Skip to main content
MEXT : Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
MEXT
Home > FY2005 White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology > Column > Column8


Column8

Vibrant and Healthy Families and Community Realized through Sports

(Story by Mr. Jun Ozawa, from Narashino Bayside Sports Club [NPO])
Many children call to me on my daily commute to work – “Good morning Jun-chan!” It is now five years since I have established the NPO Narashino Bayside Sports Club (NBS) as a comprehensive community sports club. The greeting I now enjoy every morning in the community I live in is one that was not heard until the sports club was established.
The basic philosophy of NBS is to provide regular activities in which “families can join in together.” In the past, there were only sports clubs of the single-sport variety, so that children, mothers, fathers, and the elderly each had to take part in different activities at different clubs. Therefore, it was difficult for families to share sports experiences. However, NBS is based at local elementary and lower secondary schools and community sports centers, and we provide multiple activities aimed at all generations. For example, some of our activities are multi-generational tennis, girl’s soccer, and Kin-ball.(notes) As NBS members can take part in the sports that interests them, at a time and place to suit them, it is only natural to see families and friends exchange information about the various activities and engage in them together.
Upon NBS's establishment, it has become a part of a daily life to see families engage in sports activities and exercise together after school and on weekends in community sports centers or on school grounds. Through parents and children engaging in the same sport, a new form of communication children instructing parents through sports has been born, reversing the traditional role of parents who used to be critics for children from time to time. Furthermore, as many families engage in sports together, local children can experience multi-generational communication, something that cannot be experienced in school education. Children are taught valuable knowledge about daily living from the elderly, and are cautioned by adults other than their parents about things that normally would go unnoticed in the home, thus gaining various necessary lessons about being the member of society.
Seeking to further expand these kinds of community circles, NBS holds the NBS Sports Festival annually, where local people can try their hand at a variety of activities, including ground golf and three-legged races to experience the enjoyment and fulfillment that sports bring. Through such efforts, even fathers who are sometimes left out of the community and have few friends in it, have been able to make new friends through sports to gather at local pubs and drinking establishments. As such an organic circle of friendships are expanding.
The other day I saw a lower secondary school student smoking in the street. It was a child who when at elementary school had engaged in the same sports activities as me at the NBS. I was able to go up to that child and admonish him saying, “You are not smoking, are you?!” I get the feeling that if children recognize the adults in the community as someone they know, rather than unconcerned strangers, this could help the prevention of juvenile crime.
I believe that a town where children keep the rules, and where there are healthy and vibrant mothers, fathers and elderly, is a town with a comprehensive community sports center.

▲Multiple generations enjoying the sports festival (including Narashino’s mayor)


(notes)Kin-ball
Kin-ball is a new sport invented in Canada, where three teams play together using a large ball in a game similar to volleyball, but without a net.

previous page next page


Top of this page