Japan Sport Stories

Caz won the world's first ever Paralympic track event in Tokyo 1964. 10 gold medals later she is still working for Paralympics GB and an integral part of the Paralympics movement. Join us as she talks about her time at Tokyo, a missing bronze medal, and how far the Paralympics has come between the Tokyos.

Head of Venues and Cities, Ross Aitken guides us through preparing the host cities and his time living in Japan adapting to the new way of life. We hear all about the amazing story of Kamaishi, a city that went from a devastation in the 2011 tsunami to hosting one of the most exciting rugby games in 2019. We also learn about how to deal with tattooed players, the fear of running out of beer, and the best way to join Tokyo's gay pride parades.

Saya Sakakibara describes herself as 50% British, 50% Japanese and 100% Australian. Born in Japan, Saya started BMX racing from the age of just 4, following in her big brother's footsteps. Now, aged 22, she's one of the top ranked BMX riders in the world as has her eyes firmly set on Tokyo.
Saya talks us through the world of BMX, balancing her identity across her multiple nationalities, and the what life is like trying to qualify for an Olympic games in the middle of a global pandemic.
Follow us on Twitter
Drop us an email
Our Partners The Japan Research Centre
Generously funded by the Toshiba Foundation

The world's focus is now on the Paralympic games - with many nations having the most hours of coverage that they've ever had, it's easy to forget that it wasn't always that way. Host Noel Thatcher often recounts the story of his triumphant return to London after his first Paralympics Gold and being met with an indifferent UK who weren't interested in Parasport. Fast-forward to 2020 and all of that seems to have changed, but why?
Well today we're talking to Yamaguchi Ichiro, a journalist at the Mainichi Shinbun and one of the leaders in getting Parasport into print media in Japan. Parasport was rarely written about and when it was, it was through the lense of human interest stories. He changed this, but convincing the editors that Parasport is sport was no easy task. We catch up with Ichiro to find out more.

Japan has an incredible Parasport history. Not particularly in medals - they're only 18th overall, but in the influence they have on Parasport events. They've hosted the longest running wheelchair marathon event in Oita and their coverage of the 1998 Nagano games was a great populariser of the Winter Paralympics.
But there's more, there are two games which are lost to popular and even institutional memory that Japan hosted. We're joined by Dennis Frost from Kalamazoo College in the US who talks us through the incredible Other Tokyo 1964 Games and The FESPIC Games . Two hugely influential events that are largely forgotten.
Dennis Frost: https://eas.kzoo.edu/about/people/
Check out Dennis' incredible Book More than Medals
Japan Sport Stories is hosted by Noel Thatcher and Mike Salter.
Come look at our website and follow us on twitter for more Japan Sport Content
We are proud partners with the Japan Research Centre at SOAS, University of London and generously funded by the Toshiba Foundation.