ABSTRACT
All of the four Japanese sporting tours to Australia in the inter-war period are now largely forgotten. This article examines each of these tours — in swimming in 1926–27 and again in 1934–35, rugby in 1927 and tennis in 1932 — in order to further historic understandings of Australian-Japanese sporting connections and to augment existing knowledge of constructive engagements between the two nations in this period. Based mainly on press reports, the article aims to situate the tours within sporting and political contexts, consider positive responses to the tourists as cultural ambassadors, and assess how these visits simultaneously contributed to and challenged racial discourses, stereotypes and anxieties.
