I’d never heard of the game known as gateball until I wrote an article on it. I only heard about it because the sport seems to be on the way out.
Gateball is said to be a hyper-competitive sport. This has been accentuated in the press by reports of gateball-related violence. But is that true? A closer look shows that, while there have been a number of violent incidents around gateball, the image of gateball as a hypercompetitive and violent sport is largely the product of a desperate Japanese press in search of a story.
To recap, gateball is a Japanese variation of croquet. Two teams of five earn points for hitting balls through a goal or by striking a pole. Teams have 30 minutes to run up a score higher than their opponents.
The sport was once intensely popular in Japan. However, as management researcher Horimoto Noa notes in her paper produced during her studies at Kochi University of Technology, participation is dying off. That’s because young people don’t like it, and old people, who constitute the majority of players, don’t have the time.
One actual case of gateball violence?
There are a number of reasons for gateball’s lack of popularity, writes Horimoto. The five-on-five teams can be hard to pull – and keep – together. Additionally, as more seniors find themselves forced to work, fewer have time for sports.
