Abstract

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games were the first mega sports events committed to the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Among sports organizations in Japan, the mega event’s positive impacts on their sustainability and responsible management are expected. Thus, this chapter explores the country’s unique cases to see how the management of sustainability and responsibility is perceived and addressed. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with private, public, and non-profit sports organizations in 2022. The data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis to identify the pattern of meaning across a qualitative dataset. The results imply that individual sports organizations in Japan have not established a specific definition of responsible and sustainable management. Their organizational missions are based on the philosophy widely accepted in the Japanese economy, which is sustainable and responsible issues. This engenders a mood that the organizations are likely to label their existing businesses with the SDGs to appeal to their commitments to sustainability and responsibility. Therefore, spontaneous actions by sports organizations to demonstrate their commitment to a better community play a key role in the social responsibility of the sports sector for a sustainable society in Japan.