japan running news

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...

Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura will retire at the end of this fiscal year on Mar. 31, 2026. On Jan. 23 he released the following statement on his sponsor Fujitsu 's corporate team site. To everyone who has supported me I have decided to bring my career as a competitive athlete to its end and retire. I started running in 5th grade, and over the many years since then it has been my life. I'm really happy to be able to end it as part of the Fujitsu team. I've been with Fujitsu since I graduated from Komazawa University , and thanks to Fujitsu's flexibility and support I was able to keep Komazawa as my training base and make it all the way to the Tokyo Olympics. Getting there was a major milestone in my career and remains a prized memory. After reaching that height I started being with the Fujitsu team full-time, and under the leadership of head coach Tadashi Fukushima and the rest of the coaching staff I entered a new phase of my career aiming to co...

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...

On Oct. 1 the Daiichi Seimei corporate team announced that executive advisor and special head coach Sachiko Yamashita had retired from the company at the end of October. Yamashita, 61, was born in 1964. After working as a teacher she joined the corporate leagues as an athlete, going on to take silver in the marathon at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships. A year later she was 4th in the Barcelona Olympics marathon. Yamashita joined Daiichi Seimei as an athlete and coach n 1994, and after retiring from competition in 1996 became the team's head coach. As the team's coach she developed Olympians Yoshimi Ozaki , Tomomi Tanaka , Miyuki Uehara and Yuka Suzuki , and led the team to two Queens Ekiden national titles. In 2024 she stepped back from her leadership role to focus on coaching Suzuki. "For 31 years I've had the opportunity to take on a wide range of challenges in this sport that I love so much, and that was thanks to the support of many people," she said in p...

Just a 3-minute walk away from the east exit of Ageo Station in a narrow side street is a new coffee shop, GOAT Coffee, that roasts its own beans. Its stylish interior feels like a British tailor's shop, and jazz plays over the speakers. Its owner is Kohei Arai , 28, an Ageo native and former long-distance athlete who ran in both the Hakone Ekiden and New Year Ekiden. Serial injuries forced him to retire 4 years ago, but in April he achieved another of his dreams with the opening of the cafe. Arai graduated from Urawa Jitsugyo Gakuen H.S. in 2015 and entered Daito Bunka University . His coach and teammates found him to be an important part of the team, and he ran the Hakone Ekiden as a 1st-year. All 3 times he ran Hakone during college he was put on the 21.3 km First Stage, but when he looks back on it now all he remembers is "causing problems for everyone else." During his 2nd year he had a stress fracture in his left leg that took almost a year to work through. As a 4t...

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...

Winner of the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon and 4th in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2011 Asian Championships, Sysmex corporate team athlete Misato Horie has retired following her run at the Feb. 2 Hyogo Prefecture Ekiden. Born in 1987, Horie's best achievement at Seiryo H.S. was making the Kinki Region championships. But after entering Mukogawa Joshi University and starting to run the 3000 m steeplechase she grew into one of Japan's top athletes with an 8th-place finish at the 2008 National Championships. After graduating she joined the Noritz corporate team, where she was 2nd at the 2011 National Championships in what was at the time an all-time Japanese #6 mark of 10:02.24. That put her on the team for that year's Asian Championships, where she placed 4th. 2 years later she took 6th at the 2013 Asian Championships. From 2015 on Horie focused on road racing, winning the 2016 Gold Coast Marathon in a then-CR 2:26:40 and following up with her career PB of 2:25:44 for 2nd ...

After having led Surugadai University to its first-ever Hakone Ekiden appearances in 2022 and 2024, Kazuyoshi Tokumoto , 45, announced on Jan. 12 that he is stepping down as head coach. A star Hakone runner during his days at Hosei University , Tokumoto took over as head coach at Surugadai in 2012. In his 10th season in 2021-22 Surugadai made the qualifying bracket at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race, earning the right to make its debut at Hakone 2022. That was followed up with a second appearance in 2024. Assistant coach Nobuhiro Goto , 42, will take over from Tokumoto in the head coach's role. According to a source, Tokumoto had already informed the athletes, their parents and other involved parties of his decision to leave the program prior to making the public announcement. The announcement makes Surugadai the 4th Hakone contender school to replace its head coach for the 2025-26 season, following Asia University , Reitaku University and Meiji University . Others are...

The Hitachi women's corporate team has announced that Maya Fukushima has retired effective the end of November. Fukushima joined Hitachi last year after graduating from Josai University and Eda H.S. In high school she ran a best of 9:24.93 for 3000 m and won her stage at the prefectural ekiden championships. At Josai she grew into one of its best runner, running a PB of 15:44.90 for 5000 m and the longest stage at both the Morinomiyako Ekiden and Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden university championships. Her 4th year she was 2nd in the 10000 m at the Kanto Region Championships and 5th on the Morinomiyako's Fourth Stage. But Fukushima was diagnosed with task-specific dystonia, a disorder that causes abnormal postures during particular motions and prevented her from racing after joining Hitachi. "As the days passed and I couldn't run like before the mental stress got worse and worse," she wrote in the Hitachi announcement. "But I'm really grateful to everyon...

On July 23 the Fujitsu corporate team announced that men's 20 km race walk world record holder and 2019 50 km world champion Yusuke Suzuki , 36, and three-time men's 400 m national champion Julian Walsh , 27, are retiring at the end of the month. Suzuki competed in the 2012 London Olympics in the 20 km race walk. In 2015 he set a world record of 1:16:36 for 20 km at the National Race Walk Championships in Nomi. At the 2019 Doha World Championships he won the 50 km race walk, the first time a Japanese athlete won gold at an international championships including the Olympics. After that, he suffered setbacks from overtraining and other issues and did not try to make the Tokyo Olympic team in 2021. After leaving Fujitsu Suzuki will become a coach at Niigata University of Food and Agriculture . "I want to give the next generation of athletes the same kind of support that I received in my time as an athlete," he said. A member of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2021 Tokyo Ol...

Yasushi Sakaguchi , who guided the Chugoku Denryoku men's corporate team to the peak of its power as its head coach and later executive head coach, retired from the team at the end of June. Appearing at his final race on June 29, he said, "It all went by in a blur. I was blessed with the right people for 35 years." Sakaguchi helped co-found the Chugoku Denryoku team, working to build the team up from zero and becoming its head coach in 1994. "We started with the basics, and built Chugoku Denryoku up into a well-known powerhouse in athletics," he said. Sakaguchi's coaching style encouraging the independence of his athletes helped produced Olympians, World Championships medalists and national record breakers like Shigeru Aburaya , Tsuyoshi Ogata and Atsushi Sato . In the team's golden era it even won the New Year Ekiden national title. Asked what athletics has meant to him, Sakaguchi answered, "I got to experience the world, and to see it in all its...

  On Feb. 21 the Toyota Kyushu corporate team announced that its longtime member Masato Imai , 39, known throughout Japan as the original God of the Mountain for his spectacular runs on the Hakone Ekiden's uphill Fifth Stage in college, will retire from competition. His final race will be Sunday's National Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka. After retirement Imai will remain with Toyota Kyushu and become part of its coaching staff. At Juntendo University , Imai won the Fifth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden in new course records in 2005, 2006 and 2007, taking the top spot in both 2006 and 2007. When he did it during his final Hakone his senior year in 2007, the late Nippon TV announcer Ryo Kawamura shouted the now-legendary words, "Right now, right here, the god of the mountain has descended! His name is Masato Imai!" Imai has been known by that moniker ever since, and the title has become a part of Hakone lore. Since his time it has been given to two other runners w...

A member of Japan's women's 5000 m teams at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Oregon World Championships, Kaede Hagitani , 22, has announced on her Twitter feed that she is quitting the Edion corporate team and the sport of running. "I've decided to leave both the Edion team and track and field as of the end of April," she wrote. "I'll treasure everything I've learned in athletics and the experience I got there for the rest of my life. I'll keep doing things the best way I can no matter what comes next. Thanks to everyone who cheered me on and supported me along the way." Hagitani was one of the most talented runners of her generation, her 3000 m best of 8:48.12 from 2020 ranking her at all-time Japanese #3, and her 5000 m best of 14:59.36 putting her at all-time Japanese #5. A graduate of last year's National High School Girls Ekiden champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , she won her stage at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden twice after j...

The JAAF held an award ceremony for the Japan Marathon Championship Series II in Tokyo on Mar. 29. Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and Kenya Sonota (JR Higashi Nihon) were named the women's and men's series champions, earning 6,600,000 yen [~$50,000 USD] each, equal to the prize money for winning the World Marathon Majors series. Matsuda told the media, "I was 2nd last year, so to be the winner this year honestly makes me really happy." Matsuda will run the marathon at August's Budapest World Championships, then will double at the Oct. 15 MGC Race Paris Olympic marathon trials. She admitted that it's a tough schedule, but said, "Being able to compete at the top level of the sport is a great experience. I want to perform in the race that's closer on the horizon more than what's still further away, and that's why I wanted to do compete at the World Championships." Matsuda's coach Miwako Yamanaka wanted her to only run the Olympic trials,...

The Yasukawa Denki men's corporate team has announced that four of its members including 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics marathoner Hisanori Kitajima , 38, are retiring. Kitajima won the Hakone Ekiden's Eighth Stage his fourth year at Toyo University . He finished 2nd as the top Japanese man at the 2016 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon to qualify for the Rio Olympics, where he placed 94th. In comments Kitajima said, "The last few years I've felt my body deteriorating day by day, and it was frustrating not to be able to do the kind of training and aggressive racing I used to. But that made me change the way I approached racing, and to approach it with more thought and craft. I learned new things and changed my way of thinking, and as I got older I found a new kind of enjoyment and satisfaction in racing. Part of that was being called a veteran, which felt like some kind of persona. It made me want to compete with the 'veterans' from other teams, and that came to be a m...

On Jan. 25 Takushoku University announced that Hiroshi Inoue , 60, will take over as head coach of its track and field program at the start of the new academic year on Apr. 1. Previous head coach Takuro Yamashita will step down at the end of March. A graduate of Komazawa University , Inoue ran the Hakone Ekiden all four years of his college career before going on to the Yasukawa Denki corporate team. Following his retirement as an athlete he became head coach at Oita Tomei H.S. , where he led the boys' and girls' teams to National High School Ekiden prominence for 34 years. Former Raffine corporate team head coach Kenichi Jiromaru , also a Komazawa graduate, will join Inoue as assistant coach at Takushoku. Takushoku failed to qualify for the Hakone Ekiden for the last two editions, but hopes are high that Inoue can return the team to its former strength. source article: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/9f0d58b2cd3eca7c53880e44dfe2614b6e8f51f7 translated and edited by Bre...

After finishing 11th at the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden's 99th edition to end its 3-year streak of making the 10-deep podium, Tokyo Kokusai University announced on Jan. 18 that head coach Yuji Oshida , 60, will resign. After also finishing 8th at October's Izumo Ekiden and 11th at November's National University Ekiden Oshida's resignation came as a way of taking personal responsibility for the program's drop in competitive level. He will be replaced by veteran coach Saburo Yokomizo , 83. A graduate of Chuo University , where he won Hakone's 8th leg during his senior year, Oshida was the gold medalist in the 1500 m at the 1986 Asian Games. After working as assistant coach at Honda and Chuo, including for Chuo's 1996 Hakone Ekiden win, he has been head coach at Tokyo Kokusai since the program's inception in 2011, building it up from zero in consultation with fellow Chuo alumnus Yokomizo. Tokyo Kokusai first qualified for the Hakone Ekiden in 2016. In 2020 i...

On Oct. 4, Tokyo Olympics marathon 6th-placer Suguru Osako , 31, announced that he has signed with the GMO corporate team. Osako will continue his relationship with sponsor Nike but will run January's New Year Ekiden as part of the GMO team. It is an unusual move for an independently-sponsored runner to join the corporate leagues. GMO held a press conference in Tokyo to announce the news. Taking part remotely from his training base in the U.S., Osako looked excited. He talked about the move in broad strokes. "When I run, everyone will pay attention to the New Year Ekiden," he said. "Winning is a given, but I want to a game-changer in the running world. I want to create some kind of new added value on top of just going for the win." After quitting the Nissin Shokuhin corporate team in March, 2015, Osako moved to the U.S. to join the now-defunct Nike Oregon Project team led by the now-suspended coach Alberto Salazar . Since then he has trained in the U.S. and...

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters ...

2019 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Taku Fujimoto , 32, retired from the Toyota corporate team after running the Mar. 6 Tokyo Marathon. As a participant in the 2019 Marathon Grand Championship Olympic trials Fujimoto was one of the country's best, but there's another side to him that most people don't know. In just his second marathon, Fujimoto ran an excellent 2:07:57 breakthrough for 8th at the 2018 Chicago Marathon. At the MGC he was only 9th, but he quickly rebounded to finish as the top Japanese placer at Fukuoka the same season. Fujimoto was 2nd across the finish line in that race, but the Moroccan who got there first was later disqualified for doping violations, elevating Fujimoto to the winner's position. After that Fujimoto had problems with injuries, but while he struggled to perform in marathons he was as good as ever in the ekiden. Even so, a year and a half ago he made the decision to retire at the end of the 2021-22 season. "I feel like I'...