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:
“In European thought in general, as contrasted with American, vigor, life and originality have a kind of easy, professional utterance. American—on the other hand, is expressed in an eager amateurish way. A European gives a sense of scope, of survey, of consideration. An American is strained, sensational. One is artistic gold; the other is bullion.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)