Retirement Season

Paris Olympics marathon team alternate Ai Hosoda and Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura both announced their retirements recently, but with the fiscal year ending in March there have been a raft of other retirements hitting the Japanese news in the last couple of weeks. Some of them:

Former women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama, 28, announced that she is retiring and leaving the Shiseido corporate team after a couple of dull seasons following her making the Paris Olympics team. Ichiyama's husband Kengo Suzuki, the former men's marathon NR holder, left the Fujitsu corporate team last fall to go it solo.
Kento Otsu, 34, announced he is quitting the Chuo Hatsujo team to retire and take a position on the Rikkyo University coaching staff after next month's Tokyo Marathon. Otsu helped Toyo University take the overall win at the 2012 and 2014 Hakone Ekidens, winning his stages in both races and named MVP of the 2014 Hakone for his role in helping Toyo take the overall title.
Kenta Murayama, 32, retired after last weekend's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon. The U18 10000 m NR holder and until last month the fastest-ever Japanese half marathoner on U.S. soil, Murayama ran the 2013 United Airlines NYC Half Marathon while at Komazawa University along with Otsu.
Takuya Fujikawa, 33, retired from Chugoku Denryoku and the sport after the Marugame Half Marathon 2 weeks ago. A member of Sera H.S.' winning team at the 2009 National High School Ekiden, Fujikawa was captain at Aoyama Gakuin University when it won its first Hakone Ekiden title his senior year.
Kenji Yamamoto, 36, made a post-facto announcement that he was leaving Mazda and the sport after having run last weekend's National Corporate Half Marathon. Yamamoto was another member of Toyo University's 2012 Hakone Ekiden champion team and competed in both the Tokyo Olympics and Paris Olympics marathon trials races.
Ryo Kuchimachi, 31, will retire from competition and Subaru after Sunday's Ome 30 km Road Race. Kuchimachi won his stages at both the Izumo and National University ekidens in 2015, named MVP at Nationals for helping Toyo University claim its first national title.
Kazuma Taira, 31, is retiring from the Kao team and competition after the Tokyo Marathon. A stage winner at the National High School Ekiden, Taira was teammates with marathon NR holder Suguru Osako at Waseda University, his biggest achievement there being a 2nd-place finish on the Third Stage at the 2017 Hakone Ekiden.
Fuminori Shimo, 29, is leaving the sport and Toyota Boshoku after this weekend's Umashikuni Mie Ekiden. His 2nd year at Iga Hakuho H.S. Shimo won the Sixth Stage at the National High School Ekiden, coming back the next year to win the 10.0 km First Stage. Shimo went on to success at Komazawa University and Fujitsu before relocating to Toyota Boshoku in 2022.
4 members of the Nishitetsu corporate team will leave at the end of March, the most prominent among them being yet another member of Toyo University's 2012 and 2014 Hakone champ teams, Keita Shitara, 34, twin brother of former marathon and half marathon NR holder Yuta Shitara who also runs for Nishitetsu. Keita's plans after leaving the team are unclear.

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges. Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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