japan running news

On May 7 Nihon Taiiku University announced the new lineup of its ekiden team coaching staff. Junichiro Yokoyama, 55, was named to the head coach's position, with recent graduate Shun Onoki, 24, named assistant coach.

Last September Nittai head coach Masaaki Watanabe was fired over violence and abuse of authority toward students. He was temporarily replaced as head coach by Koji Watanabe, 81, with former pole vault national record holder Fumiaki Kobayashi, 44, overseeing the ekiden program until a permanent replacement could be found.

Watanabe retired from his temporary position at the end of March, with Kobayashi continuing on as head coach of the overall track and field program.

source article:
https://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20190507/ath19050718210005-n1.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Sept. 19 it was learned that former Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. head coach Koji Watanabe, 80, will take over as head coach of the Nittai University ekiden team. Previous head coach Masaaki Watanabe, 55, was fired on Sept. 11 after revelations of his violence toward and mental abuse of students surfaced. New coach Watanabe commented, "I want to create an environment where team members can be in the competition." His posting is planned to last from Oct. 1 to the end of March next year.

A Nittai graduate, new coach Watanabe led the Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. boys to eight National High School Ekiden Championships titles. He previously served at Nittai as chairperson of the Special Development Committee from 2012 to 2014. National powerhouse Nittai has competed in 70-straight Hakone Ekidens, winning Japan's most prestigious title ten times. It is scheduled to compete at both the Oct. 8 Izumo Ekiden and Nov. 4 National University Men's Ekiden, and will be going for a fourth-straig…

On Sept. 12 Nittai University announced that it will fire ekiden team head coach Masaaki Watanabe, 55, over the current power harassment scandal surrounding him. According to the university's public relations office, interviews by the alumni association with five current and one former team member reported multiple acts of violence by Watanabe including kicking athletes' legs and grabbing them by the chest.

The interviews also reported that Watanabe verbally abused and threatened student athletes and attacked their character. When runners fell off pace during workouts he was reported to have shouted, "Get the hell out of this university!" and, following the runners in a car, "I am going to f*cking run you over and kill you." Injured team members were also reported to have been subject to verbal humiliation by Watanabe, including, "Look at this f*cking cripple," and "You f*cking deserve it." Watanabe admitted the accusations but said tha…

Following revelations of power harassment in scandals involving the Nihon University football team coaching staff, the amateur boxing and gymnastics association and other bodies of authority across the Japanese sports world, on Sept. 7 the tabloid magazine Friday reported accusations of power harassment abuse by Masaaki Watanabe, 55, head coach of Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Nittai University. "I never want to see that guy's face again," the magazine quoted one former team member as saying. "As long as he's the head coach I can't run for this team. I really wanted to run Hakone one more time. If anyone would hire me I wanted to keep running for a corporate team. But instead I've come to hate running itself."

On Sept. 7 Nittai University responded to the abuse allegations against Watanabe, 55. According to the university's Public Relations department, the school is currently in the process of verifying the facts of the situation and plans to questi…

https://twitter.com/kun304/status/646833692770332672/photo/1

translated and edited by Brett Larner

2014 Hakone Ekiden First Stage winner Hideto Yamanaka, a fourth-year at 2013 Hakone Ekiden champion Nittai University, has quit the school's ekiden team.  Left without its star runner, Nittai will shoot for its 68th-straight Hakone Ekiden appearance when it runs the Oct. 17 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race.

Yamanaka ran the Third Stage at the 2013 Hakone Ekiden as a first-year, playing a key role in Nittai's first overall Hakone win in 30 years.  As a second-year he won the 21.4 km First Stage in 1:01:25, with a 1:02:09 course record win two months later at the National University Half Marathon Championships cementing his position as a top-class collegiate athlete.  Shortly afterward, however, he suffered a long-lasting string of injuries that kept him out of competition throughout his third year until a surprise return at the start of his fourth year to win the 10000 m at M…

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140401-00000062-mai-spo

translated by Brett Larner

Having led Aichi prefecture's Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. boys to the National High School Ekiden Championships for fourteen straight years through 2011, former head coach Masaaki Watanabe, 51, became the new head coach and a health and physical education teacher at Tokyo's Nittai Ebara H.S. as of the start of the academic year on April 1.  Along with Watanabe, eight students including five members of Toyokawa Kogyo's team at last December's National High School Ekiden transferred to Nittai Ebara.  Past instances of large numbers of top-class athletes transferring en masse include the 2012 transfer of ten students from Sendai Ikuei H.S. to Toyokawa H.S., but it is safe to say it is unusual.

Watanabe became head coach at Toyokawa Kogyo in 1993 and developed it into one of the country's most powerful high school ekiden teams.  In January last year his use of corporal punishment against stud…

http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20131009k0000m040146000c.html

translated by Brett Larner

On Oct. 8 the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education confirmed that a 50-year-old male coach who officially left his position with the national-level Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. ekiden team in April after revelations of his systematic use of corporal punishment against male and female team members is still active in coaching the team at the present time.  According to Board officials, the former employee began working with the team again on a volunteer basis in May, overseeing 14 of the 27 team members.  A Board member commented, "Former employees are free to volunteer their guidance, but we don't like to see a team divided into two parts like this."  Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. vice principal Shigeyuki Furui told the Mainichi Newspaper, "We'd like to see him formally coaching official practice sessions."

The former coach developed Toyokawa Kogyo into one of the country's strongest hig…

http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20130426k0000e040210000c.html

translated by Brett Larner

In an interview with the Aichi Prefecture Board of Education on April 26 it was discovered that the 50-year-old male head coach of the national-class Toyokawa Kogyo High School ekiden teams disciplined earlier this year for the use of corporal punishment against male and female team members retired at the beginning of the month.  According to the Board, the coach retired, "for personal reasons."  Board officials said that at the beginning of the school year in April the coach, also a teacher at the school, informed Toyokawa Kogyo's principal of his intent to retire.  Because he was under suspension he had not been assigned any classes to teach for the new school year.

The coach took his position at Toyokawa Kogyo in 1993, and over the course of his 20-year leadership he developed the school's boys' and girls' ekiden teams into two of the best in the nation.  In January this…

http://www.tonichi.net/news/index.php?id=27076
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00239441.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Translator's note: Click here and here for background on this story.  Toyokawa Kogyo's head coach is Masaaki Watanabe.

Despite an ongoing scandal involved allegations of the repeated use of corporal punishment by Toyokawa Kogyo H.S.'s 50-year-old male ekiden head coach against team members, principal Yoshihisa Takemoto has confirmed that the team is continuing to train and is scheduled to run in the Feb. 3 Meigi Ekiden.

Over the weekend the school grounds were quiet and empty without the usual club activities.  The streets around the school have been crowded with local residents peering into the school grounds as they pass by.  A group of men calling themselves alumni of Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. have been gathered near the front gate of the school's grounds, shouting at members of the media and telling them go away.  A male loca…

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20130126-00000066-mai-soci

translated by Brett Larner

Translator's note: Click here for more background on this story, which comes shortly after the suicide of a national-level high school basketball team's 17-year-old captain following beatings by the team's coach.  Although none of the Japanese media reports on this story mention the head coach by name, Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. is coached by Masaaki Watanabe.  Yesterday the Aichi Prefecture Government website featured an interview with Watanabe in a series titled "Shining Stars," but as of this morning the interview, #24 in a series, has been deleted.

At a special session at Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. on Jan. 26 addressing allegations of the use of corporal punishment on student athletes by the 50-year-old male head coach of the school's national-level ekiden team after requests from the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education for him to exert more self-control in his leadership, Board offi…

http://sp.mainichi.jp/m/news.html?cid=20130126k0000e040235000c&inb=sns

translated by Brett Larner

An official with renowned high school ekiden powerhouse Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. in Aichi Prefecture revealed during an interview that the teacher serving as the team's head coach, 50, had repeatedly beaten and performed other acts of corporal punishment on team members.  On Jan. 25 the Prefectural Board of Education instructed the coach to exercise more self-control and restraint in his leadership of the ekiden team.  On the afternoon of Jan. 26 the Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. administration will hold a meeting with school club coaches and other adult guardians to explain its policies.

According to the Prefectural Board of Education and other associated parties, the coach frequently hit team members, including across the face with an open hand.  On Jan. 11 in response to accumulating rumors of the use of corporal punishment at Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. the Board opened an investigation at the school…