The foundation and development of the Exercise Medical Consultation Office at the Ministry of Education and its significance:

In October 1933, the Ministry of Education founded the Exercise Medical Consultation Office (EMCO).In an attempt is to revisit the historical image of sports policy in prewar Japan, this study sought to clarify why and how this national policy was realized and to examine the nature of its activities from the perspective of the Ministry officials directly involved in its implementation.Previous studies have evaluated the sports policy of the 1930s as a "physical education policy" that regulated sports activities to improve the national physique and cultivate the national spirit, ultimately leading to the decline and suppression of sports in the 1940s.However, the historical image of this policy was derived by positing the sports policy and its officials as a means of advancing nationalistic intentions.Therefore, the present study examined the process of the EMCO's foundation and activities separately from the "physical education policy" framework by focusing on the thoughts and actions of EMCO officials, with the aim of relativizing the views of previous studies' in the context of the contemporary development of sports medicine.The EMCO was founded on the basis of the "Rational Promotion Policy for Physical Education Exercise" (1930), reflecting the aspirations of sports medicine scholars for an institution in which athletes could be examined by doctors with a deep understanding of sports and sports medicine in order to create an environment that would motivate athletes to continue their sporting activities.Thus, the EMCO did not aim to adjust or control the athlete's mind and body based on the objectives of physical education, but rather to provide a medical consultation that would examine each individual's sporting history and physical condition in a specific and comprehensive way.The Ministry of Education officials who promoted this policy had a view of sports that resonated with those involved in private sports organizations.Having expertise and connections in sports and medicine, they hoped to apply and develop sports medicine in a context that was different from the national intentions of ideological guidance and improvement of the national physique.Therefore, this policy created no conflict between the Ministry of Education officials and private sports organizations, and even in the late 1930s, the Ministry of Education developed a policy to encourage sports activities based on personal interests and concerns from the perspective of sports medicine.