Pickleball boom arrives in Japan amid push to add sport to 2032 Olympics

Pickleball has recently been finding a home among Japanese players, growing over sevenfold domestically in the past year, with Tokyo hosting its first Tour Asia games in July as enthusiasts push for its inclusion as an Olympic sport.Originally created in the United States, pickleball involves using a paddle to hit a perforated, plastic ball across a net on a court the same size as those used for badminton.Approximately 24.3 million people play the game in the United States. Japan lags with about 330,000 according to domestic media specializing in pickleball, but numbers have jumped more tha…READ FULL ARTICLE