10, Future of Rugby in Japan

Rugby in Japan

week 10

     The World Cup of rugby will be held in Japan in 2019. You may know this. If you don't know, I want you know. The World Cup of rugby gets big box-office proceeds. It gets thirdly as a world event. The event with the largest box-office proceeds is the Olympic, and the second largest is the World Cup of soccer. Japanese people may be surprised at the fact that rugby is popular sport in the world. People all over the world may be surprised like Japanese at unpopularity of rugby in Japan. When the rugby World Cup is held, people all over the world pay attention to Japan than Japanese expectation. In order to make the event a success, many Japanese people take an interest in rugby the event. Moreover, this is the very first World Cup in Asia, Japan want to make success by any means. JRFU calls the whole country "One for all. All for one."

     Who do you think play an active part 5 years later? Now, many high school players play rugby. In 5 years later, they will be the main members of the team of Japan. There is the U-18 team of Japan with seven people. Last year, they participated in Asian U-18 championship. Both men's team and women's team participated in as Japan's national team. The tournament was held in Nanjing in August. Such expedition has been invaluable for high school rugby players. The expedition to the foreign countries is rare. And playing with the players who does not usually play together stimulates. In result, men's team won a bronze medal and women's team won a gold medal. A captain of men's team said that the biggest experience for them is to have been able to get a medal, and he was able to realize the difficulty and importance of making a team one. He wanted to spend the coming rugby life by this experience. A captain of women's team said that Asian U-18 championship is the biggest event ever she have taken part in, so she was able to inter change with many overseas players not only rugby players. And through this event, she wanted to go to Olympic more and more. I think that we can hope for their future success. Thinking only so, I come to look forward to five years later.


     Until this time, I said about rugby through ten times of blog. Surely it is only you to have read ten times of all the blogs. I am sorry that my writing is hard to read.
     Thank you for reading my blog till the last.      

(JRFU official site)
       

9. Amateur Rugby Team in Japan

Rugby in Japan

Week 9

    The Top League is a professional league of the rugby. Of course, there is amateur league of the rugby in Japan. It is so called the league of the member of society. Many club teams belong to this league. For example, Tsukubarians. You may think that this team is in Tsukuba. Members of this team practice every week at rugby ground of University of Tsukuba. I am a student of University of Tsukuba, so I can take a look at practice of this team. Indeed, I belonged to this team. Here, I want to introduce Tsukubarians. In 1977, University of Tsukuba rugby club alumnus played a key role and established a team. There are members more than 200 from an infant to a member of society in this club. The team has about 20 team sponsors. In results, the team won the East Japan club championship once and is always in the high rank of East Japan Top club league. I can say that this team is strong. 

      Moreover, this team manages closely rooted to the local community. Professional team of the Top League aim at making a team of the local community too. But players of these teams must training every day, so they con not have much time with the local people. There are many cases that these players gather from various areas. On the other hand, players of amateur teams work weekdays and practice on Saturday and Sunday. And players of these teams gather from the area which the team is. Necessarily, the team and the local connection become strong. I think that this is a good point of amateur teams.    

      In Japan, most of the rugby players of the elementary schoolchild belong to club team. Elementary schools in Japan don't have own team of rugby. Public elementary schools never have a team. Many schools have own soccer team, so children are able to join the club team willingly and easily. Even if there is a rugby club team near, children don't know that. When it is worse, some children don't know what rugby is at all. In fact, there were such children when I was in elementary school. But they knew that through myself. In what kind of method, it is good that rugby is recognized among people. In 2019, World Cup will be held in Japan. I want all Japanese to know about rugby at least by 2019.

(TSUKUBARIANS official site)
          

8. Events hosted by JRFU

Rugby In Japan
Week8

     Do you know a game called all-star game in Top League? You maybe watch every year an all-star game in professional baseball. Indeed, there is an all-star game in Top League. In 2013, this game was held on March 3. In this game, two teams are decided whether players were expert or they were young. These teams' name were "Top League Senior Heart Team" and "Top League Young Star Team". Whether the date of their birth distributed a team in after April 2, 1985 or in the past. This game was held in Kimiidera Park land sports stadium in Wakayama. This game was a charity match. The charity match has held for 5 years. A part of the game profit is made use of for contribution to society activity. For example, reconstructing of the quake-hit areas, supporting of the person with a disability and spread   rugby to a young generation. Incidentally, an all-star game in 2012 was held in Sendai. 

     In 2012,  the Young Star Team beat the Senior Heart Team. But the Senior Heart Team beat the Young Star Team. Watching the game, I knew that there was new discovery. Rugby players need not only physical strength but also experience and proficiency. If you focus on the point, you will enjoy watching games more.


     Indeed, there is an all-star game in Kanto college league. In 2013, "The Resistance Selection Team" beat "Kanto League Selection Team". I am sorry but, I do not know well about how are these teams decided. I can merely say that players of the university student play regardless of which university they belong to. This game in 2013 was held at Titibunomiya rugby stadium. I think that rugby game viewers tended to be old. In recently, however, many young people are interested in rugby, especially college rugby. In fact, many young people came and watched the all-star game. If young people come to be interested in rugby, rugby wii become one of the popular sports. 


      By the way, I want you be interested in high school rugby, too. Do you know the National High School Rugby Championships? This championships are held every winter at Hanazono rugby stadium in Osaka. Representative team of each prefecture come to Hanazono and play. In 2014, Tokaidai Gyousei high school won the match. This championships has charms different from adult players. I recommend you watching rugby games of all age.  


(JRFU official site, Japan East Rugby Football Union official site, HIGHSCHOOL-RUGBY.COM)

     

       

Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka

    Do you know Amiri Baraka? He is American writer of poetry. His former name is Leroi Jones. He had written a lot of books and taught at a number of universities. For example, State University of New York at Buffalo and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Baraka's poetry and writing strongly said about a conflict of extreme critically. He is African-American. In this community, critics call him one of the most respected and most widely published Black writers in his generation. He brought big influence. His short term as Poet Laureate of New Jersey(2002-2003) brought his work a concentration of negative opinions from critics, politicians and the general citizen. Then he wrote "Somebody Blew Up America", and controversy happened over a public reading of this poem. Other critics explained his explession of violence, misogyny, racism and homophobia as evidence of psychological projection. 

   By the way, do you know why I say about Amiri Baraka?  

Indeed, he died yesterday(1/9, 2014) at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark. The cause of death was not mentioned. But it is reported that Baraka had a long  with conflict diabetes. I didn't know about him before hearing this news. I want to know more about Amiri Baraka.

Do you want to know Amiri Baraka? 

7. Rugby Player Population

Rugby in Japan

Week 7 

 

     Do you know how many people play rugby in the World? IRB says that there are about 5.5 million rugby players in the World. IRB is a meaning called the International Rugby Board. Now, IRB sponsors The World Cup. According to IRB's report, the competition population of Japan is about 120,000 people. In 2019, The World Cup will be held in Japan. JRFU (Japan Rugby Football Union) made an aim to gain the competition population to 200,000 people by 2019. This is too difficult to achieve. However, the host country is responsible for this big event. Japan is the host nation. Japan must make the big event a success. Japan must entertain people not only in Japan but also in the world. Japan has big responsibility. Among the 120,000 people playing rugby in Japan, a woman is about 5,000 people. I hope that rugby spreads among men and women.

     In Australia, the competition population broke through 300,000 people last year. The Australian Rugby Union says that over 320,000 people play rugby now. The competition population increase year by year. The population of Australia is 21 millions.  Incidentally, New Zealand's competition population is about 150,000 people, France's is about 360,000 people, USA's is about 460,000 people, Republic of South Africa's is about 650,000, and England's is over 2 million people.  Do you know which country is the highest of tha ratio of the number of persons playing rugby to the population of the country? The answer is maybe Fiji. Fiji has a population of about 850,000 people, and about 80,000 people play rugby. It is surprising that the one plays rugby to ten people.

     By the way,  Sevens was adopted as an Olympic event formally last year. Sevens is the sevens version of rugby, a team has 7 members to play.  At the Olympics in 2016, Sevens will become an official event. IRB says that we will greet a historic moment in Rio de Janeiro.  Because Sevens was adopted as an Olympic event formally, the rugby population increases in all the countries of the world now. IRB advocated an aim to gain competition population to 6 million people from 5,500,000 people by 2016. The keyword is "Try, Play, Stay." IRB's chairman says "The aim of the programme is to encourage players of all ages to Try, Play and Stay in Rugby, with a target of attracting one million new players and 15,000 new coaches and referees over the next four years. Get into Rugby will promote the values of the Game and ensure children are encouraged to try Rugby in a safe and progressive environment." I think that Japan should be able to take advantage of this flow.


(JRFU Offical Site, IRB Offical Site, Rugby Republic)

Nelson Mandela: Breaking News

    Do you know Nelson Mandela? Many people  say ”Yes.” He is a politician of the Republic of South Africa.　 He became the first black president of the country in 1994. He was the president for 5 years from 1994 to 1999. While he was politician, he did a lot of great things. For example, he abolished the apartheid in 1991. The apartheid is a segregation by race, in other words, racial discrimination. Between 1948 and 1994, there was this policy in the Republic of South Africa. Apatheid said that Black cannot do anything White do. Naturally, the life of black became poor. The United Nations criticized the Republic of South Africa every year from 1952. In spite of this criticism, the apartheid was not abolished until 1991. I think that this is crazy. Nelson Mandela's activities were evaluated, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.  In 1994, he became the president. Then he pushed forward a race settlement and cooperation and carried out revival development program (RDP) as an economic policy. In 1999, he retired from the politician. 
 (Wikipedia)

     There is news of death. Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013. This was a sudden unexpected event. A memorial service of Nelson Mandela was held in the stadium of the Johannesburg suburbs on December 10. Many well-known people gathered from the world. Of course, the bereaved and friend of Mandela, Diet member and domestic citizen gathered too. I want to introduce some speeches in the memorial service. Secretary‐General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon said "he was 'a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration'. Many around the world were greatly influenced by his selfless struggle for human dignity, equality and freedom. He touched our lives in deeply personal ways."  Barack Obama, president of the United States of America, said "It is hard to eulogise any man... how much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation towards justice. We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. While I will always fall short of Madiba, he makes me want to be a better man."  Tens of thousands of people participated in a memorial service. British Prime Minister Cameron or American Former President Clinton attended, too. Crown Prince and Former Prime Minister Fukuda attended from Japan. In the memorial service, people were very lively. Her body was laid away in his hometown.

He died, but I think that Nelson mandela's mind is immortal forever.

(Yahoo! News, Wikipedia)














 

6, Result of National Team

Rugby in Japan
Week 6

        Many people think that Japan national team cannot beat other country's team. The Japanese rugby level is low down in the world. Now, Japanese team is the strongest in Asia. However, most people do not evaluate the result. Japanese baseball team had won World Baseball Classic twice. The soccer team advanced to the final round. In other sports, for example tennis, volleyball, judo, and so on, many athlete play an active part in world stage. Most people is not only hoping for rugby team's success but also demand. JRFU think that it have to make the strong team.  
　　
　　Japan national team participated in all the past World Cup. The World Cup was held seven times in the past. Japan had played 24 matches, but the results were not good. Their record was 1 win, 21 defeats and two draws. Japan only won once in 1991. Since then, Japan could not win for twenty years. This made people think that Japan national team is weak. JRFU want to improve this situation. In next World Cup, Japan must beat other teams in order to make people recognize that Japan national team are strong. Incidentally, Japan is the number 15 in the world rankings. Of course, New Zealand is ranked  number 1 in the world. Lower than number 2 are Australlia, France, South Africa, England and Ireland.

         There are national team according to the generation, sevens national team and women national team. Japan's youth team, mens sevens team and women team participated the Asian Games this year. Japan teams of all category won the Asian Games. This is an excellent thing, at the same time, this may be a natural thing. In order to make people say that Japan team is strong, Japan team must beat other country expect Asia. 

          
          By the way, do you know that a foreigner belongs to the Japan national team? Indeed, rugby players can belongs to the team of the country which is not a mother country. In an international rule of rugby, the participation of the foreign players as national member is accepted. In other words, players different in the nationality can wear the same uniform. Of course, there are  requirements that they should meet some. One, their birthplace is Japan. Two, birthplace of their parents or grandparents is Japan. Third, they live in Japan for more than three years. They should clear a condition of either, not all. Rugby players can become the member of a national team regardless of nationality. I think that this may be fascination of the rugby.
 (Sports navi)

(JRFU official website, Yahoo! Japan news)