Traditional Japanese sports are characterized by a vital spiritual element supporting them. The names of traditional Japanese martial arts such as "Judo", "Kendo", "Aikido", and "Kyudo" have the suffix "Do" (the road). "Do" is the pursuit of the ideal form in each discipline. "Bushido" is famous even to foreigners, it describes how a samurai should live.
Other sports imported from the West are also thriving in Japan. In particular, soccer and baseball have become Japan's national sports.
Sumo is the national sport in Japan. Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, from Shinto.
Sumo is a form of full-contact competitive wrestling in which sumo wrestlers attempt to drag their opponents out of the circular ring or have them touch the ground with body parts other than the soles of their feet.
Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu, one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship, using bamboo swords and protective armor.
When Samurai were the mainstream, various schools of Kenjutsu were established, and these are the ancestors of kendo. The formal practice known as kendo kata was developed centuries ago as a Kenjutsu practice for the Samurai.
Karate is a martial art that developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom of Japan (present-day Okinawa). With approximately 3 million competitors in Japan and 40 million worldwide in 173 countries and regions, it has become a popular sport worldwide.
There are various theories about its origins, but it developed by adding Chinese martial arts to the Okinawan indigenous kung fu while also being influenced by several Japanese martial arts.