［October 2013］
Local governments and sports activities

Last month, Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The Japanese people were very excited to hear the news, as were the local governments.

Japanese local governments, in collaboration with schools have the primary responsibility of developing sports activities. Each local government has a section or a division within its organisational structure which is in charge of sporting activities. There is also a semi-government, pubic-private organisation called “Sports Association” in each local government. Every junior and high school (that is year 7 to 12) has its sports clubs such as baseball, tennis, Judo and so on. Local governments support their activities financially and build necessary athletic stadium and playing fields. There are nation-wide competitions between representative high schools of 47 prefectures. Among them, the national high school baseball tournament called ”Koshien”, which is held in spring and summer every year, is one of the most popular sporting events in Japan.

For the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Japanese local governments will allocate more resources to develop good athletes and build sports facilities. They will also promote tourism to foreign visitors and attract the pre-games training camps for the participating countries.

I hope in 2020 our staff will play a great role supporting the Green and Gold.