The National Sports Festival is the Japan's largest national sports meet. The first National Sports Festival was held in 1946 in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe region, mainly in Kyoto. Since then, the Festival has been held every year with prefectures competing against one another, with prefectures hosting the festival in succession. In 1961, the National Sports Festival was made an official annual event under the Sports Promotion Law, and since then the festivals have been held jointly by the Japan Sports Association, the Ministry of Education,Culture,Sports, Science and Technology and the hosting prefectures.