japan running news

Issue seven of JRNPremium will be ready this week: a one-on-one interview with Tsutomu Akiyama , one half of the partnership responsible for bringing the world Samuel Wanjiru . Akiyama shares priceless firsthand accounts of picking Wanjiru up at the airport the first time he came to Japan, talks about Wanjiru's career from the inside, and gives his unique insight on the Kenyan distance running world. It may be our best issue yet, and it's available in full to subscribers only. Don't miss it. Click here to subscribe. Subscribers click here to log on.

JRNPremium has returned from summer vacation with issue five. July and August are the peak of the gashuku season, the intensive summer training camps which are one of the hallmarks of Japanese distance training for both its university and corporate athletes. In this issue we bring you an interview with Eiji Kobayashi , a former Josai University runner who talks about gashuku, injury, and not realizing the dream of making the Hakone Ekiden. Kobayashi talks in detail about the kind of training top Hakone runners put themselves through complete with detailed daily training menus from his time on Josai's ekiden team, about the mental and physical toll on those trying for the Pyrrhic victory of a spot on their school's Hakone squad, and about the injuries that cost him his dream. For all that you hear from those who succeed sometimes there is more to be learned from those give it everything they have and fail. Nowhere is this more true than among those trying to become one of the lu...

JRN interviewed Stephen Mayaka , the first Kenyan high school runner in Japanese history, for an article in the May issue of Running Times magazine . This month we present the complete interview in serialized form in our subscription series JRNPremium . In part one of the interview Mayaka talked about being recruited and his experience as a student runner. In part two he talks about life on Japan's corporate teams and the difficulties Kenyans and other foreign runners face in fitting into the shifting demands of the system. Highlights from part two are included below. To read the full interview along with others in the JRNPremium series, click here to subscribe . Part Two: The Corporate Life, Pros and Cons We had some South Africans, Kalamori, I know him, we raced together, from Burundi, and Morocco. Some Ethiopians are coming but they are difficult because of the Ethiopian language and their culture. But it became to happen that the companies mostly prefer the Kenyans very much ...

http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=19571 photo: Kenyan Mekubo Mogusu of Yamanashi Gakuin Univ. on the way to a 57:01 course record at the 2007 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km. An article I wrote for the May issue of Running Times magazine looking at the role of African runners in Japan is now available online. The article includes quotes and material from interviews with Stephen Mayaka , the first Kenyan high school runner in Japan, Tsutomu Akiyama , one of the people responsible for beginning the recruitment of Kenyan student runners including Samuel Wanjiru , and Ethiopian Biruk Bekele , winner of the 1996 Hokkaido Marathon and now an agent for other Ethiopians within the Japanese system. The complete interview with Mayaka appears in serialized form in this month's issue of JRNPremium , and next month's issue will feature the complete Akiyama interview. To read these and other JRNPremium interviews, click here to subscribe .

Part two of JRN's exclusive interview with Hokkaido Marathon course record holder, 2008 Honolulu Marathon winner and 2010 Asian Games Japanese national team member Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) is now available in our JRNPremium subscription series. Shimahara talked to JRN shortly before her recent run at the Nagano Marathon about her training, life in Albuquerque, the flaws in the Japanese corporate team system and the Japanese national team selection process. It's a great read and one available only to subscribers. To subscribe, click here . Subscribers click here to log in. Upcoming issues: May: Japan's first Kenyan high school runner Stephen Mayaka , now a Japanese citizen and head coach of Sozo Gakuen University's ekiden team, in a solid gold one-on-one. June: One half of the partnership responsible for discovering and bringing Kenyans including Samuel Wanjiru to Japan, Tsutomu Akiyama looks back on what his work has accomplished. July: At the peak of the...

The friendliest person in Japanese marathoning, Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) is the favorite for Sunday's Nagano Marathon . The course record holder at the Hokkaido and Katsuta marathons, she won a silver medal at the 2006 Asian Games and finished 6th in the 2007 Osaka World Championships marathon. Shimahara sat down with JRN recently during her buildup to Nagano to talk about last fall's remarkable season where she ran a PB of 2:25:10 and two other sub-2:30 marathons in just over 100 days, about her views on racing internationally and domestically, and the problems facing young Japanese women in distance running. It's an interview in turns funny, insightful and scathing, and it's available only through JRNPremium. Click here to subscribe to read it and other first-rate interviews with the top people in Japanese distance running. If you're already a subscriber, click here to log in. photo (c) 2009 Mika Tokairin all rights reserved

Spring is here. With it comes the April issue of our new subscription series JRNPremium . This month's issues features an interview with Kiyoko Shimahara, the 2009 Hokkaido Marathon winner who broke 2:30 three times in just over 100 days last fall. Shimahara is running Sunday's Nagano Marathon and was just named to the Japanese national team for November's Asian Games. We talked to her about what happened last fall, her training this spring, and her views on national teams, racing overseas, and what's wrong with the corporate team system. Look for Shimahara's interview tomorrow. Also out now, as a companion piece to editor-in-chief Jonathan Beverley's interview with Kenya's Samuel Wanjiru, the May, 2010 issue of Running Times magazine includes my article "Teaching the Masters" which looks at the history of African distance runners in Japan. For the article I interviewed Tsutomu Akiyama, one of the men responsible for bringing Samuel Wanjiru to the...

The second part of JRN's exclusive post-race interview with 2010 Tokyo Marathon runner-up Arata Fujiwara of Team JR Higashi Nihon is now available in our JRNPremium subscription series. Together with our pre-race interview, today's segement is the fifth of five and we have saved the best for last. In this interview Fujiwara talks about problems with the jitsugyodan corporate system and what the real pressures it puts on Japanese runners are, the physiological advantages Japanese runners have over Africans, specifics on how his training differs from 'standard' Japanese methods, the effect of public prize money on Japanese marathoning, the role of motivation and more. It is an articulate, intelligent look into a young runner who is not only one of Japan's leading marathoners but also reveals himself to be one of the sport's leading domestic thinkers. Click here for more information on subscribing and help us continue to bring you more high-quality original conten...

by Brett Larner If Australian Jeff Hunt hadn't been in Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon the results would not have been especially surprising or noteworthy. Kenyan Jonathan Kipkorir, the only man in the field to break 2:08 in 2009, outkicked Kenyan veteran Daniel Njenga , the only one with a 2:06 PB, for the win in 2:10:50, with relatively unknown Japanese first-timer Atsushi Ikawa running a gutsy race up front to finish close behind in 2:11:04. On the surface Hunt's 2:11:00 3rd place mark may not appear to add much to the equation, but what made him the defining element of this year's Beppu-Oita was the way he ran the race. Until 30 km Hunt sat far back in the second pack over a minute behind the leaders. By 40 km he was head to head with Kipkorir and Njenga for the win. It was a dramatic, gripping performance which showed that even in the 2:04-2:05 era a slower race can still be exciting . A day after Beppu-Oita Hunt's coach Ken Green talked to JRN via ema...

Beginning in Feb., 2010, Japan Running News will introduce its new JRNPremium monthly subscription series of original in-depth and personal interviews with Japanese and Japan-based distance runners, coaches and others involved in the Japanese long-distance running industry. Get a look into a previously-closed world as you read about training, life as a professional jitsugyodan athlete or as a runner in the toughest university system in the world, and the personal sides of those who until now may have been little more than a name next to a time, if even that. You won't find interviews with most of these people anywhere else. In the first half of 2010 JRNPremium will feature original interviews with: Arata Fujiwara , the man who came from nowhere with a 2:08:40 at the 2008 Tokyo Marathon, crashed and burned at the 2009 World Championships, and dreams of doing things his own way. Takeyuki Nakayama , anger-fueled former 10000 m and marathon national record holder, twice 4th in the Olym...

JRNPremium is Japan Running News' feature series of original interviews conducted and translated by JRN editors Brett Larner and Mika Tokairin. We bring you an unprecedented look into the training, psychology and lives of some of the most important and most interesting athletes, coaches and officials in the Japanese distance running world. To subscribe to JRNPremium, click below. Please include your name and email address in the instructions section. Rates are $30 U.S. for one calendar year (8-10 interviews) or $6 U.S. for one interview. If purchasing one interview, please specify which one in the instructions section. Thank you for your subscription and for helping to support this time-intensive labor of love.