Abstract
This chapter examines the contested terrain of the 2019 Rugby World Cup (RWC) on the occasion of the first time the event was held in Asia. The event attracted extraordinary attention domestically and internationally with the host nation, Japan, recording a historic upset victory over the world’s Number 2 ranked team, Ireland, becoming the first Asian team to ever advance to the quarter-finals. The success story of the Japanese team was accompanied by a celebration and representation of diversity and multiculturalism highlighting the fact that about half of its roster consisted of foreign-born players. The discourse of ‘One Team’ describing unity through difference in the Japanese team was mobilised by the mass media and business leaders as a desirable future outlook for Japan in the twenty-first century. In particular, the paper discusses the social and cultural significance of sport mega-events as strategic sites of cultural analysis and the multidimensional nature of the contested terrain of RWC 2019 with respect to space, bodies and commodities. Overall, the analysis illustrates how one particular sporting event offers insights into the role of sport as part of a wider set of relations of globalisation, politics, economics and cultural identity.