John Horne is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport and Leisure at the University of Edinburgh. He has published many articles and book chapters on sport, leisure and popular culture and is the author of Sport in Consumer Culture (2006) and co-author of Understanding Sport (1999, with Alan Tomlinson and Garry Whannel). He is the co-editor of Sport, Leisure and Social Relations (1987, Sociological Review Monograph No. 33, with David Jary and Alan Tomlinson), Japan, Korea and the 2002 World Cup (2002, with Wolfram Manzenreiter) and Football Goes East: Business, Culture and the People’s Game in China, Japan and Korea (2004, with Wolfram Manzenreiter). He has also edited two Leisure Studies Association publications: Leisure Cultures, Consumption and Commodification (2001) and Masculinities: Leisure Cultures, Identities and Consumption (2000, with Scott Fleming).

Wolfram Manzenreiter is Assistant Professor at the Institute of East Asian Studies, Vienna University, where he lectures on modern Japanese society. His major research interests are concerned with the social and economic implications of sport and popular culture in contemporary Japan. He is author of several books and articles on popular culture, leisure and sport in Japan. Currently he is working on a new book entitled Sport and Nation in Japan. In addition to the co-edited volumes with John Horne, Football Goes East (2004) and Japan, Korea and the 2002 World Cup (2002), his recent works include the monographs The Social Construction of Japanese Mountaineering (2000), and Pachinko Monogatari: Japan's Gambling Industry (1998), both published in German.