Bringing up Tokyo Athletes

We promote comprehensive improvement of competitive ability and skills of young athletes in Tokyo so as to enable them to be active on the front lines.

The Tokyo Head Office for Promotion of Athletic Competitiveness

Tokyo's Master Plan for Sport Promotion

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) set up “The Tokyo Head Office for Promotion of Athletic Competitiveness” in July 2007 to tackle projects for comprehensive improvement of competitive ability, targeting upcoming National Sports Festivals and the Olympics. The Head Office will develop the basic policy and “The Implementation Plan” for improving competitive ability of athletes in Tokyo and discuss strategies on a continuous basis.

Project of Discovering and Cultivation of Junior Athletes

TMG conducts “Project of Discovering and Cultivation of Junior Athletes” to discover and cultivate talented junior athletes so as to enable them to achieve in Sports Festival Tokyo 2013 and the international sporting events, like the Olympics.

1. Main body

Hosting Organizations: TMG, Tokyo Athletic Association

Cooperation: Japanese Olympic Committee, The Japan Sport Council, Tokyo Metropolitan organizing bodies for 7 sports.

Sponsor: The Tokyo Junior High School Physical Culture Association

2. The feature of the project

【Requirements and Screening】
Second grade students of junior high school with great athletic potential who live and study in Tokyo. No specific athletic experience is required. Twenty to thirty athletes will be selected through preliminary screening and interview.

【Goals of the project】
After finishing the cultivation program, the students are supposed to choose a sport they have an aptitude for from 7 choices. Boating, boxing, wrestling, weight lifting, cycling, canoeing and archery, a top level performance is considered possible in these sports regardless of past experience. Thorough coaching will be provided by each sporting organization after the students enter high school. Our goal is to promote athletes who have not only great sporting potential but also a high intellectual capacity and respectable personality.

Sports Science and Medical Athlete Support Project

TMG conducts a support project for promising high school students including National Sports Festival candidates from a scientific point of view in order to cultivate and strengthen junior athletes as well as to improve the credentials of coaches toward Sports Festival Tokyo 2013 and the Olympics.

1. Main body

Hosting organizations: TMG, Tokyo Sport Benefits Corporation

Cooperation: Nippon Sport Science University, Kokushikan University, Japan Women’s College of Physical Education

2. The contents of the project

1) Support menu common for all the participants
・Medical check-up (to determine physical condition)
・Control test(to determine body strength by indexes)

2) Support menu vary according to each sport
・Conditioning support (physical performance measurement
 from a technical point of view)
・Performance support
 (operating analysis during training)
・Training support(enhancement and improvement of
 training program based on each measured result)
・Dietary support(advice on nutritional intake)

3. Targeted sports of the project

Weight lifting, canoeing, karate, wrestling, track and field, archery, cycling, badminton, boxing and bowling.(10 sports)

Please see below for details.

Other TMG projects for the improvement of athletic competitiveness

Since 2009 TMG has been designating “Tokyo Athletes Promotions Schools” from among powerful schools in Tokyo which have achieved excellent result in National Sports Festivals or National High School Championships based on “the Implementation Plan”. The purpose of this project is to help those schools train their students through school club activities, as well as encourage them to enter National Sports Festivals.

24 Tokyo Metropolitan high schools and 78 private schools, 102 schools in total were designated in 2012.