japan running news

On Aug. 18 ASICS announced that together with Nippon Television Holdings it will acquire all shares in ownership of sports media and sports event planning and management company R-bies as of Aug. 31. After the acquisition ASICS will own 65% and NTV 35%, with R-bies becoming an ASICS subsidiary and NTV affiliate. R-bies publishes Japan's largest running magazine, Runners, and operates the country's largest online race entry service Runnet with 3.5 million registered users. ASICS plans to take advantage of R-bies existing connections with Japan's running community to strengthen its product development, sales promotion and branding activities. Translator's note: The official press release on the acquisition states twice that "nothing will change" about the way R-bies operates, but it's hard to see how that could play out for Runners magazine and other aspects of R-bies' business. It's also interesting given ASICS' previous acquisition of the ...

by Brett Larner For more than 50 years the United States has led the world as its largest amateur marathon market, more people from around the world finishing marathons in the U.S. than in any other country.  Always a strong home for elite marathoning , the launch of the Tokyo Marathon in 2007 sparked an incredible amateur running boom in Japan that coincided with a worldwide growth in the popularity of marathons.  The Association of Road Racing Statisticians website tracks the number of marathon finishers by country worldwide, listing all marathons with results it can document.  Below are the total number of marathon finishers worldwide, in the U.S.A. and in Japan over the last ten years using the ARRS numbers.  Totals are number of finishers, not number of unique individuals to finish.  Chinese and Korean races are relatively under-documented.  During the ten years from 2006 to 2015 the number of marathon finishers worldwide more than doubled f...

translated and edited by Brett Larner source articles linked below click photo for video of a FNN report on this story  Evidence has emerged of a history of sloppy race management by the organizers of the Tokyo Arakawa Marathon scheduled for Dec. 21 but cancelled without warning two days beforehand .  A single representative of race organizers Reimei appeared at the race's staging ground on Dec. 21 to talk to the roughly 70 of 1500 entrants who arrived race morning unaware that the race had been cancelled.  "I thought that the permit applications had been filed, but right beforehand the ward office contacted us and said, 'Nothing has been filed.'"  Entrants who had turned up to run were shocked.  "This is the first I've heard about it being cancelled," said one.  "This is a scam, isn't it?"  Another said, "Usually at a race there would be lots of volunteers and race staff, like 100 people.  This certainly looks like a scam to...

translated and edited by Brett Larner source articles linked at bottom click photo for video of the purported race representative speaking to entrants who arrived on race morning The " Tokyo Arakawa Marathon " scheduled for Dec. 21 along the Arakawa River on Tokyo's northern border was cancelled without warning two days before the race after organizers failed to submit road and park use permits and other necessary preparations with either the local Edogawa Ward or national authorities responsible for the park and riverside course.  Organizers had collected 5 million yen [~$42,500 USD] in entry fees from around 1500 people who paid 2000 to 4000 yen each via the popular Runnet online entry system to run in the event's 5 km, 10 km, half marathon and full marathon divisions. 70 entrants who were unaware of the cancellation began arriving at the event's staging ground in Hirai Park ahead of the scheduled 7:30 opening of race day reception.  A 28-year old man...