Professional Organizations
The most popular professional sports in Japan are baseball, football, and sumo wrestling. Note that most practitioners in the martial arts are not professional, but played by amateurs.
| Favorite professional sport | 2005 | 2008 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseball (Nippon Professional Baseball) | 51.7% | 48.8% | 45.1% |
| Football (J. League) | 22.8% | 21.8% | 28.9% |
| Sumo | 17.1% | 19.3% | 15.1% |
| Golf (Japan Golf Tour) | 16.9% | 16.3% | 19.9% |
| Boxing | 7.8% | 8.9% | 7.7% |
| Motor racing | 6.2% | 7.9% | 7.7% |
| Puroresu | 4.2% | 4.8% | 3.1% |
| Others | 8.0% | 6.0% | 5.7% |
Read more about this topic: Sport In Japan
Famous quotes containing the word professional:
“I sometimes wonder whether, in the still, sleepless hours of the night, the consciences of ... professional gossips do not stalk them. I myself believe in a final reckoning, when we shall be held accountable for our misdeeds. Do they? If so, they have cause to worry over many scoops that brought them a day’s dubious laurels and perhaps destroyed someone’s peace forever.”
—Mary Pickford (1893–1979)