We attended the AJS regular seminar on 23 October, with the theme “Sports Business in Japan: The next six years will be full opportunity”. Two huge sports events will be held during the next six years in Japan: the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Tokyo Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020. Mr Matt Carroll, the Chief Operating Officer of Rugby World Cup Japan 2019, remarked on the sports business possibilities in Japan for Australian companies and how Japanese associated agencies and local governments can take advantage of these occasions. To take an instance, he said not many South Africans are in Japanese rural big cities such as Sapporo, Hokkaido, for tourism. However, if the South African national team has a World Cup match in Sapporo, enthusiastic supporters will definitely be there, bringing economic opportunities to related agencies and local governments.
A former Wallaby, Mr Ian Williams, also attended the seminar. He played for one of the strongest Japanese rugby teams, Kobe Steel, about 20 years ago, and was very famous in Japan. Assistant Director Mr Hakuta (aged 30) hadn’t heard of him before, but our Director Mr Tanabe was really excited to encounter a Japanese rugby legend.
