1. Introduction
Recently, a professional basketball league was founded in Japan. Even so, in Japan, basketball isn’t very popular. In Japan, soccer and baseball are more popular than basketball, and basketball games are almost never broadcast on TV.
How is it in Minnesota? Basketball is very popular in America, so it is a probably very popular in Minnesota too. There is the National Basketball Association in America. NBA’ s games are broadcast on TV sometimes in Japan, and many NBA fans came to watch the game.
This paper will write the reason why NBA is popular in America and consider what we should do to make basketball more popular in Japan.
2. In Kumamoto
Kumamoto doesn’t have a professional basketball team, so professional
basketball isn’t very popular in Kumamoto. Soccer and baseball seem to be more popular than basketball among young people in Kumamoto. For example, elementary schools often have soccer and baseball clubs but not basketball clubs. This is one of the reasons that basketball isn’t popular in Kumamoto.
But basketball is popular among young people in some prefectures, for example, Fukuoka and Akita. They have many people who play basketball, and there are many good basketball players in Fukuoka and Akita. Yuta Tabuse who was an NBA player played basketball in Akita when he was high school student.
I asked Japanese students some questions about basketball. First, I asked “Do you think basketball is popular where you live?” Half of them answered “so-so”, about 30% people answered “Yes” and about 20% people answered “No”. Most students think that baseball and soccer are more popular in Japan. Second, I asked “What professional basketball team do you know in your country?” All of them answered “I don’t know”. We have some professional basketball teams for example “Tochigi BREX”, but nobody knows them because we have almost no professional basketball TV programs. Third, I asked “Do you ever watch professional basketball on TV?” Half of them answered “Never”, about 30% people answered “Rarely” and about 20% people answered “Sometimes”. Fourth, I asked “Would you like to watch more professional basketball on TV than you do now?” About half of them answered “No”, about 35% people answered “so-so” and about 15% people answered “Yes”. This shows well that Japanese students aren’t very interested in basketball games. Fifth, I asked “Have you ever watched an NBA game?” 70% people answered “No”, about 30% people answered “Yes, on TV” and nobody answered “Yes, in person”. We can watch NBA games on TV sometimes but it is always broadcast at 1 am or 2 am, so only a few people watch it. Sixth, I asked “In Japan, basketball is not as popular as it is in the US. Why do you think this might be?” People answered “US is very big country, so many good players play in US.” and “Japanese like baseball and soccer better than baseball.”
3. In the US
There is NBA in the US, so basketball is very popular in the US. Most of the states in the US have a professional basketball team. Minnesota’s team is named “Timberwolves”, and also there is a very big basketball court, named “Target Center”. People in Minnesota often go to watch basketball games. The biggest reason that basketball is popular in the US is performance. NBA games are very exciting and fantastic because there are many more good basketball players in the US than in Japan.
I asked American people the same questions that I asked Japanese students. The result of first question was about 70% people answered “Yes”, about 30% people answered “so-so” and nobody answered “No”. The result of second question was that all of people knew professional basketball teams in the US. For example, “Timber Wolves”, ”Chicago Bulls” and “Celtics”. The result of the third question was that about 60% people answered “Never”, about 25% people answered “Sometimes” and about 15% people answered “Rarely”. This result was surprising. American people aren’t as interested in watching professional basketball on TV as I thought. Most Japanese people probably think American people often watch NBA not only in person but also on TV. We think that all American people like to watch basketball. The result of the fourth question was that about 90% people answered “No”, about 10% people answered “so-so” and nobody answered “Yes”. This was also a surprising at result. Watching professional basketball on TV seems to be boring for Americans. The result of the fifth question was that about 60% people answered “Yes, in person”, about 20% answered “Yes, on TV” and about 20% answered “No”. The result of the sixth question was very interesting. People answered “Because basketball is newer in Japan.”, “Baseball is very popular in Japan.”, “Japanese people maybe are too short.”, ”Height” and so on.
4. Conclusion
Now basketball is a very popular sport in the world, but basketball isn’t very popular in some countries. Basketball isn’t very popular in Japan either, but baseball and soccer are very popular in Japan. We have had professional baseball teams and professional soccer teams from a long time ago, so we can often watch professional baseball and professional soccer games on TV. We have professional basketball teams too, but they started only a few years ago, and we can’t watch professional basketball games often on TV. This may be why baseball and soccer are much more popular in Japan. Also we don’t have basketball courts outside like America. This is another reason that basketball isn’t popular. There are many basketball courts outside in America. This is a very good thing for boys who play basketball. We need to make better circumstances to play basketball everywhere.
Basketball is a very interesting sport. It is said Japanese are too short to play basketball but there are very good players in Japan too. We can’t watch games like NBA, but I think we can enjoy watching Japanese professional games too. Recently, Yuta Tabuse a very good basketball player came back to Japan. From now on Japanese professional basketball games will be more exciting because of him. I hope basketball is very popular than now. If basketball will be popular, people who play basketball will increase and level of basketball in Japan will improve.
[1089 words]
No comments:
Post a Comment