Did Japan Benefit Economically as a result of the World Cup 2002? :: Economics

Has Japan really benefitted economically as a result of the World Cup 2002? Introduction ============ From the 31st of May until June 30th, Japan & Korea hosted the World Cup in which 32 teams competed to be crowned football champions of the world. Many thousands of people watched the matches live and hundreds of millions worldwide watched on T.V. The World Cup has been the most popular sporting event ever since the 1930s when Uruguay hosted and won the first ever World Cup. Since then the World Cup has been hosted every four year in different countries apart from during World War 2 and there have been 17 World Cups. Since the 30s football has became the world's most popular sport and with the introduction of commercial air flight, motorcars and the global T.V network it has become an important source of revenue. In 1994 the World Cup was hosted in the USA and a record 3,587,530 people watched it live. Since the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico the total attendance had begun to rise to over 2 million live viewers a World Cup. This would result in host countries gaining massive revenue from ticket sales and money received from the T.V companies broadcasting the match. The rights for broadcasting the 2002 World Cup were bought for  £622 million by Kirchmedia showing just how valuable World Cup football is. Also a study by HSBC securities in 1998 showed that countries which hosted the World Cup after 1966 saw their respective stock markets do better on average by 9%, 6 months prior to the tournament. However the study also showed that 6 months after the tournament most markets under performed by an average of 6%. In 1998 Japan was chosen to joint host the World Cup with South Korea and began a vigorous development project to upgrade and build good quality stadiums, improve public transport, build more hotels and create an excellent security force for the games. Stadiums such as the Shizuoka stadium, Sapporo dome, the Oita stadium and Niigata stadium were built just for the games and are considered some of the most modern stadiums in the world. Japan's aim from the 2002 World Cup was to attract many tourists, have a smoothly run games, encourage Japanese citizens into football and to improve its international reputation as an excellent place to host international sports events. From joint hosting the World Cup Japan achieved many economic benefits and in this essay I will explain how and why this improved Japan's economy. The Japanese economy improved because of the following effects of the World Cup during and before the event. Economic Concepts ================= Economic growth is caused by improvements in the quantity and quality