Podcast Summary: New Books Network – “Basketball in Japan: Shooting for the Stars” with Aaron L. Miller

Host: Keith Rathbone
Guest: Aaron L. Miller (California State University, East Bay)
Book: Basketball in Japan: Shooting for the Stars (Routledge, 2024)
Release Date: September 21, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores Aaron L. Miller’s new book on the history, culture, and changing dynamics of basketball in Japan. The conversation moves from Miller’s personal and research journey, through the historical entry and social meanings of basketball in Japan, to the contemporary puzzles of identity, globalization, and sport science. The discussion is especially rich in anthropological and sociological insight, aimed at scholars of sports and Japan, but accessible and lively for general listeners.

Main Themes and Purpose

• Investigating Basketball’s Status in Japan: Unpacking why basketball is hugely popular among Japanese youth but lags as a professional and national sport compared to baseball, and what this dynamic says about Japanese society.
• Sport as Cultural Lens: Using basketball as a means to interrogate broader patterns of change, identity, nationalism, and globalization in Japan.
• Ethnography and Methodology: Showcasing Miller’s immersive anthropological research with Japanese basketball teams and communities.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Personal and Academic Journey into Japanese Sports

• Aaron Miller’s entry point was “being thrown” into a small Japanese town as an English teacher, using sports to learn the language and have cultural success.
  • “I got really interested in sports as a way of connecting people from different countries... I had grown up playing those sports myself... That got me writing about Japanese sports.” (Aaron Miller, 02:52–06:50)
• Early influential reading: Robert Whiting’s "You Gotta Have Wa," which links baseball to Japanese culture.

2. Basketball’s Curious Popularity Curve

• Puzzle: Basketball is immensely popular among schoolchildren, but attention shifts overwhelmingly to baseball post-graduation, and pro basketball is marginal.
  • “Why is it, you know, that I saw so many young kids playing basketball in these schools... but then all of a sudden, everybody starts watching baseball on TV when they graduate high school, and basketball is nowhere to be found?” (Aaron Miller, 08:27)

3. Research Method: Embedded Ethnography

• Miller’s method foregrounds deep immersion, language study, coaching and observing practices in context.
  • “It was difficult to get the full story from conversations with Japanese people... so unless you're really, really fluent... conversations would give me pieces... But in terms of the methodology... my training is in social anthropology and the ethnographic method is really where I start.” (Aaron Miller, 12:07–13:20)
• Triangulation: Ethnography, reading Japanese/English sources, leveraging historical research from others, and personal observation.

4. Decentering Chronology: Focus on Social Change Over Time

• The book is organized around puzzles and themes rather than strict chronology, highlighting shifts in Japanese sporting values and their link to societal changes.
  • “It's not strictly a chronology of basketball in Japan... the question is more about how the culture is shifting.” (Keith Rathbone, 16:50)

5. Coaching, Sport Science, and Changing Norms

• Fieldwork at a Tokyo university (pseudonym: "MU") reveals a shift: Some coaches move away from "samurai" (hyper-disciplined, sacrificial) models to scientific, player-centered approaches.
  • “I realized that the coaches there were not following samurai rhetoric. They were... enlightened to the fact that a samurai approach might mean you make your players run and run and run until they fall down... They were using sports science.” (Aaron Miller, 23:19)
• Tension: Old-school “hard training” versus newer science-led paradigms—often a false dichotomy as both approaches may become dogmatic.

6. Historical Roots: Basketball’s Introduction to Japan

• Basketball likely introduced via YMCAs and Japanese returnees from the US; initially met with suspicion due to its American and Christian associations.
  • “Basketball, volleyball, baseball—these American sports—people had suspicions about them... especially so soon after the black ships (arrival of Commodore Perry).” (Aaron Miller, 29:45–34:45)
• Basketball’s growth was slower than baseball’s, partly due to these suspicions, but ended up with a strong youth base.

7. Sports, Nationalism, and Anti-Colonial Strategy

• Japanese sports served as proxies for proving national strength and masculine virtue, especially vis-à-vis the US.
  • “Sports become a conduit for... emphasizing their nationalism... Let us show you on the baseball field.” (Aaron Miller, 36:05)
• Historical victories—like the notorious 29–3 baseball win over an American team—fueled this attitude.

8. Contemporary Identity Puzzles: ‘DNA’ and Japanese-ness

• There’s an obsession with creating a “fully Japanese” male basketball hero who can succeed internationally (esp. NBA), with mixed-race or foreign-born stars (like Rui Hachimura) being celebrated but often still treated as “not quite Japanese.”
  • “There’s this enormous question that overhangs all of Japan... about who is Japanese. There have been Japan-born players in the NBA... some, but not all Japanese dismiss him as not really Japanese or not fully Japanese.” (Aaron Miller, 44:13)

9. Masculinity, Femininity, and Gendered Success

• Despite great international success by Japanese women in the WNBA and world tournaments, mainstream aspirations and funding remain focused on producing a male basketball superstar.
  • “There was definitely a preference among many people in Japanese basketball for a male hardwood hero, like a female hardwood hero clearly wasn’t sufficing.” (Keith Rathbone, 58:44)

10. Basketball’s Professionalization, FIBA, and Commercialization

• Japan’s pro basketball “B League” formed under FIBA pressure but still struggles with global migration of its best talent and investment imbalances (especially in the women’s game).
  • “Japanese in the mid-2000s... wanted to create their own truly professional league... the B League... Now, that league is really quite powerful within Japan.” (Aaron Miller, 54:15)

11. Diversity, Stereotypes, and the Myth of a ‘Japanese Way’

• Miller challenges the stereotype that there’s only “one way” Japanese play basketball, emphasizing variation in style, ideology, and self-identity within Japan.
  • “As an anthropologist, that was one of my commitments: just to shed light on that diversity... there’s always different ways of playing sports, but sometimes those alternative ways get overshadowed by the mainstream way.” (Aaron Miller, 50:48, 53:14)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Japanese sports, as a way of understanding Japanese culture, really kind of sunk their teeth into me.” (Aaron Miller, 07:39)
• “[Japanese coaches] were using sports science. And so they were saying, no, we have to pay attention to the wet bulb, globe temperature, right? It's really hot outside… We can't be running our players into the ground.” (Aaron Miller, 23:19)
• On Japanese identity in sport: “There’s this pretty enormous question that overhangs all of Japan, not just the sports world, about who is Japanese… There's this relationship, complicated relationship, between ethnicity and nationalism.” (Aaron Miller, 44:13)
• “I think so much of the English literature… is really focused on how the Japanese are X, Y, or Z, period. I lived there almost 10 years of my life…there's a lot of diversity in Japan.” (Aaron Miller, 50:48)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Aaron Miller’s Origin Story & Baseball as Entry Point: 02:52–08:27
• Ethnographic Methodology in Japanese Sports: 12:07–13:20
• Coaching Styles & Sport Science vs. Samurai Ethos: 21:09–27:59
• How Basketball Came to Japan: 29:29–34:45
• Sport, Nationalism, and Masculinity in Japanese History: 36:05–39:59
• ‘DNA’ and the Question of Japanese Basketball Heroes: 41:53–49:01
• Commercialization, FIBA, and the B League's Evolution: 54:15–58:44
• Women’s Basketball and Gender Inequality: 58:44–59:40
• Closing and Miller’s Next Project: 59:40–63:22

What’s Next for Aaron Miller?

• Upcoming collaborative book (with a Japanese historical sociologist) on the evolution and current problems of Japanese youth sports—especially intensity, adult-driven organization, and comparison with American youth sports.
  • “We aligned really quite amazingly on the same thesis, which is that Japanese youth sports have become too intense and too serious and too adult driven.” (Aaron Miller, 59:40)

Conclusion/Recommendation

Miller’s book, Basketball in Japan: Shooting for the Stars, offers a nuanced, ethnographically-rich look at the paradoxes, ambiguities, and societal stakes involved in Japanese basketball today. By foregrounding lived experience and interrogating received wisdom about “Japaneseness,” Miller brings depth to debates on nationalism, globalization, and sporting change—essential reading for sports scholars, Japan specialists, and anyone seeking to understand how a game can shape and reflect a society.

For more:

• Explore the book, especially for untapped chapters on commercialization, league structure, and women’s basketball.
• Watch for Miller’s upcoming work on Japanese youth sports (“Beyond the Black Clubs”).