CHAPTER4 IMPROVING INTERNATIONA LCOMPETITIVENESS AND PROMOTING INTERNATIONAL SPORTS EXCHANGE
SECTION2: TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF INTERNATIONALCOMPETITIVENESS
4. The Cultivation and Maintenance of Outstanding Instructors
It is important to cultivate and maintain high quality instructors in order to develop athletes at the international level.MESSC has established a system whereby the Minister of Education,Science,Sports and Culture gives approval for projects undertaken by sports associations to cultivate instructors for the improvement of competitiveness.As of April1998,there were41designated sports,and81,994qualified instructors.MESSC also hosts the National Summit Meeting of Sports Coaches for sports-related personnel,including coaches,sports medicine and science researchers,and prefectural sports administrators,who are working on the development and strengthening of top-level athletes.The Meeting aims,through study workshops and information exchange conducted by participants on issues in their own fields,to further the mutual understanding of those concerned,and to maintain a system for intensifying instruction based on systematic cooperation.MESSC also assigns persons who have made particularly notable achievements in the improvement and promotion of physical education and sports in Japan as"sports instructors of special merit,"and supplies them for sports projects sponsored by prefectures in order to utilize their outstanding skills and provide valuable&st-hand experience(plan for FY1998:15sports,24persons,41projects).