Aiming to create a sporting world that inspires

I wish you a Happy New Year!

Last year, at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the number of gold medals and total number of medals brought home by Japan was the highest for an overseas Games. Also at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, Japan won medals in 11 events, the highest number again for an overseas Games. The athletes' challenging their limits gave courage and inspiration to many people.

This year, the 2025 World Athletics Championship, and the 25th Summer Deaflympics Games will both be held in Tokyo. And from next year onwards, a series of international competitions are scheduled including the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya 2026, the 5th Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya 2026, and the 2027 World Masters Games in Kansai.

The Japan Sports Agency (JSA) will work to improve international athletic performance by establishing a system to support athletes right up to the competitions, utilizing the knowledge of sports medicine and science, etc., so that they can perform at their best. The JSA will also work to build momentum towards the Deaflympics, World Athletics, Asian Games and Asian Para Games to be hosted by Japan. Furthermore, we hope to realize through these Games a symbiotic society in which a diverse range of people can participate, regardless of whether they have disabilities.

The World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai will open from this April. The JSA will participate in the event to promote diverse and new possibilities of sport in both domestic and international markets. The JSA exhibit includes a presentation of good practices on how sport can contribute to the realization of a symbiotic society and a society of health and longevity, along with introducing new approaches that utilize cutting-edge technology to “do”, “watch”, and “support” sports.

The JSA will also promote initiatives to return the knowledge on sports medicine and science obtained through supporting athletes' high performance to help the wider public maintain and improve their health and implement effective exercise and sport. I believe that promoting these initiatives will improve people’s life performance, bringing better health, better quality of life and help people lead fulfilling lives. The JSA will work to spread public awareness by also utilizing the “self-check video” and “paper balloon exercise” I designed and personally appear in. I invite everyone to try them out.

Meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure sports opportunities for children through school club activities alone, with the downsizing of schools due to low birthrates, and the rising number of cases where school clubs do not have enough members to form a team, or children are unable to play the sport of their choice.
To this end, the JSA will also work to accelerate nationwide efforts to advance creating new community sports so that children will be able to participate in a variety of sport activities in a sustainable way. As we enter the final year of the reform promotion period, the JSA will enhance measures to support demonstration projects carried out in regional communities to disseminate good practices while advancing discussions among members of the advisory panel on the JSA policy direction for 2026 and beyond.

Moreover, we believe that the experience of exposure to a variety of sports during childhood will help children foster their potential and broaden their future options. We will build and enhance a ‘multi-sport’ environment so that children can become familiar with various sports. Creating opportunities for children and their families to get together in sport by, for example, organizing various hands-on events will increase interactions among people and contribute to regional revitalization.
Through this reform, we will free sport from the boundaries of the school to create an environment where people can continue enjoying sport throughout their lives.

Sport has a huge potential to revitalize local communities and the economy. The JSA will support regional communities advancing measures to promote sports tourism including martial arts, award ideas for sports and healthy community development by municipalities and students, and disseminate good practices. The JSA will also encourage further advances in stadium and arena reform, and the comprehensive development and utilization of stadiums and arenas together with other facilities to create “sport complexes” as part of community development. In addition, we will support the creation of new businesses through cooperation between sports and other industries and promote a variety of open innovation in sport throughout the country.

We must also improve sports integrity to disseminate the value of sport to society. Sport organizations must work to strengthen governance through compliance based on governance codes and other rules. We must also work to eradicate issues rooted in sport including violence and harassment and develop countermeasures for the defamation of athletes.

Doping is another factor that threatens sports integrity. Not only does doping deny one's potential- it is also harmful to your health and disrespectful of life. It is no exaggeration to say that choosing not to dope, and not allowing others to dope, means protecting your own life and the lives of others. Therefore, in addition to research and development of detection methods that correspond to increasingly advanced doping methods, we will work with sports and medical organizations to educate and enlighten as many people as possible about anti-doping, thereby protecting the value of sport and contribute to improving the life performance of the broad public.

Sport is a source of joy, inspiration, and courage, and has the power to uplift and enrich our souls and lives. By further spreading the possibility of sport while responding flexibly to the changing times, the JSA strives to realize a sporting world that inspires the nation.

JSA Commissioner
MUROFUSHI Koji