INTRODUCTION: It appears that the optimization of athlete well-being has received considerable attention in academic and practical fields of high performance sport. The International Olympic Committee has promoted the importance of athlete well-being particularly focused on mental health (Reardon et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the literature is limited to understand the case of Japanese athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a fact-finding national survey of athlete well-being in Japan. METHODS: First, a total of 100 Japanese university student-athletes (43 male, 57 female) from 17 Olympic and 7 Paralympic sports completed an online survey as a pilot study. The validity, reliability, and feasibility of the national survey were verified in the pilot study. Consequently, the validated survey was applied to Japanese elite athletes who competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The respondents were 92 Japanese elite athletes (42 male, 50 female), aged 16 to 64 years (30.8±9.4). The state of the respondents` well-being in the past 3 years was calculated on a 5-point scale (1 = very good, 2 = somewhat good, 3 = not so good, 4 = not good at all, 5 = not sure) to account for the influence of the COVID-19 widespread in 2020 in Japan. RESULTS: Test-retest reliability of the national survey was found to be good (r = 0.7 ± 0.3) (Hopkins, 2000). The results of the national survey indicated that the overall states of athlete well-being in the Japanese elite athletes were perceived as relatively good in terms of physical, mental, educational, organizational, social, and financial aspects (Wylleman, 2019). Interestingly, there were 78 respondents (84.8%) who had someone they could talk to when they felt anxious or distressed, while 55% of the university student-athletes indicated the availability of someone whom they could approach in the pilot study. Parents (48.7%) were the most common people to talk to about their concerns and problems of well-being, followed by friends (44.9%), teammates (47.4%), and coaches (38.5%). However, many Japanese elite athletes (84.8%) mentioned that they had never received or used athlete well-being support from the national sport federations and the government due to lack of information and accessibility to the services etc. The respondents agreed that the national sport federations and the government should implement measures to enhance and support athlete well-being including consultation services, athlete education, and coach education. CONCLUSION: Taken together, we could recommend to develop an evidence-based national system to enhance and support athlete well-being in Japan and to provide related programmes (consultation services and education etc) so as to support athlete well-being in a better way than currently available.
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