2. The discussions about Hakone race
（You can both listen to the audio and read the manuscript）
Summary by ChatGPT
The "Audio Japan" podcast delves into the controversial abolishment of the "Kanto Gakuren Senbatsu" and the nationalization of the Hakone Ekiden. The Gakuren Senbatsu, started in 2003, allowed outstanding athletes from non-qualified universities to participate in the Hakone Ekiden. Despite its purpose to provide running experience and opportunities, the discontinuation decision for the 100th race, made without proper discussion, faced criticism for lack of transparency and fairness. Additionally, the podcast discusses the complexities of nationalizing the Hakone Ekiden, highlighting the disparity in resources between Kanto and regional universities, and the potential benefits of involving more regions, as suggested by Mr. Hara, in terms of regional development and social contribution. The podcast also touches on various perspectives, including university public relations and the view of fostering globally competitive runners.
Opening
「Audio Japan 〜Learning Japan with You〜」 This podcast is to dive into Japanese culture, trends, and so on.
Through Audio Japan, I aim to make you like Japan more, help you chat with people in your daily life, have business meetings, and communicate with people from different countries.
If you want to listen to the episode in Japanese, go to the podcast "Audio Japan 〜あなたと一緒に日本を学ぶ〜」
The audio is available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcast, etc.
●Spotify
●YouTube
●Apple Podcast
My name is Taiki Arai, and I am an educational designer.
From January 7 to 8, many municipalities held their coming-of-age ceremonies. To my surprise, the "Gathering of the 20 Year Olds" in Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, was being broadcast on YouTube LIVE.
I wondered if we live in an age where even "20-year-old gatherings" are being broadcasted.
The reason why I noticed it was because I saw the behavior of Mayor Ishimaru of Aki Takata in Hiroshima Prefecture. I wanted to know how my hometown, Sabae City, and Sendai City, where I live now, allocate their budgets.
In fact, I sometimes ask ChatGPT to read and summarize the contents of regular meetings.
At some point I would like to share a summary of my research.
Now we will move on to the main topic.
Gakuren Senbatsu abolision
This topic is again about the Hakone Ekiden.
There are many things being discussed about the Hakone Ekiden. Among them, this time I will discuss the pros and cons of the abolition of the system called "Kanto Gakuren Senbatsu" in Japanese and the nationalization of the Hakone Ekiden, both of which were mentioned in the previous issue.
Let’s get started.
The Kanto Gakuren Senbatsu system began with the 79th tournament in 2003. Until then, the number of teams allowed to participate was 15 at that time, and when the Kanto Gakuren executives consulted the police to increase the number of schools allowed to participate to 20, the number of participating teams was increased as well as open participation so that a variety of universities could participate.
In addition, from the 83rd to the 89th competitions, the teams were officially ranked, and in the 84th competition, they placed in 4th place. As I may have mentioned in the last episode, Mr.Hara is the current director of Aoyama Gakuin, and he was the one who was in charge of the team that came in fourth place.
After the 90th race, the system was to discontinue , but Yuhki Kawauchi, who ran as an athlete selected by it, achieved good results in the marathon, and in interviews, etc., he talked about being selected by the Kanto Gakuren System to compete in Hakone, and since the 91st race, the team had participated as the "Kanto Student Federation Team" in open participation.
However, the team was not selected for this year's 100th race, and the team is still under discussion for the 101st and onward.
The purpose of introducing the system is to bring back the experience of running the Hakone Ekiden. The team is made up of athletes from universities that failed to qualify for the preliminary Hakone Ekiden in October.
In the past, the team has included marathon runner Kawauchi, whom I mentioned earlier, and Hayate Nitta of Ikuei University, who jumped out of the race early in the first section of the last race.
By setting up the Gakuren selection, those who are enrolled in universities that value both the liberal arts and the military, and who have difficulty in competing in the preliminary rounds, will have the opportunity to run in Hakone.
This is because, in order to compete, all entrants must have an official record of 34 minutes or less for the 10,000 meters, and at least 10 to 14 runners must be present at the time of entry.
I have no problem with what is being discussed, but in the course of my research, I honestly thought that the decision to abolish the Kanto Gakuren System in the 100th tournament was too puzzling.
As far as I can research, after being notified of the discontinuation of the system in 100th race, the students collected and submitted the necessary petitions, but the administrative side of Kanto Gakuren decided on their own without setting up a meeting to discuss the issue with the students.
In the past, the Kanto Intercollegiate Championship points were introduced at the preliminary round of the Hakone Ekiden without any discussion. In this way, the ranking of the first through sixth universities in the preliminary round was determined by the total time of the 10 runners, while the ranking of the seventh and higher universities was determined by taking into account the points from the Kanto Intercollegiate Championships held in May each year.
What does this mean to the athletes and coaches? In fact, most universities were opposed to the idea, but the executives pushed for the decision to be made.
Moreover, Takushoku University, at that time, was in the passing range in the total time of the top 10 qualifiers, but missed the main competition three times by an upset in the Kanto Intercollegiate points. Moreover, when I consider that the university that slipped into the last chair had a total race time that was almost 4 minutes faster than other total time, I wonder how much more bitter they have to be to make it to the finals.
The Kanto Intercollegiate point system was abolished at the 90th competition, and at the same time, a quota for Kanto Intercollegiate results was introduced.
This was given to the university with the highest total points over the five years of the Kanto Intercollegiate Championships, and Nihon University was given a special quota for the 95th competition.
The president of 10 years ago was the honorary president, the vice president was the president, and the chairman of the general affairs committee was the vice president.
Moreover, the honorary president graduated from Nihon University. Looking at this, I am sorry to say, but I suspect that they used their power in the wrong direction for the sake of the participation of their alma mater.
the nationalization of the Hakone Ekiden.
Next, I would like to discuss the nationalization of the Hakone Ekiden.
As mentioned at the beginning of the previous issue, the Hakone Ekiden was originally a race competed only by universities in the Kanto region. Only the 100th Hakone Ekiden was a nationwide event. This is because some universities from the Kansai region and other regions participated in the preliminary round. Eleven schools participated from outside the Kanto region, with Kyoto Sangyo University in 27th place. The difference from 13th place, which is the borderline for the preliminary round, was 14 minutes and 35 seconds.
On further reflection, the decision was made around June 2022, and the preliminary round was in October 2023. Considering that there was only a little over a year to prepare, I expect that it must have been quite difficult.
First of all, universities in the Kanto region offer tuition waivers for those who have funds or enter with a sports recommendation, and top runners receive scholarships that are not repaid. It is also normal to live in a student dormitory, and meals are provided. During the summer vacation period, students spend more than a month running in training camps.
On the other hand, local universities have to work part-time or get together only a few times a month for practice.
Moreover, while only two students can run more than 15 km in the All-Japan University Ekiden, 10 to 12 students are required to run more than 20 km in the Hakone Ekiden qualifying round.
In response to such a situation, discussions were taking place from various perspectives.
Mr. Hara perspective is that regional development can be promoted by involving the local communities. Specifically, people from rural areas will stay in their hometowns and aim for Hakone, and they will find jobs in their hometowns. This will also create employment.
I have the impression that, unlike other directors, Hara himself is oriented toward social contribution.
I have also heard that Mr. Hara himself places his rivals not in other universities, but in baseball and soccer.
Therefore, I expect that he wants to attract young people to ekiden and long-distance races as much as possible by promoting the nationalization of the race.
In the case of university public relations, participating in the Hakone Ekiden or running at the front of the race is a good PR opportunity for each viewer. In fact, some fans of the Hakone Ekiden even said in high school, "I took the entrance exam because the runner is going to that university.
A Businessman's Perspective director is that the Hakone Ekiden is meant to nurture runners who can compete on the world stage, recently, athletes such as Endo from Gakuho Ishikawa High School and Koho Nagashima from Nishiwaki Kogyo High School have not run the Hakone Ekiden.
As I mentioned earlier, at this stage regarding the nationalization of Hakone, only the 100th edition has been suspended.
However, I think it is good that Director Hara is speaking out and others are voicing their opinions.
ending
Audio Japan - Learning about Japan with You
It was time for the ending.
Let me conclude with three remarks.
The first is a video of Dai Tamesue and Mr. Tokumoto on Dai Tamesue's YouTube channel. Both of them are from Hosei University, and Mr. Tamesue, asks Mr. Tokumoto, how he cooperates with the university on the financial side and how he works with the university.
Please check it out if you are interested in the contents of the previous and current episodes, which are listed in the summary section.
Second.
Hakone Ekiden becoming popular in China
Maybe this is a good opportunity to make Hakone Ekiden not all over Japan, but all over the world to attract people from all over the world.
Third, this is a completely different story from the previous ones.
The other day, "Space Brothers 0" was released on Netflix, so I took the time to watch it.
This is the feature film version of the popular TV animation original by Koyama Chuya that depicts the brothers' struggle and bond as they pursue their childhood dream of standing on the moon together. It is an original story written by the original author himself, and depicts a story four years before the first episode of the original story, which had never been depicted before.
There is a phrase that left an impression on me while watching Space Brothers 0. When you only hear the phrase, you may think, "What do you mean by 'bring courage'? You may wonder what it means to bring courage, but I thought it was a very encouraging phrase, both for Hibito, who was fading away, and for me, who was watching the story.
If you are interested, please watch it on Netflix.
Also, as I mentioned at the beginning, if you would like to listen to the podcast , "Audio Japan - Learning Japan with You" in Japanese, please listen to it from "Audio Japan - あなたと一緒に日本を学ぶ.
The program is available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcast, etc.
●Spotify
●YouTube
●Apple Podcast
We also welcome your comments and letters about the program. Please fill out the survey form in the overview section. I look forward to hearing from you.
If you like this broadcast, please subscribe and follow my channel.
Thank you for listening to the end.
サポートすると，いいことあるかも?!