Offering a unique contribution to East Asian Studies, Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and Sport Studies, this work represent key reading for students and scholars of East Asian studies, International Politics and Sports Diplomacy.

Empires: Dead, Dying and Dormant.- Empires - West and East; Curious Conjunction and Contemporary Consequences, Complexity and Circumstances.- Japanese Imperial Sport as Failed Cultural Conditioning: Korean ‘Recalcitrance’.- The Unclosed Door: South Korea's Post-Colonial Sport as a Revanchist Reaction to Japanese Imperial Legacies.- A Living Legacy (Part One): Japanese Imperialism and Chinese Revanchism – Modern Sport as a Modern Medium.- A Living Legacy (Part Two): Japanese Imperialism - Residual Resentment and an Unforgiving China: the Sports Cartoon as Political Aide-Memoire.- Japanese Cultural Imperialism in Taiwan: Judo as an Instrument of Colonial Conditioning.- Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Control: Sport as a Component of Cultural Conditioning, Political Domination and Militaristic Imperialism.- A Clash of Colonialisms: Sports Culture in Hong Kong under the Japanese Occupation.- The Ambivalence of the Reaction, Response, Legacy and War Memory: The Japanese Occupation of the Malayan Peninsula: the Consequences for Sport of the Imperial Past and the Democratic Present.- Towards the Construction of a New Regionalism? The End of East Asian Colonialism: Japanese Responses and Reactions to the Games of Asia.- Tokyo 2020: Opportunity for Regional Reconciliation or Protracted Antagonism?.- Retained Memories, Political Pressures, Catalytic Moments - Tokyo 2020 Reconciliation?.- ‘The past is a present country’.

This cutting edge collection presents a political reading of the power of modern sport in Asia. Providing an interdisciplinary study of political and cultural tensions in Asia, past and present, through the key case-study of sport, it illuminates the complex practices and legacies of Japanese imperialism across East and Southeast Asia through the 20th century and beyond. Focusing on the deep background to contemporary dynamics of intraregional tensions, it examines sport both as a tool of imperialism and as an agent of reconciliation as the region gears up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Offering a unique contribution to East Asian Studies, Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and Sport Studies, this work represent key reading for students and scholars of East Asian studies, International Politics and Sports Diplomacy. 

“Japanese Imperialism is a fine example of history writing that takes moral issues seriously and at the same strives for objectivity. It is not a history of sport in a limited sense but a thought-provoking narration about sport as a substitute for war between Japan and the historical victims of Japanese imperialism.” (Kristian Gerner, idrottsforum.org, June, 2018)

“This is a well-researched piece of scholarship that offers original research on a theme not often studied in international politics and sports diplomacy.  Read this book and you will have acquired a unique and thoughtful lens through which to view the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as East Asian international relations more broadly. A great contribution to the field.” (Victor D. Cha, D.S. Song-KF Professor of Government and International Affairs, Georgetown University and Senior Adviser, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. Author of Beyond the Final Score: Politics and Sport in Asia, 2008) “Japanese Imperialism is an interesting and attractive study, especially for Asian historians. I am confident this collection will be successful: it is a wonderful work of scholarship. Reflections on the Tokyo Olympics of 2020 as an agent of regional reconciliation are constructive and important contributions to the future of East Asian politics.” (IkuoAbe, Emeritus Professor, University of Tsukuba, Japan) “This collection is the best compilation of scholarly work available in English on the relationship between Japanese imperialism and sport; thus is a seminal work in the field. The well-constructed addresses the overarching theme that sport was used in the Japanese Empire as a form of indoctrination, but for Japan’s subject peoples in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Malaya it was a form of resistance. Sport during the Japanese Occupation has left a lasting legacy. Its consideration adds to the uniqueness of the collection. This book will be valuable for both scholars of the cultural history of the Japanese Empire and for students covering the history of modern Japan and the Japanese Occupation of East Asia.” (Kevin P. Blackburn, Associate Professor, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; author The Sportsmen of Changi, 2012)

"This is a well-researched piece of scholarship that offers original research on a theme not often studied in international politics and sports diplomacy. Read this book and you will have acquired a unique and thoughtful lens through which to view the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as East Asian international relations more broadly. A great contribution to the field." (Victor D. Cha, D.S. Song-KF Professor of Government and International Affairs, Georgetown University and Senior Adviser, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. Author of Beyond the Final Score: Politics and Sport in Asia, 2008) "Japanese Imperialism is an interesting and attractive study, especially for Asian historians. I am confident this collection will be successful: it is a wonderful work of scholarship. Reflections on the Tokyo Olympics of 2020 as an agent of regional reconciliation are constructive and important contributions to the future of East Asian politics." (Ikuo Abe, Emeritus Professor, University of Tsukuba, Japan) "This collection is the best compilation of scholarly work available in English on the relationship between Japanese imperialism and sport; thus is a seminal work in the field. The well-constructed addresses the overarching theme that sport was used in the Japanese Empire as a form of indoctrination, but for Japan's subject peoples in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Malaya it was a form of resistance. Sport during the Japanese Occupation has left a lasting legacy. Its consideration adds to the uniqueness of the collection. This book will be valuable for both scholars of the cultural history of the Japanese Empire and for students covering the history of modern Japan and the Japanese Occupation of East Asia." (Kevin P. Blackburn, Associate Professor, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; author The Sportsmen of Changi, 2012)

Considers sport as a key agent in East Asian regional geopolitics. Examines the legacies of Japanese imperialism in light of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Provides a key contribution to the fields of East Asian studies, international politics and sports diplomacy. Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras