Skip to main content

Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. to Run Sunday's Meigi Ekiden Despite Ongoing Corporal Punishment Scandal

http://www.tonichi.net/news/index.php?id=27076
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00239441.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Translator's note: Click here and here for background on this story.  Toyokawa Kogyo's head coach is Masaaki Watanabe.

Despite an ongoing scandal involved allegations of the repeated use of corporal punishment by Toyokawa Kogyo H.S.'s 50-year-old male ekiden head coach against team members, principal Yoshihisa Takemoto has confirmed that the team is continuing to train and is scheduled to run in the Feb. 3 Meigi Ekiden.

Over the weekend the school grounds were quiet and empty without the usual club activities.  The streets around the school have been crowded with local residents peering into the school grounds as they pass by.  A group of men calling themselves alumni of Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. have been gathered near the front gate of the school's grounds, shouting at members of the media and telling them go away.  A male local resident in his 50's commented, "I was surprised to hear that this has been happening right here in our town.  We need to raise the standards for those responsible for leading youth sports.  I believe that this problem needs to be thought of in terms of leaders' overall training and education."

According to information released at a session at the school over the weekend, since last April twelve members of the Toyokawa Kogyo H.S. ekiden team have received corporal punishment from the coach.    Of serious concern to the school administration were two cases in which a male student and a female student left the school after being slapped and beaten.  Although the school was aware of these two cases, they did not inform the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education of them until issuing a written report on Jan. 25.  Principal Takemoto explained the failure to report the situation in a timely matter by saying, "The students' parents strongly requested that we remain silent until the students were back on their feet."

It was also revealed that in January, 2009, at the insistence of a father whose son had been beaten, the coach had written a document to the principal promising not to use corporal punishment against students.  In the written pledge the coach wrote, "I will not repeat this or go too far in my leadership," "I am sorry for having overstepped the bounds of my authority regardless of what the reason may have been," and, "I will reflect deeply on what I have done and give my word that I will not repeat these actions."  However, according to school officials, six months after signing the pledge the coach beat male team members in the head with a deck brush seriously enough for them to require stitches.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters