After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired.
His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and other Olympic and World Championships marathoners.
Born in 1953 in Usuki, Oita, the Soh twins started running in junior high school. In high school they reached the national level, both running the National High School Ekiden. With big aspirations for the future they joined the prestigious Asahi Kasei team after graduating from high school in 1971, and in the 54 years since then have been central to its direction. Takeshi's retirement this spring truly marks the end of an era.
"When we first came to Asahi Kasei we said, 'We're both going to be Olympians,'" Takeshi recalls. "When we interviewed I said that my goal was to make the Olympics the person from the company said, 'Yeah yeah yeah, you don't have to talk about big dreams. First things first, we want to see you run okay at the Kyushu Isshu Ekiden.' I was just like, 'Huh? What's the Kyushu Isshu Ekiden?'"
So with those big dreams the brothers joined Asahi Kasei. In just their 2nd year at the team they ran the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon. In their debuts they went 1-2, Shigeru getting the win over Takeshi by 18 seconds. With a steady record of growth and success after that, in his 5th year at Asahi Kasei Shigeru was named to the Montreal Olympics marathon team. But he was only 20th there.
"When I saw his bad result in Montreal it made me think that if you made it to the Olympics it was meaningless unless you were there to go for a medal," Takeshi says. "That informed my training for the next Olympics in Moscow.
For 4 years they worked hard, and both were rewarded with places on the Moscow team. But their dreams were shattered when Japan followed the American-led boycott of the 1980 Games. Regrouping and staying focused on their goal of becoming Olympic medalists, at the 1983 Fukuoka International Marathon Shigeru was 3rd and Takeshi 4th, both earning places on the Los Angeles team. In L.A. Takeshi finished ahead of Shigeru, but after struggling in the hot summer conditions mid-race he dropped out of the medals and was left in the sorriest position of them all, 4th.
"There weren't a lot of summer marathons at the time, so I struggled to prepare well in my training," Takeshi remembers. "I wasn't in peak form when I went to L.A. I think that my failures there and the experienced I gained from them led to Hiromi Taniguchi winning gold at the Tokyo World Championships and Koichi Morishita's silver at the Barcelona Olympics. It's a question of how you use your own failures when you become a coach to others." In the years after that Takeshi continued to draw from his experience to help his Asahi Kasei proteges like Shinji Kawashima and Satoru Sasaki make Olympic marathon teams.
While working as an assistant coach initially, Takeshi kept racing in marathons until he was 45 years old. Did that give him special insight into how to coach younger athletes? "No, I just still wanted to run," he says. "When I talked to my brother about it he said, 'So why don't you?' I just picked out races that I wanted to do and kept at it until I was 45." Asked if he honestly likes marathons, he answers, "They're interesting. In training I always visualized the next race, and the process of shaping your own body yourself through your training and then bringing that power into play in the race is really interesting."
Asahi Kasei has a great record not only in marathons but also in ekidens. In the Kyushu Isshu Ekiden that did a complete lap of Japan's southern island of Kyushu, Asahi Kasei's home prefecture of Miyazaki won 36 times. The team also holds the record for New Year Ekiden national championships titles with 26 wins. But being the heavy-duty favorite brings its own pressures and problems. After winning 9 out of 10 years in the 1990s, Asahi Kasei failed to score even a single New Year Ekiden title from 2000 to 2016.
"2025 was our 26th national title, but along the way we had both golden eras like the 1990s and darker times like when we went over a decade without winning," Takeshi says. "What really got me through the hard times was the loyalty and support of the company and its employees. And on top of that, the way that the locals in Nobeoka and Miyazaki always cared about us."
Known as Athlete Town, Asahi Kasei's home base of Nobeoka, Miyazaki has produced dozens of Olympians across sports. Every May 4 it hosts the Golden Games in Nobeoka long distance track meet. Takeshi was involved in setting the meet up in Nobeoka, giving the local people the chance to see the biggest names in the country chasing serious times and making a key contribution to the town developing its reputation as a home for athletes.
In addition to his career roles as athlete and coach, Takeshi has also served as director of middle and long distance development for the JAAF, working hard to raise the level of the sport in the country. As he steps back now from playing an active coaching role, what are his hopes for the future? "Asahi Kasei is back to winning the ekiden, but in recent years we haven't done well in the marathon," he says. "I hope they can produce athletes who can have more success at it. For Japan as a whole, Paris was encouraging in that we had both men and women in the top 8, and Japanese athletes are still a strong presence in a lot of the big races. I'd love to see Asahi Kasei's athletes play a leading role again in excelling at the Olympics and World Championships."
Starting Apr. 1, following Takeshi's retirement current manager Isao Nishimura will become special advisor, with Hiroshi Miki taking over as head coach. The people of Miyazaki have gained a lot from the Soh brothers' unique energy over the decades. A win at the New Year Ekiden always kicks off the year on a bright note, and that makes the locals excited for the race to come again. Takeshi will always remain grateful for that excitement and passion.
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translated and edited by Brett Larner
Nobeoka photo © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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