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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 〜Learning Japan with You〜。
The audio is available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and so on.
My name is Taiki Arai, and I am an educational designer.
From January 7th to 8th, many municipalities held their coming-of-age ceremonies.
To my surprise,
the gathering of the 20-year-olds in Sabai 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 Akitakata in Hiroshima Prefecture.
I want to know how my hometown, Sabai City and Sendai City,
where I live now, allocates their budgets.
In fact, I sometimes ask ChatGPT to read and summarize the contents of regular meetings.
At some point, I'd like to share a summary of my research.
Okay, now we will move on to the main topic.
関東学連選抜の廃止と箱根駅伝の国籍化について
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
20 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 4th place.
After the 90th race,the system was to discontinue,
but Yuki Kawauchi,who ran as an athlete selected by it,
achieved good results in the marathon and in interviews.
He talked about being selected by the Kanto Gakuren system
to compete in Hakone.
And since the 91st race,the team had participated
as a Kanto Student Federation team in open participation.
However,the team was not selected for this year's 100th race,
箱根駅伝のオンデマンド選考
and the team is still under discussion for the 101st onward.
The purpose of introducing the system is to bring back the experience
of running the Hakonekiden.
The team is made of athletes from universities
that failed to qualify for the preliminary Hakonekiden in October.
In the past,the team has included marathon runner Kawauchi,
whom I mentioned earlier,and Hayate Nikka of Ikue 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 level of arts and the military
and who have difficulty in competing in the preliminary runs
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,
関東学連の決定に対する批判
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 the 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 ten runners,
while the ranking of the seventh and higher universities
was determined by taking account
the points from the Kanto Intercollegiate Championships
paid in May each year.
What does this mean to be 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 ten qualifiers,
but missed the main competition three times
by upset in the Kanto Intercollegiate Points.
Moreover,when I consider that the university that slipped into the last year
had a total time that was almost four minutes faster than the other total time,
I wonder how much more bitter they have to be to make it in the finals.
The Kanto Intercollegiate Points 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,
日本大学と関東学生陸上競技連盟の不正使用
and Nihon University was given a special quota for the 95th competition.
The president of ten 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 expect that they used their power in the wrong direction
for the sake of the participation of their alarmer matter.
Next,I'd 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 by the Japanese people.
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 a 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 waives
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,
only two students can run more than 15 kilometers
in the old Japan University Ekiden.
10 to 12 students are required to run more than 20 kilometers
in the Hakone Ekiden qualifying round.
In response to such a situation,
discussions were taking place from various perspectives.
Mr. Hara's 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 wanna attract young people
箱根駅伝のPR効果と大学間の競争
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.
Our businessman's perspective director is that,
the Hakone Ekiden is meant to nurture runners
who can compete on the world stage.
近年の箱根駅伝出走者の変化
Recently,athletes such as Endo
from Gakuho Ishikawa High School
and Sonata Nagashima
from Nishiwaki Kogyo High School
have not run the Hakone Ekiden.
However,I think it is good that
Director Hara is speaking out,
and others are voicing their opinions.
Audio Japan. Learning Japan with you.
It was time for the ending.
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 asked Mr. Tokumoto
how he cooperated with the university
on the financial side
and how he worked with the university.
Please check it out
if you are interested in the content
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.
And third,this is a completely different story
from the previous ones.
The other day,Space Brothers Zero was released
on Netflix.
So I took the time to watch it.
This is a future film version
of the popular TV animation original by Koyama
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 the story four years before
the first episode of the original story,
which has never been depicted before.
There is a phrase,
that left an impression on me
while watching Space Brothers Zero.
When you only hear the phrase,you may think,
What do you mean by
bring courage?
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.
And 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
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箱根駅伝についてのディスカッション
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Thank you for listening to the end.
My name is Taika Rai.
Thank you.
