Sports for students | Popular sports for High School student, Guided by Japanese webmaster !

Hello, world ! This is shinta_in_japan.

Today’s topic is Sports in high school age.
What kind of sports did you do in high school age ?

In Japanese high school, students can participate in sports club, which is placed in each school. According to government office, Japan Sports Agency, approximately 40% of high school students participate in sports club.

In this article, I would like to introduce popular sports in high school, with 5 minutes of reading. There are around 3.2 millions of high school students in Japan in total. The information is based on statistics by All Japan Athletics Federation in 2018.

Have fun !

No.1 – 5 for Girls

Name	Population
Volleyball	58,531
Basketball	57,733
Badminton	56,350
Track & Field	39,650
Tennis	35,071

The most popular sports among girls in high school students is Volleyball. The number of players is more than 58 thousand. No.2 is Basketball. Volleyball and Basketball are two major sports long time.

Badminton is getting popular year by year, especially after getting gold medal in Olympic Games by Japanese players. Top 3 has players more than 50 thousand.

No.1 – 5 for Boys

Name	Population
Football	165,351
Baseball	153,184
Basketball	91,454
Track & Field	68,733
Badminton	63,581

Football and Baseball have more than 150 thousand of players among Japanese high school students. These two sports have professional leagues, which is one of the reasons supported by students.

Basketball is in 3rd place long time. As professional league is established recent years, expected increasing of players. The players of badminton is increasing with same reasons as girls.

No.6 – 10 for Girls

Name	Population
Soft Tennis	34,564
Kyu-Do (Japanese Archery)	32,106
Table Tennis	22,680
Softball	20,631
Ken-Do	14,758

Soft Tennis is Japanese original sports. Ball is more soft than normal Tennis. There are almost same number of players as Tennis in Japanese high school.

Kyu-Do and Ken-Do are very traditional sports in Japan. Kyu-Do is Japanese archery, playing with traditional wear, Hakama. Ken-Do is kind of martial arts, with using ‘Shinai’ Bamboo sword.

No. 6 – 10 for Boys

Name	Population
Tennis	59,696
Table Tennis	53,430
Soft Tennis	47,698
Volleyball	46,223
Kyu-Do (Japanese Archery)	31,581

Tennis and Soft Tennis are also popular among boys in Japanese high school. Table Tennis is also popular, stable number of players long time. Tennis relative sports are listed in this area.

Kyu-Do is also supported by boys. 10th largest number of players. However, in 10 years ago, it was Ken-Do. The order of players are changed in recent years. Players of Kyu-Do is increasing.

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Postscript

How was the content today ?

You can see popular sports in this article. However this order is always changeable. When I was in high school, Baseball was with largest number of players and I also played Baseball. Now, it became 2nd largest.

I hope that information in this article could assist you to have communication with your Japanese friends. Some of friends might have experience to play listed sports.