Message from Ambassador

From 13^th to 21^st of September, the World Athletics Championship will be held in Tokyo. Many Kenyan athletes have trained themselves aiming at demonstrating their best ability at the Championship. I am confident that quite a few Kenyans will achieve good records. As always, it will be delightful to see wonderful performances of Kenyan athletes in Japan. This time too, I look forward to seeing them.
 
The history of the athletic exchange between Japan and Kenya has been long and deep. The flow from Kenya to Japan is represented by the past records of sending Kenyan young distance runners to Japanese universities to train them as marathon runners.  Many Kenyan marathon athletes who run marvelously at world competitions, such as Samuel Kamau Wanjiru, are products of this activity. The flow from Japan to Kenya is, in the main, the reinforcement retreat in Kenya by many Japanese runners. Numerous Japanese runners have gone through it at such places as Iten and Eldoret, for the purposes of strengthening of their cardiorespiratory capacity by running at a high place and acquiring Kenya’s unique fast running method on site. Ms. Nozomi Tanaka is one. It is illuminating, even prophesying, future shapes of the Japan-Kenya relationship that the athletic exchanges have, in this way, developed as both-ways cooperation. I reiterate my gratitude for the dedication of all those who have been active in the endeavours.
 
Mr. Toshiaki Hirose, former captain of the Japanese national rugby team, has started similar activities aiming at both-ways exchanges in rugby between Japan and the world ranking nation in the sevens, Kenya. I greatly look forward to seeing advancement in this endeavour.
 
Judo and Karate in Kenya also attracts attention from a new perspective. Nowadays we see increasing activities of Judo and Karate clubs in informal settlements to teach the events for the youth from humble backgrounds. This undertaking, which in effect orients their youthful energy to sports, not to delinquency and drugs, is showing good results. I, together with the Kenyan Judo Federation, host the Japanese Ambassador’s Cup of Judo. In the Cup’s competition, boys and girls from informal settlements fight big-shaped Judo athletes from the KDF teams and Police teams, offend them aggressively and many times win “Ippon.” Great exhilaration, indeed! Through Judo and Karate, they will build their physical strength, self-confidence and pride, which, then, will help them navigate their future lives. Some of the young athletes have been successfully hired by KDF or the Police.
 
On the other day, the Embassy had received the generous offer from the Badminton Association of Japan to donate second-hand Badminton gears to Kenya. The gears were second-hand in name only and had almost the same utility as new ones. We liaised with Badminton Kenya and Kenya Para-Badminton Federation. It led to the actual donation to the two entities.
 
Strengthening our bilateral relations through sports exchanges possesses unique power of its own, which cooperation in other areas does not have. First, bonding between people generated by sports exchanges is magically magnetic, because the overwhelming energy, sparked by the meeting of human powers at their full strength, brings about traction and excitement that only sports can demonstrate. Similarly, thanks to the broad popularity and appealing power of sports, sports exchanges make extremely wide strata of citizens of our two countries recognise the positive dynamic with which the Japan-Kenya relations are progressing. Particularly, it is very meaningful that the youth in both countries have started to find the attractiveness of each other nation through the advancement of sports exchanges. Because, that will greatly consolidate the foundation of our long-term bilateral relations toward future. Our relations are fortunate, as they are gifted with progress of the exchanges in so many events as athletic, rugby, Judo, Karate, Badminton and others.
 
Here, I would like to thank you again for your strenuous efforts to advance exchanges in various sport events. I and the Embassy will also do as much as we can for further flourishment of exchanges. Together with you, I will be part of our joint efforts to promote Japan-Kenya relations which are full of human interactions, full of cheering and laughing voices, and full of drama and sympathy, mediated by sports. I look forward to our further work.