Field Survey of the Japan Sports Association’s “Encourage Japan through Fair Play” Campaign among Collegiate Athletes

This research focuses on the “Encourage Japan through Fair Play” campaign of the Japan Sport Association and aims to compare the frequency of occurrences of “Shake hands, Greetings, Thank you” in collegiate martial arts as compared to other collegiate sports. The participants in this survey were 309 first-third year students (57 participated in martial arts events and 252 in other sports) who belonged to a university athletic club. Participants were asked about the frequency with which they shook hands with opponents before or after a match. They were also asked about the frequency with which they greeted opponents both before and after a match. Finally, they were asked how often they engaged in a thanking behavior with either the referee or a cheering spectator. As results of these analyses, a significant difference was found in the items related to handshaking, with handshaking frequency being low in martial arts, both before and after the match. It was thus confirmed that those who participated in martial arts did not often perform handshake actions with opponents before and after the match.