... entertain the one million or more spectators who line the marathon route. Open-entry races have sprung up in other cities emulating the Tokyo Marathon, including huge contests for citizen runners in Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, and Yokohama. These events unite runners and spectators, streetside and via...

... marathoners performed poorly at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and little better at London in 2012. From 2008 on, many elite races in Japan began admitting citizen runners and generated huge fields. Kawauchi Yūki, an unaffiliated amateur, emerged as a celebrity in 2011 in defiance of both corporate track teams...

... capitalism since the 1970s, and the nationalist goals of the central government via subsidies for sports, especially to produce Olympic medalists. By contrast, most citizen-runners aim to achieve a personal best time in marathons. Running has become the quintessential athletic activity for nearly everyone...