As Tokyo prepares to host the World Athletics Championships, we take a deep dive into Japan’s passion for road running and how it helped inspire a love for the sport of athletics as a whole.
Japanese athletes have become synonymous with pounding the streets of the world’s marathons. But increasingly the nation’s elite athletes are branching out into other athletics avenues. The fourth and final instalment of this series looks at how Japan is increasingly making its mark on the world stage in everything from race walking to hammer throwing.
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Koji Murofushi
Koji Murofushi was genetically predisposed to throw things distances. His father Shigenobu was a hammer thrower, who held the national record before his son broke it 23 years later, while his Romanian mother, Serafina Moritz, was a javelin thrower. Taught by his father, Koji took up the hammer aged 10. His crowning glory came at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. At the time, he finished second behind Hungary’s Adrian Annus, but was later elevated to the gold following Annus’ disqualification for a doping violation. Seven years on from his Olympic gold, Koji repeated the feat in Daegu at the World Athletics Championships, making him the oldest ever champion in the hammer at that event. He was just shy of his 37th birthday at the time.
Koji Murofushi in Daegu (© Getty Images)
Toshikazu Yamanishi
Japan’s athletes are venturing into long distance of a different kind outside just the marathon, changing markedly with Toshikazu Yamanishi back in 2019 initially. A two-time world champion, he sealed his first gold in the 20km race walk in Doha and he had a successful defence of that title three years later at the Covid-delayed World Championships in Oregon. At the 2019 event, it also proved a double gold for the Japanese men’s race walkers, with Yusuke Suzuki victorious over the longer 50km distance.
Haruka Kitaguchi
Aged 24, Haruka Kitaguchi announced herself on the world stage with a first medal by a Japanese woman in any throwing event at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon – a bronze. A year later in Budapest, she finished infinitely better as she was crowned world champion, sealing it with her sixth and final throw, a winning distance of 66.73m. Cementing her status as the world’s best, she then added Olympic gold in Paris a year later. This season, though, she has been curtailed by an elbow injury.
Rachid Muratake
Rachid Muratake has high ambitions at the World Championships in Tokyo, with his sights set on a podium finish after his fifth place at the Paris Olympics in the 110m hurdles last summer. The son of a Togolese father and Japanese mother, the 23-year-old is currently studying at Juntendo University. He earned plaudits for his Paris exploits but, particularly closer to home, also his decision to pose like a character from the manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure on his arrival at the track for the final. This season he has set a Japanese record of 12.92, making him the second-fastest athlete of the year and putting him joint 11th on the world all-time list.
Nozomi Tanaka
The daughter of two runners, Nozomi Tanaka would enter parent-child marathons with them from a young age. A versatile athlete, she is adept at the 1500m, 3000m and 5000m and reached the Olympic final of the 1500m at her home Games back in 2021. When not running, she loves nothing more than reading and has a penchant for children’s literature, in particular Anne of Green Gables to The Little Country That Could. She is coached by her father, Katsutoshi.
Nozomi Tanaka at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 (© Getty Images)
Towa Uzawa
Ranked in the world’s top 20 for the 200m so far this season, Towa Uzawa reached the semifinals of the event at last summer’s Paris Olympics. He had achieved the same feat at the previous World Championships in Budapest the year before. Having qualified for Tokyo earlier this season, the aim is to go a step better than he achieved in both Paris and Budapest. His best time this season is a slightly wind-assisted 20.05 (2.1m/s) for the 200m.
Yumi Tanaka
The 26-year-old high hurdler Yumi Tanaka has steadily been climbing up the global ranks at major championships. At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, she failed to make it out of her heat with the 34th quickest time of the entrants. A year later, she made it to the semifinals in Paris and then at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing this year she was among the top 10 fastest. Her personal best of 12.80 puts her at No.4 on the Japanese all-time list.
Matt Majendie for World Athletics