Skip to main content

Ohtawara City Government Plans to Drop Its Two Major Public Events, the Ohtwara Marathon and Yoichi Festival



On Nov. 20 it was learned that the Ohtawara municipal government is seriously considering discontinuing two of the city's major events, the Ohtawara Marathon and the Ohtawara Yoichi Festival. Due to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Tochigi National Sports Festival the two events are likely to not be held for a period of at least three years, but due to the financial burden on the area including construction of a new city hall, city officials will undertake a serious review of all municipal expenditures.

The Ohtawara Marathon began in 1988 as the only JAAF-certified full marathon course in the prefecture of Tochigi. It has served as a gateway to the marathon for young athletes, with top placers earning invitations to the Paris Marathon. Over 85,000 people have run it, bringing a tangible financial benefit to the region. But in recent years the spread of mass participation marathons across the country has impacted the event. For this year's 32nd running only 3,500 people entered the marathon, down 650 from last year.

Organized annually by a committee made up largely of city officials, the Yoichi Festival is Ohtawara's largest summer festival. This year's festival in August marked the event's 39th edition. Celebrating samurai Yoichi Nasu, the master of archery, the festival is a beloved highlight of midsummer for the local population. Due to increasing summer temperatures in recent years, the festival has had to face the issue of how to minimize the risk of heatstroke among the children and other participants in the warriors' procession that makes up the highlight of the festival.

With these circumstances in mind, the city intends to suspend the two events and consider their futures after reviewing their scale and timing. Speaking to media during a press conference on Nov. 20, Ohtawara mayor Tomio Tsukui commented, "The schedule is jam packed with the Olympics, National Sports Festival pre-event , the National Sports Festival and other events elsewhere. Should other events that we have put on in the past continue to be held as if they are basic inalienable rights? I'd like to review all of our operations with the aim of settling the issue."

Translator's note: I ran the Ohtwara Marathon twice, breaking 2:50 for the first time and running the second-fastest time of my career. At that time its course was two laps of a relatively flat loop around local roads, but partly in response to an increasing number of people using it as a half marathon and dropping out after the first lap it switched to a hillier single-lap course around 2010. As mentioned in the article, it has a long history as an entry-level elite race. Its relatively low entry numbers are in part due to its 4-hour cutoff time.

source article:
https://www.shimotsuke.co.jp/articles/-/246700
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Metts said…
Maybe this is the trend, maybe now beginning to see the saturation point of mass marathons, especially the bigger ones, crowding out the small races, especially those that have been around for a while. Just saw an article on Quartz, about how the cost is just too much now. It used to be you could reasonably run, 3, 4, 5 marathons in a year, and not bankrupt your budget. Now marathons, even Yokohama is around 18,000 yen. Who can afford to do more than one marathon any more unless you try to target the smaller ones, but they are most likely being the ones crowded out of the marathon market. I see Japan, and maybe only Japan, where performance, or at least trying to run your best marathon/half marathon, and or a reasonable type time/effort as still a goal, instead of just a bucket list event.
November 22, 2019 at 9:18 AM
TokyoRacer said…
There is also a 10K, which starts after the marathon. That's a perfectly flat course and mid-November weather makes it ideal for running fast. When it was a two-lap course, we would finish the 10k, then go to the marathon halfway point to cheer our friends, and then again about 1k before the finish. I think with the new course it's still possible to cheer twice. Anyway, it's a really nice event and we always have quite a few club members doing it. Also, it's easy to get to from Tokyo in the morning. Would be a shame if they do away with it.
November 22, 2019 at 12:21 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Ngetich Breaks CR, Murayama and Sasaki Make U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10k

WR holder Agnes Ngetich  soloed a fast one at the 54th edition of the Mastercard New York Mini 10k, leading inside the first mile and pulling away the rest of the race to run a 30:07 CR for the win, the fastest time ever on U.S. soil albeit on a slightly net downhill course. On a warm day that saw over 10,000 women finish  Tsigie Gebreselama  was on her own most of the way too, a distant 2nd in 30:53 and 17 seconds up on past champ Hellen Obiri . Further back, 2026 World University Cross Country bronze medalist Amisa Murayama  and 2025 Morinomiyako Ekiden 3rd leg CR breaker Nazuki Sasaki  from 2025 National University Women's Ekiden runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University  made their U.S. debuts. Murayama was targeting the fastest-ever Japanese time at the Mini, 32:37, but struggled on the hills just before 5 km and late in the race, fading to finish 23rd in 34:08. Sasaki, recovering from a stress reaction in her upper back a few months ago, ran a conservative ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Track and Field Championships Entry List Highlights

Entry lists are out for next week's National Track and Field Championships in Nagoya, the main selection event for Japan's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games and Copenhagen World Road Running Championships. Top entries in each event with best time in 2025-26. Asterisks indicate 2025 national champions. Men Men's 100 m *Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 9.99 Sorato Shimizu (Seiryu H.S.) - 10.00 Yuhi Mori (Watanabe Pipe) - 10.00 Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.06 Fukuto Komuro (Chuo Univ.) - 10.08 Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) - 10.08 Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Ryota Suzuki (Suzuki) - 10.11 Naoki Inoue (Osaka Gas) - 10.12 Rikuto Higuchi (Suzuki) - 10.12 Men's 200 m Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 20.45 Aoto Suzuki (Sumitomo Denko) - 20.49 Kota Uematsu (Chuo Univ.) - 20.50 Yuji Michael Orisa (GK Line) - 20.51 Soshi Mizukubo (Miyazaki T&F) - 20.51 Mitsuhiro Numata (Legalis) - 20.58 Seisho Sasaki (Iwate Univ.) - 20.60 Sota Miwa (Koizumi) - 20.61 Naoki Uemoto (Lega...
1 comment
Read more