Reasons for gateball participation among older Japanese

This article focuses upon a game known as gateball which is popular among older Japanese. The game is described and patterns of social behavior among gateball players are also discussed. Using data collected from an open-ended questionnaire, participant observation on a gateball team, and a series of semi-structured interviews with older people living in a rural region of Japan, some of the reasons behind participation in gateball are explored. These motives are then placed into the context of changing patterns of social interaction between younger and older Japanese and are also discussed in terms of the presence of age grading practices which structure the life course for many Japanese living in rural areas. The data for this article were collected during approximately two years of ethnographic fieldwork in northern Japan.