TOKYO, Japan – As support for softball and baseball to be included in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games continues to grow across Japan, Federation of Diet Members have formed a political group to help the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) 2020 Olympic campaign, supported by Secretary General Tsuneo Horiuchi, a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member and legendary figure of Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants.
Sixty four members of the ruling LDP assembled recently in the Japanese Diet and agreed to launch a committee to support baseball-softball at the 2020 Olympics. The fact that the new political pressure group is made up of ruling LDP member is also highly significant because the Olympic host nation’s government must underwrite the costs of Olympic games.
Therefore, many argue that the host nation should have greater autonomy in selecting sports that are most relevant to the Olympic host city and nation – and in Japan, baseball and softball are by far the biggest sports. They are the sports that mean the most to the country, will fill the venues and bring in the biggest crowds and revenues for Tokyo 2020 organizers, and sponsors. In addition, it will make the Games more affordable, exciting and engage Japan, and the Asia region more than any other sport.
Baseball and softball were removed from the Olympic Games after the 2008 Beijing Games. The former Olympic sports have experienced a fresh wave of globalization in recent years and have long formed a large and history part of Japanese society, tradition and culture.
The baseball/softball family under the WBSC, along with other sports federations, is awaiting the outcome of the International Olympic Committee's review -- to be announced in December at a special session in Monte Carlo -- on the process for adding/dropping sports to the Olympic program, which may allow a new opportunity for baseball and softball to be included as the only bat and ball sports at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Horiuchi is confident that the inclusion of Japan’s two most popular sports in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will serve to enhance the value and ideals of the Olympic movement, especially among young people and women. Horiuchi also said the staging of baseball and softball on the world’s biggest sporting platform will help commemorate the recovery from the 2011 disaster in eastern Japan and help symbolize Japan’s appreciation of the generous assistance and support of the global community to overcome the natural disaster.
The bat and ball sports also significantly, seem to have the support of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who was just re-elected as head of the powerful Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), and recently told media that Tokyo had all the infrastructure and facilities in place to fit baseball and softball back into the Olympic sports program.
With support for an American Olympic bid for the 2024 Games growing, the dreams of a new generation of young male and female athletes could soon come true as the arc of baseball and softball's spectacular comeback trajectory continues to widen and collect more fans and political, community and commercial support in the process.
-- Report courtesy of Sport Intern
