National Sports Festival of Japan

The logo is a red torch leaning at a 30-degree incline to the right, wrapped in a blue Obi.

Ever since the second tournament in 1947 the song Young Power (若い力, Wakai Chikara), written by Takao Saeki and composed by Shinichi Takada, has been played at the opening and closing ceremonies of all large-scale sporting events.

This is not simply down to that team's preliminary scores, but by a number of factors including the ability to field athletes in every competition and the ability to strengthen athletes with the funding going into newly institutions such as venues and event management.

In fact, Nobu Nishimura, the lieutenant governor of Yamaguchi prefecture which hosted the 2011 tournament, said at a party "the hosts have an advantage in events with flagmen (events where the result is decided by officials)" and "even if there's 'cheating' they will take first place".

When he was criticised, he explained his position by saying "I meant the tendency where host prefectures have an advantage, not that it's ok to break the rules".

[3] In a move counter to this custom, as a result of then Kōchi prefecture governor, Daijirō Hashimoto, abolishing it at the 2002 Kochi hosted tournament, host prefecture Kōchi finished in 10th place with Tokyo winning overall.

In spite of no large-scale events being anticipated as taking place there following the tournament, large amounts of tax payer money continues to go toward its maintenance.

On 26 December 1945 at the Kishi Memorial Gymnasium, Ryōzō Hiranuma (director of the Japan Sports Association), Izutarō Suehiro (chairman of the Japan Swimming Federation), Sanburō Kiyose, Tatsuo Hisatomi and Keijirō Ishida, who had all held important sporting administrative positions since before the war, proposed holding a national athletics event during talks about how sporting events could take place in the post war period.

In 1946, the group had informal talks with Hiromu Kasuga, the chairman of the Kansai Sports Federation, and formed a board of directors.

After having their proposal examined and approval gained from GHQ, they received 400,000 yen from the government to help with costs, and the first tournament was held.

The regions railway company also issues commemorative items such as train tickets.

Each tournament normally has a unique mascot character to help build support and encourage good PR.

The first mascot was a nameless goat for the 30th tournament (1975) in Mie prefecture, though it was referred to as pet-mark.

[citation needed] In the 38th tournament, hosted in Gunma in 1983, the first named character, a horse called Gunma-chan, was used.

In addition to this, it is often the case where a singer with a strong local connection will sing, along with songs which match the theme of the tournament.