SSS #19: ASEAN-JAPAN Singapore Research Report

Seijo University's International Research Center for Sports and Gender Equality (SGE) operates the YouTube channel "Sport for Social Solutions (SSS)". This channel highlights sports as a platform for addressing social issues, featuring a wide range of guests including experts, government officials, and athletes to share information and exchange ideas.

Seijo University's International Research Center for Sports and Gender Equality YouTube Channel:

The theme for SSS #19 is "ASEAN-JAPAN Singapore Research Report."

Among the ASEAN nations, Singapore has achieved remarkable economic development. In the city's well-equipped sports facilities and public spaces, people of all genders can be seen engaging in physical activity as part of their daily lives. At first glance, Singapore appears to offer an environment where everyone can participate in sports equally — but what does the reality look like when it comes to sport and gender in this country?

As part of a Japan Sports Agency initiative, SGE leads the "ASEAN-JAPAN Actions on Sport: Gender Equality" project, where Japan and the governments of 11 ASEAN countries collaborate to promote gender equality through sports. A key component of this project is a research initiative launched in 2023 to identify challenges and needs related to women's and girls' sports participation.

Singapore is the ninth country in this research series. SGE postdoctoral researchers Yu Furuta and Yuko Takada shared their findings and insights on the current state and challenges surrounding women's sports participation in the country.

Sport Woven Into Everyday Life

Reflecting on their impressions of Singapore, both researchers noted how seamlessly sport and physical activity are woven into the fabric of daily life. In underground station corridors, people of all genders could be seen skateboarding, rollerblading, and dancing, while advertisements around the city depicted families enjoying exercise together.

Furthermore, covered running tracks were available for anyone to use freely, near the stadium they visited, in addition to multi-use courts open to the public for basketball, tennis, and a variety of other sports. These observations suggested that in Singapore, spaces that make it easy to participate in sport are embedded throughout everyday life.

Equal Opportunities? — The Gap Between Perception and Reality

Reflecting on their interviews with government and sports officials in Singapore, Yuko noted being struck by how frequently she heard statements such as "there isn't much difference between men and women" and "opportunities to play sport are equally open to both genders."

However, as conversations with interviewees deepened, gaps between these perceptions and reality began to emerge. For instance, the number of competition opportunities differed by gender depending on the sport; combat sports were often seen as unsuitable for women; and norms such as "women shouldn't get a tan" were cited as influencing girls' and women's sports participation. Yu further noted that while opportunities for participation may be equally available in principle, disparities in resource allocation — including financial support such as scholarships — create differences in ease of continuation and the range of options available.

Gender differences in continuation were also observed. As noted in many other countries surveyed, interviewees mentioned that women tend to face restrictions on sports participation following pregnancy and childbirth. In Singapore specifically, while the use of domestic helpers is common, the expectation that parents bear primary responsibility for childcare means that constraints arising from pregnancy and childbirth are often seen as unavoidable to some degree. Men, too, were noted to face interruptions to their sporting lives due to mandatory military service. Additionally, academic and professional achievement tend to take priority over sport in Singapore, and it was noted that many athletes and sports professionals maintain primary careers in fields such as medicine or law, continuing sports as a secondary pursuit.

Yuko also touched on the deeply rooted culture of meritocracy in Singapore — the idea that social status and power should be distributed based on individual ability and merit. Against this cultural backdrop, she noted some resistance to proactive policies aimed at raising the proportion of women in leadership to a certain threshold. Yu shared that suggestions such as removing gender fields from CVs had come up as potential measures for increasing women leaders, reflecting interviewees' awareness of the role of unconscious gender bias in selection processes.

The Value of Sport — In a Society That Centers the Individual

The discussion then turned to how the value of sport is understood in Singapore. Yu shared that the benefits of sport were primarily framed around individual physical and mental health improvement and community building. Rather than sport being discussed as a driver of national empowerment or the advancement of women's rights more broadly, the focus was on its value for the individual.

In closing, Yu reflected: "Because Singapore is economically advanced and women's participation in society is well established, the picture of sport here was quite different from what we have seen elsewhere, and we gained a lot of new insights." Yu added: "Even as ASEAN countries vary in their levels of economic development, the strength of ASEAN lies in the fact that each country can draw on the others' knowledge. We want to keep creating opportunities to share what we have learned and have discussions."

Watch the full video of this episode here: https://youtu.be/vqhWk6Gpi1c?si=eb7BxrwSfAgTmJJq

For reports from previously researched countries, please see the links below.
Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos