FEMALE MANAGERS: THE KUROKO OF JAPANESE SPORTS AN ANALYSIS OF THE BESTSELLING BOOK MOSHI KÔKÔ YAKYÛ NO JOSHI MANÊJÂ GA DORAKKÂ NO MANÊJIMENTO WO YONDARA

Abstract

Women in sports is a popular theme of discussion in academia and the media, especially with the rising numbers of women participating in official sports events internationally. Both digital and print mass media are also featuring female athletes increasingly over recent years. Notwithstanding that, a corresponding improvement in society’s appreciation of women in sports has not been observed. Furthermore, in current understandings of women in sports, there is a tendency to categorise these women as either participants or spectators. This overlooks the possibility of women participating in sports without actually playing the sport. One such example is the administrative female managers of middle and high school sports teams in Japan. English language academic literature on this phenomenon is currently lacking, while most Japanese scholarship only covers similar issues with western scholarship about women in sports in western society, such as the association with motherhood. However, without denying the former, the female manager entity extends beyond its links with motherhood in contemporary Japan. In this thesis, I seek to explore Japanese media representation of female managers through an analysis of a 2009/10 bestselling book entitled Moshi Kôkô Yakyû no Joshi Manêjâ ga Dorakkâ no Manêjimento wo Yondara (If a High School Baseball Manager Reads Drucker’s Management). I argue that despite the increasingly empowering portrayals of female managers in the media, these girls remain a translucent existence that is not forgotten but neither are they recognised as crucial presences in Japanese sports.