Different territories within Japan made a significant contribution to the Asian nation’s Olympic heritage last summer.
Japanese authorities are set to announce that municipalities that hosted foreign athletes for training camps ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be eligible for new subsidies aimed at promoting people-to-people exchanges with their respective partner countries.
The Sports Council of Japan will establish a subsidy program to cover part of the expenses, such as inviting athletes from abroad. The program will start in fiscal year 2023 from next April, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 533 cities, towns and villages across Japan registered in a government-led initiative to promote exchanges between their inhabitants and participating foreign athletes, as well as their home countries.
The project was also intended to revitalize local economies, convey cultural diversity, and foster international goodwill.
Of these municipalities, 250 received nearly 8,000 athletes and team officials applying the health protocols against COVID-19, according to sources The Tokyo-based Sports Council, which work closely with the Ministry of Education to promote sport activities, and which is expected to formally announce the launch of the initiatives in the near future, according to the Kyodo news agency.
The launch is part of an effort to convey the legacy of the Tokyo Games, marked by the absence of spectators in the stadiums of the Olympic capital due to the coronavirus pandemic. The sources said that the program will be funded by sales from soccer lotteries.
Many of the originally selected host cities were unable to receive athletes from their partner countries due to the pandemic, and some were only able to communicate with them online.
The grant program, designed to carry forward the government initiative, will be created as various municipalities wish to continue to interact with their partner countries and find opportunities to do so.
As Japan begins to ease its border controls following a drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases, the Sports Council plans to release information about the subsidy program as soon as possible so that municipalities can prepare in advance.
The Council also hopes that the program will help build public support for Sapporo’s bid to host the 2030 Winter Games. Last summer Sapporo hosted Paralympic delegations from Ukraine. And last week hosted the IOC on a technical tour for a number of their venues.
This Japanese initiative could even be monitored by the organizers of Paris 2024.