical as well as recent data can be downloaded from http://www.stat.go.jp/data/soutan/1.htm.

  3. Data from the quarterly Survey on Trends in Consumption (shôhi dôkô chôsa) by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. Historical as well as recent data are available at http://www.esri.cao.go.jp/jp/stat/menu.html#shohi-z.

  4. Not surprisingly, exactly the same message has been provided by the German Institute of Economic Research that surveyed the impact of the 2006 World Cup on the German economy (Brenke and Wagner, 2007).

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Acknowledgements

I thank Harald Dolles (Heilbronn), John Horne (Edinburgh), Sten Södermann (Stockholm), Siri Terjesen (Brisbane) and the anonymous referees for their critical and inspirational comments on two earlier drafts of this article.

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  1. Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Campus AAKH, Spitalgasse 2–4, Wien, 1090, Austria

    Wolfram Manzenreiter

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Manzenreiter, W. The ‘Benefits’ of Hosting: Japanese Experiences from the 2002 Football World Cup. Asian Bus Manage 7, 201–224 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/abm.2008.1

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