The is the national premier sports event of Japan. It consists of three stages. The skating and ice hockey stage takes place in January, the skiing stage takes place in February, and the main Autumn tournament takes place in September and October. Its name is often abbreviated to Kokutai (国体). Outline The predecessor to the tournament was the Meiji Shrine tournament held from 1924 until 1943, a period including the Pacific War. Since then there was a Summer tournament that focused on swimming, and an Autumn tournament that focused on track-and-field; however from the 61st tournament in 2006, the Summer and Autumn tournaments were combined. On 20 December 2006 the Japan Sports Association, as the committee for the tournament, decided that swimming was to be held before mid-September as of and beyond the 64th tournament in 2009, though this actually came into effect in the 63rd tournament, in 2008. This took into account the peculiar qualities of holding swimming events. Also the golf tournament was moved forward in the schedule. The previous Summer and Autumn tournaments have fundamentally been held across one prefecture. The two winter tournaments also take place in the same prefecture, making up the entire tournament. It is often the case when a tournament is held in colder areas such as Hokkaido, Tōhoku, Kōshin'etsu and Hokuriku, that both autumn and tournaments are held in the same prefecture. It is very rare that the skating and ice hockey tournaments are held in separate areas. From the 56th tournament in 2001, the National Sports Festival for People with Disabilities was also held. At the skating and ice hockey tournaments includes figure skating, speed skating, short track speed skating, and ice hockey. The skiing tournament includes giant slalom, ski jump, Nordic combined, cross-country skiing, and mogul skiing. The autumn tournament consists of swimming, water polo, bowling, football, track and field, judo, kendo, fencing, wrestling, mountaineering, volleyball, basketball, softball (adults), baseball (high school - hardball and softball). When the summer and autumn tournaments were held separately, swimming, water polo, bowling and football were held in the summer season. In addition, from the 43rd tournament in 1988 an exhibition sports event (known as ) was also held. It is an event for people to represent the prefectures they live, work or study in, and involves various active community sports. During the tournament, the official rankings change in accordance with the number of