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From Grade Schooler To Great Star: Childhood Development And The “Golden Age” In The World Of Japanese Soccer, Elise M. Edwards

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This chapter, by Elise Edwards, explores how, in its quest for success in the men’s FIFA World Cup, the Japan Football Association encourages parents to enroll preschoolers in its kids’ program to increase the number of children playing soccer and the quality of their training, emphasizes the importance of physical activity and play for children, and promotes the notion of a golden age between the ages of nine and twelve when the opportunity for physical development is said to peak. This popularizes a vision of a segmented childhood determined by age grades and developmental stages underpinned by a fear that …