Greetings
Message for the 71st Conference
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Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 71st Conference
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The Japan Society of Physical Education (Nihon Taiiku Gakkai), with a history of 71 years, changed its name to Japan Society of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences (Nihon Taiiku Supotsu Kenko Gakkai) in 2021. As its new start, the 71st conference will be organized by the University of Tsukuba from 7-9 September, 2021. Taking into consideration the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, it will be held entirely online.
The University of Tsukuba is a “frontier/advanced school" that opened as a university of a new concept in 1973 (Showa 48) in order to fulfill its mission as a front runner for the future, while valuing its roots as a "traditional/prestigious school" from a gymnastics training center established in 1878 (Meiji 11). We have been leading the fields of physical education and sports in Japan in terms of both education and research for about 150 years.
The University of Tsukuba hosted conferences of the Japan Society of Physical Education twice in the past: the 37th conference in 1986 (Showa 61), and the 56th conference in 2005 (Heisei 17). The 71st conference will be for the third time in 16 years. Despite traditional academic conferences have been styled around vertically divided research presentations and symposiums by each specialized discipline that constituted physical education, sports and health science, this conference will be renewed starting from Tsukuba through a new approach. Our program committee set the theme of important modern issues related to physical education, sports and health, and make them opportunities to promote "academic for society" by vitalizing cross-disciplinary discussions. Specifically, we will develop the conference as a place to integrate research results of our members. Based on this concept, we will set three important social issues to be solved by five applied areas including "sports culture", " health and physical education in school", “life-long sport", "competitive sports" and "health and welfare", through organizing symposiums and presentations of individual research. This new approach will advance and promote theme-oriented interdisciplinary research. By making use of conferences as an equipment to powerfully disseminate practical and applied academic knowledge, we strive to realize a "desirable society" through sports and exercises.
This year's conference is going to be held immediately after the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Japan will also organize the World Masters Games Kansai in 2022. These international sporting events will give us unique opportunities to utilize sports to significantly contribute to the peace of the world and well-diversified society.
The end of the threatening virus is still uncertain. This circumstance brings a huge challenge for us to hold a traditional, in person conference this year. It is a great regret that the conference will not be held physically onsite, as we know that many of our dear members are expected to sharing the knowledge and having passionate debates among researchers as outcome of the conference experience. However, we hope this decision will open up possibilities for more people to participate in the 71st conference and we are looking forward to meeting you online in September this year.