japan running news

https://run.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/why-is-japan-so-much-better-at-running-than-everyone-else/ photo © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

Meiji University's Nam Seungryong at the 1936 Berlin Olympics Like everywhere else, athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia have had a major impact at the Hakone Ekiden over the last 35 years. But almost 70 years before the first two Kenyans suited up in the Yamanashi Gakuin University colors, athletes from another country had an even bigger impact on the event's formative years, a legacy that is mostly forgotten now, or at least unacknowledged. Following Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, it set about reshaping and modernizing the Korean educational system at all levels, founding universities like Keijo Imperial University in what later became Seoul, and bringing students to study at universities within Japan itself. But a college education remained a relative rarity, with less than 0.05% of the population having gone to university by the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945. The Hakone Ekiden began during this period, and at its 3rd running in 1922 two athletes from occup...

an editorial by Tetsuhiko Kin Kin is a television commentator, coach, and former Waseda University ekiden runner. The battle to determine the Japanese national representatives in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics three years from now has begun. The Marathon Grand Challenge (MGC) selection race features an unprecedented two-tier arrangement and will automatically select the Olympic team members when it is held in or after September, 2019. Athletes must first qualify in order to the run MGC race. The first race in the MGC Series of races in which athletes can earn their spots in the MGC race took place Aug. 27 at the Hokkaido Marathon , with high school and university ekiden star Akinobu Murasawa (Nissin Shokuhin) taking the men's race and the young Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) the women's to pick up their places in the Olympic qualifier. Both races were hesitant and passive. The men's race in particular went out slowly from the start, and with the winner needing to b...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/society/news/2015/08/20/kiji/K20150820010967890.html translated by Brett Larner Speaking about the forthcoming new plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium on Aug. 19, former Hakone Ekiden star turned marathon broadcast commentator Tetsuhiko Kin made several proposals for the plans in response to a request from Tokyo Olympic Committee member Toshiaki Endo , saying, "If the softball field and tennis courts are relocated, the space can be used in a more flexible way including the building of a sub-track."  With regard to when to hold the 2020 Olympic marathons, Kin advised, "A start around 6:00 a.m. when temperatures are lower is the most realistic."

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/sports/athletic/wc/2013/columndtl/201308180002-spnavi?page=1 translated by Brett Larner On the 8th day of competition at the World Championships, August 17 in Moscow on a loop course starting and ending at Luzhniki Stadium, Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) ran 2:10:50 for 5th place.  Faced with the impossible task of following the Africans' wild pace changes, he pushed on steadily at his own pace to continue Japan's eight-championship streak of finishing in the top eight.  London Olympics champion Stephen Kiprotich  (Uganda) won in 2:09:51.  Among the other Japanese team members, Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) was 14th in 2:14:29, Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko) 17th in 2:15:25, and Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't.) 18th in 2:15:35. Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) was a DNF. We talked to three prominent members of the Japanese running industry, former marathon great and current DeNA Running C...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20110531-783713.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On May 31 an official with the Chugoku Jitsugyodan Track and Field Association announced that Manabu Kawagoe , 48, head coach of the Second Wind AC club team, has taken over as head coach of the Hiroshima-based Edion corporate women's team. Kawagoe, who previously coached at Team Shiseido before leaving with four of the team's elite women to found Second Wind, is not leaving Second Wind but will be the head coach of both teams. Kawagoe is an accomplished women's marathon coach, having trained both members of the last fall's Asia Games women's marathon team, Yuri Kano and Kiyoko Shimahara , both of Second Wind. In addition to Kawagoe, Edion, which changed its name this season from Deodeo, has tapped Tetsuhiko Kin , 47, a former teammate of Kawagoe's at Waseda University and now a popular race broadcast announcer, to be the team's general ma...