Skip to main content

Graduating Seniors Head to the Corporate Running World

by Brett Larner

As the Japanese academic year comes to a close this month, many of this year's talented group of graduating university seniors prepare to enter the corporate team world of jitsugyodan running while others bid goodbye to their days of serious running. Below is a listing of some of the best runners in this year's graduating class and their destinations next month.

Tsuguya Asahi (Waseda Univ.) - Team Kyudenko
Soji Ikeda (Komazawa Univ.) - Team Yakult
Kenta Kawasaki (Kokushikan Univ.) - Team Suzuki
Yuki Kawauchi (Gakushuin Univ.) - Saitama Prefectural Government
Masato Kihara (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - Team Kanebo
Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - Team Aidem
Kazuki Onishi (Toyo Univ.) - Team Kanebo
Tomoya Onishi (Toyo Univ.) - Team Asahi Kasei
Hiroyuki Ono (Juntendo Univ.) - Team Nissin Shokuhin
Yukinori Ota (Komazawa Univ.) - Team Mazda
Takuma Sasaya (Nihon Univ.) - Team JR Higashi Nihon
Yuki Sato (Tokai Univ.) - Team Nissin Shokuhin / Tokai Graduate School
Tsuyoshi Takeda (Juntendo Univ.) - Team Suzuki
Kensuke Takezawa (Waseda Univ.) - Team S&B / Waseda Graduate School
Atsuyoshi Tobisaka (Toyo Univ.) - Team NTN
Shigeki Tsuji (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - Team Tokyo Denryoku
Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Toyo Univ.) - Team Konica-Minolta
Atsushi Yamazaki (Juntendo Univ.) - Team Subaru

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance?  Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance.  This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere.  It was put into place in 1986.  In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made.  Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km.  When a bicycle is u...

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .