The Perplexing Depth Of Talent In Japanese Running (Part 2)
[Article by Tait Hearps of Sweat Elite]
Continued from The perplexing depth of talent in Japanese running (Part 1)
A System to Support the Elites
Discipline, honour, self-restraint. These are some of the stereotypical character traits people think of when considering Japan. However, devotion to athletics and a motivation to succeed are not enough, in isolation, to explain how so many athletes are competing at such a high level in Japan. Ekiden and the elevated position it holds in the collective conscience of the nation explains a bit more of the situation. However, a final factor that we found came up over and again was the integral role of corporations in the fabric of Japanese running culture. I’m not talking about Mizuno, Asics and Nike.
Many corporations within Japan – Honda, Japan Rail, Kanebo Cosmetics– employ athletes to race and train in-house. The living expenses of the athletes are taken care of, food is cooked by in-house chefs that prepare a menu laboriously agonised over by a nutritionist. Training takes place multiple times per day – some runners in the corporate system reportedly average more than 600 miles (965km) per month – and around these sessions the athletes spend time with the team’s physiotherapists, strength coaches and masseurs. In addition to such extensive support from the team, living expenses being covered, and daily tasks such as cooking being taken care of, athletes running in the corporate teams reportedly receive a salary of US$35,000 and upwards each, depending on performance and their stature within the sport – there are plenty of high performers on six-figure salaries.
There are around sixty corporate teams in Japan, thirty for men and thirty for women. With rosters of around twenty athletes, this means that there are around twelve-hundred full-time, paid, elite athletes supported by corporate ekiden teams alone. Add to this the upcoming runners who are logging phenomenal times whilst still competing for their university, as well as athletes competing independently at a very high level, and it’s clear how Japan has such depth.
This level of support, and the fact that these athletes are treated as stars within the company, also goes a long way to explaining the depth of talent. Talented young runners in many Western countries – who are just off the level of performance required for athletics to sustain them financially – struggle to balance training demands with employment. Here in Japan, there are so many positions within these large corporations where runners are paid to train and compete for their employer, and they often go onto sustained employment with that same corporation after their running prowess has faded. This means that there is far less attrition of the talent pool, which stays relatively larger than in many countries, as the runners can focus on their chosen sport full-time.
The People’s Runner
Despite the extensive infrastructure to support a large number of professional runners, what the Japanese particularly covet are the true amateur runners. Examples are abundant, but by far the most prominent (at least until recently) of the citizen athletes – those who compete at an elite level whilst maintaining their day job – is Yuki Kawauchi. Known as “the people’s runner”, Kawauchi was self-coached and worked a 9 to 5 as a school clerk. For a long time, he was renowned for using races as his training, rejecting potentially lucrative corporate sponsorships and reportedly spending a quarter of his salary on his marathon hobby. This was the case until last year, when he gave up his amateur status and moved onto pursuing running professionally, at the age of 32.
Yuki won the 2018 Boston Marathon in some of the harshest race conditions on record. He also has a whimsical flair that pleases fans. Three weeks prior to victory in Boston he ran a half marathon in his local town wearing a panda suit. He ran 1:06:42 at the same race two years prior, attired in a dapper business suit, to set an unofficial record. His race schedule is unprecedented. He has run sixty-four marathons under 2:15, and an astounding ninety-six marathons under 2:20!
It’s not only Yuki’s eccentric approach to racing and training that sets him apart from compatriots, even his physiology deviates from the norm. Yuki has a VO2 max far superior to most Japanese athletes. His reported 82ml/min/kg (in 2018) puts him right up there with top endurance athletes the world over. Mikael Mattson, a Stanford-based researcher from Sweden who is leading a study of international endurance athletes told the New York Times that it’s almost impossible to find Japanese athletes with a VO2 max above 75. Masaaki Sugita, chairman of the science committee of the Japanese Athletics Federation, says that top Japanese runners tend to compensate for relatively low VO2 max levels with high running economy. Sugita says that Kawauchi’s running economy is unremarkable. However, his determination and willingness to suffer – exhibited by the grimace so commonly painted across his face in the latter parts of races – along with an approach to running that is simultaneously capricious and painstakingly calculated, are what set him apart.
A Runners Paradise
Lured in not only by the dazzling depth of Japanese elite athletes, during our research prior to landing in Tokyo, we repeatedly read about the city being “a runner’s paradise”.
However, once on the ground it became apparent that the main areas where the athletes trained were not quite what we had hoped for. I guess this comes down to personal preference, and having spent time in Africa where athletes tend to avoid asphalt and concrete when possible (which is nearly always).
We based ourselves near Yoyogi Park, renown as a hub for athletes. To get to the park we had to run about a mile through a highly populated urban space, navigating traffic and pedestrians. The park itself has three main loops, a roughly 1.2km concrete circle in the middle, a larger loop outside this that is around 2.5km, and a dirt trail that follows the perimeter of the park and comes in around 3km. There’s also an athletics track. To get in the miles that come with training for a marathon, this meant lots and lots of loops. Another main training loop we heard about was the paths that go around the Imperial Palace, close to Downtown Tokyo. However, again this was busy with pedestrian traffic and was all on concrete. The loop is around 5km.
Upon reflection it became obvious that the real reason Tokyo can be placed upon a pedestal as a runner’s paradise is the concentration of talent in such a small space. The fact that within a 30km radius there would be hundreds of guys who run sub-2:15, or a sub-63 half. For anyone who wants to run fast, there are multitudes of strong athletes and groups to train with. Need a race to test yourself out? There’s meets most weekends where huge numbers of runners are running fast times. It’s no wonder there are so many juniors coming through the ranks that are running astonishing times.
A Running-Besotted Nation
The prominence of long-distance running in Japan means that many of those fans who so avidly follow the elites also run for recreation. According to Finn, the first boom in marathon popularity came after World War II. “Marathon running was seen as a worthy and admirable pursuit, embodying the discipline, effort and commitment the country valued and needed to get back on its feet after the devastation of the war.”
However, the numbers of amateur recreational runners have been increasing rapidly in the past decades. Between 2005 to 2010 the number of Japanese people running a marathon increased from around 100,000 to nearly 600,000. 322,000 athletes applied for the Tokyo Marathon in 2017, while only 35,000 were allowed to run. This huge jump in demand has seen more marathons popping up all over the archipelago, many races seeing tens of thousands of runners toeing the line.
Young women are the demographic which has seen the largest increase in participation in the past decade. This is no surprise given that Japanese women have been performing well internationally, taking consecutive golds in the marathon at both the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games.
With the Olympics around the corner (although it’s becoming more and more likely that the COVID-19 situation will be changing that), there’s even more reason for the people of Japan to be interested in long-distance running. The Marathon Grand Championship qualification structure that the athletics federation of Japan created generated even more interest and drama. Three men and three women have qualified to take on the world’s best through the streets of Sapporo, the odds are somewhat long, but the hometown advantage will definitely be a factor and could see them rise to the occasion. Spending time in Japan was an amazing way to gain insight to the ways that a relatively small nation can generate so much talent. The passion of those we met was profound, generated by a rich history in the sport and a system that is set up in such a way that maximises the talent that is extracted from the available pool of raw materials, setting an example that many other nations can learn from.
