Global warming, mainly due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, has a devastating effect on our living planet. To combat it and foster a low-carbon society, contributions from the sports community are needed. Accordingly, the concept of ‘green sports’ has emerged, calling for green performance of sports infrastructure, green production in sports manufacturing, and green awareness of sports community. In this respect, Japan, as a leader in both Asian sports and worldwide sustainable development, has valuable experiences, including widespread stakeholders’ participation, substantial efforts, and outstanding achievements. Inspired by Japan’s examples, this study not only summarises mainstream recommendations for the development of green sports, but also presents two innovative proposals – linking green sports with market-based flexibility mechanisms and promoting environmental education through sports celebrities – and the prospects for these approaches. This article could be used by worldwide sports community as reference for making contributions to the establishment of a low-carbon society.