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 ...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20130125-00000301-yomidr-soci http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/news/130125/trd13012505000000-n1.htm http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/chiba/20130126/CK2013012602000123.html http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNZO50998060V20C13A1L71000/ translated and edited by Brett Larner Since the start of Japan's record-breaking running boom countless city and prefectural governments have started organizing new mass-participation marathons.  However, the widespread use of the standardized operation model employed by the Tokyo Marathon and Osaka Marathon has landed many of the new races deeply in red ink.  The issue of adapting race management to suit local conditions has begun to become of critical importance. At the 2nd edition of the Osaka Marathon last Nov. 25, Yokohama Metropolitan Sports Promotion Division Director Yuji Nishiyama  was in attendance to observe the event's operations.  "If they can do this here, why not in Yokohama?" he sa...