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:
“Smoking ... is downright dangerous. Most people who smoke will eventually contract a fatal disease and die. But they don’t brag about it, do they? Most people who ski, play professional football or drive race cars, will not die—at least not in the act—and yet they are the ones with the glamorous images, the expensive equipment and the mythic proportions. Why this should be I cannot say, unless it is simply that the average American does not know a daredevil when he sees one.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)