Japan Sport Council promotes awareness of various threats to the integrity of sport

The Japan Sport Council (JSC) today held an "integrity of sport" Symposium in Tokyo in order to promote awareness of various threats to the integrity of sport supported by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

Recently the JSC has launched its Sport Integrity Unit, which acts in the areas of fight against doping, harassment and match manipulation in sport, and promotion of good governance among sport organizations in Japan. The JSC will work in cooperation with the FIFA for protecting the integrity of sport.

As the first action of the JSC-FIFA agreement, the symposium, attended by around 350 people including sports officials, lawyers, business people, academics and students, took place in order to spread the awareness of potential and existing threats toward sport such as violence, racism, harassment, doping, match fixing, lack of governance and corruption.

JSC President Dr. Ichiro Kono’s opening speech was followed by a video message from Mr. Jérôme Valcke, FIFA Secretary General, who emphasized the importance of cooperation of all concerned parties to succeed in protecting sport. FIFA also provided a video message from Mr. Ralf Mutschke, FIFA Security Director, who introduced the FIFA Integrity Initiative, a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to fight against match manipulation in football.

A JSC advisor Mr. Kan Suzuki, the minister in charge of sport when the Japanese government enacted the Basic Act on Sports in 2011, delivered a keynote address and provided an overview of the Japanese legal framework of sport and sports organizations’ responsibilities to enhance the integrity of sport.

The panel discussions, moderated by Mr. Suzuki, shed light on various threats to the integrity in sports. Mr. Takashi Katsuta, Director of the JSC Sport Integrity Unit, touched on still existing violence in sport coaching, while Mr. Masaki Sakaida, Lawyer, pointed out how the Basic Act on Sports emphasizes on the integrity issues. He also underscored the need to promote and strengthen good governance among sports organizations in Japan as many of them have shortcomings in this field thus far. Mr. Mitsuru Murai, vice president of the Japan Football Association (JFA) and chairman of the J-League, introduced JFA’s ‘three fair play initiatives’ that are composed with fair play on the pitch, financial fair play and social fair play and their vision to be the fairest football league in the world. Ms. Yoko Tanabe, former Olympic Judoka and Executive Board member of the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA), emphasized the importance of athletes’ roles and responsibilities to fight against doping as well as their involvements to promote anti-doping awareness and education campaigns.

Mr. Jérôme Valcke, Secretary General of the FIFA said:

"Protecting the integrity of the game is one of FIFA’s statutory objectives, and as such FIFA is pleased to support the hosting of this symposium."

"The beautiful game of football is under threat from forces who want to manipulate the outcome of the match purely for their own monetary advantage. Match manipulation threatens to destroy the spirit in which football around the world is played and enjoyed by millions."

"The co-operation of member associations, players, officials and law enforcement around the world is vital to ensure match manipulation does not destroy the integrity of the games. In this, FIFA also hopes to collaborate with JSC."

Mr. Takashi Katsuta, Director of the JSC Sport Integrity Unit, said:

"We must recognize the grim reality that sport is being threatened by various risks. When we say ‘sport is a common culture of human being’ (as stated in the Basic Act on Sports), it means not only the athletes and officials in the sport movement, but also people in general who like sport have to recognize the potential and existing threats to the integrity of sport and take responsibilities to protect and develop clean sporting culture."

"As the national agency tasked with development of sport in Japan, together with the partners such as the FIFA, the JSC continues to fight against any kinds of threats that undermine the core values of sport. We need to remain the sporting integrity, otherwise we cannot deliver sport to our future generations."

For further inquiries, please contact:

E-mail: ic@jpnsport.jp

Tel: +81 (0) 3 5410 9161

Fax:+81 (0) 3 5410 8870

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