Japan Press Weekly

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2016 March 2 - 8 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Violence in university judo team goes against very nature of judo

It has come to light that violent activities were carried out in a judo team of a private university in Tokyo. This indicates that many university judo teams still have a strong tendency to resort to the use of violence.

The All Japan Judo Federation (AJJF) on March 3 announced that it punished the head coach and six members of the Teikyo University of Science judo club for violence.

According to AJJF, the six club members had constantly conducted violent acts, such as beating and kicking, against four junior members for two years and felt there was nothing wrong with such activities which imposed on victims great hardships both physically and mentally. The team’s head coach had also overlooked this behavior. The head coach and the six members should learn that violence and bullying goes against the philosophy underlying judo.

The judo federation in 2013 published a declaration to eradicate violent activities, in the wake of the revelation that the head coach of the Japanese national female judo team committed physical assaults on his athletes.

The declaration states that judo requires a state of spirituality and abhors violence. To distort this very nature of judo by engaging in acts of violence is unacceptable, it added.

There is one university judo club, for example, which follows the declaration’s philosophy and has achieved good results under a voluntary, free atmosphere without violence. It is the University of Tsukuba Judo Club which in June 2015 became the first national university team to win the intercollege judo championship.

Nagase Takanori, the then team captain and the world champion in the 81-kg category, said that one of major factors for the team’s victory is the maintenance of relationships without an unreasonable hierarchy which enables junior members to candidly challenge senior members during judo practice. Under an atmosphere putting importance on members’ self-motivation, all team members conducted training in a serious manner, Nagase added.

In this judo club, no outrageous act enforcing obedience with violence will be allowed to occur. What the club represents is the fundamental standpoint of the AJJF declaration to which all judoists should adhere to.

Past related article:
> Judo coach’s physical assault of female athletes is a warning to entire Japanese sporting world [January 31, 2013]