ABSTRACT
Media play a key role in the construction of Japanese national identity, and sports media, specifically, remind audiences of their place in the world as members of a collective. This chapter discusses traditional markers of Japanese national identity, discourses of ‘Japaneseness’ found in media narratives, and the ways in which sports narratives reproduce these ideas for the Japanese public. Narratives surrounding the Mongolian sumo champion Hakuho are examined as a specific case study.
