The article discusses the interrelations between sport, cinema and socio-political transformation of Japan between 1868 and 1945. Cinema is identified as a mass medium able to serve as a socio-cultural document and a historical source. Article's starting point is a brief discussion of the Meiji era authorities’ policy toward Western influences, cinema, and sport, both modern and traditional. This is followed by the discussion of early non-fiction films depicting sport, mainly sumo matches. Next section is devoted to the inclusion of sport motifs in feature film in the context of socio-cultural transformations of Japan. Main section of the article discusses three strategies of employing sport in Japanese cinema of the late 1920s and 1930s: 1) neutral observation in which modern sports are presented as one of the aspects of socio-cultural transformations of Japan, 2) introduction of more or less elaborate sport motifes into the narratives of films in which sport does not play a dominant role but which attempt to comment on the social reality, 3) utilisation of sport motifes as purely symbolical devices. Last section of the article briefly indicates on two options available for Japanese filmmakers during the Pacific War - inclusion of the themes they were interested in into films conforming with the national policy and subversive filmmaking.