I'm on a mission to make a rich and fulfilling world
through sports activities.
Here I participated at the world's most prominent obstacle course.
However, when I was a child,
I hated sports, since I was really not an athletic person.
Some of you may think I'm joking, but it's true.
When I was very young and playing catch for the first time,
I couldn't catch the ball thrown at me.
I tried, but the ball ended up hitting me and making my nose bleed.
It's quite surprising that I now represent a sports foundation,
moving around with children with the best of my ability
under the belief that sports can make a rich world,
which even I'm amazed myself at.
Why have I come to believe in the power of sports so much?
The answer lies in a value I hold close to heart:
people are adaptable and grow by progressing in response to change.
I was born in Iwaki City, Fukushima, on the 2nd floor of a men's clothing shop
in a shopping street.
On the first floor of the store,
my father did the stocking and my mother did sales.
Up until I was two to three years old,
I was often on a lead tied to a wagon near the store entrance,
and I would greet customers saying "welcome" and "thank you."
I was basically the "mascot dog" of the store, so to speak.
The small men's clothing shop my father started up
expanded to have multiple shops.
After that, we kept changing what the company was,
over and over again.
At the time, the company was like a chameleon
because it kept changing constantly.
That meant that my father would also change his strategies on a daily basis.
He would say one thing, and next day he would change his mind.
Then the day after, he would change his mind again.
When asked why he kept changing what he said all the time, he said,
"The world is changing all the time
and people who progress and adapt will survive these changes."
That's what he told me.
On my part, because I was changing schools and moving out a lot,
saying what felt like daily hellos and goodbyes,
I got used to that kind of lifestyle.
Towards the end of the junior high school, I left Fukushima by myself,
and I hopped around Sendai, Tokyo, San Diego, Boston, and Barcelona
by the time I was 28 years old.
However, my father, whom I deeply respected and loved
passed away suddenly while he was traveling.
It’s been 15 years since he passed away in 2003.
Not only did my father give me insights on running a business,
but he also showed me how to live my life,
so losing him left a big hole in my heart.
I couldn't really make sense of it at all.
But my father always taught me
that we progress and grow as people in response to change
by words and actions,
this was my way of thinking from the day I was born.
Also,
there’s one more event that made a big change in my life.
It's the Great East Japan Earthquake, which happened on 11th March, 2011.
My father’s hometown is in Iwaki City, Fukushima.
My mother’s is in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi.
Both cities were severely affected by the disaster,
and I lost many of my relatives, friends, and people that I knew.
Furthermore, the 70 sports stores of ours were collapsed and destroyed.
Even now when I try to remember that time, it’s still fuzzy to me.
I know for certain that I remember the notion of wanting to keep on living.
I thought living of itself was a miracle.
With this new sense of self, I started to think of what I could do.
What I did with the 70 destroyed shops
was that I took out tents and camping equipment from the rubble
and created spaces for the locals to gather.
However, in those places, the children couldn't smile anymore.
They had lost their parents, siblings, relatives, and even homes.
There was no way the kids would be in high spirits.
Amongst all this, our support groups expanded,
and we received all kinds of support from athletes all around the world.
One day, with a legendary NBA player,
we visited Shiogama City Junior High School in Miyagi Prefecture.
Up until this day, many children refused to even touch the ball.
Encouraged by the NBA player,
they started passing the ball to each other.
Then those children, who couldn't even crack a smile,
started smiling and even crying.
Even now, I can remember it vividly.
Despite this painful and difficult situation,
sports has this power to make people smile.
It has this power to give back life to others.
That's how I really felt.
Up until that point,
I thought that sports were only for people who liked sports
and people who can do sports.
However, when I saw those children's expressions change,
I actually felt the impact that sports can make on people.
When I saw those children, it dawned on me
that having sports as part of one's life
makes life more fun and worthwhile,
that making sports more accessible to more people
may make a richer and more fulfilling world.
This was such a startling discovery.
I started feeling empowered to do the best I could do
for the children struggling out there.
That revelation inspired this foundation's establishment.
The first thing that we did was,
for the children who couldn't go outside due to the radioactive contamination,
we established a free sports facility.
The fact is that the child obesity rate in Fukushima spiked after the disaster.
I was reminded of the importance of what we usually consider obvious:
children need to move around and play outside.
So our foundation expanded our reach
by hosting various sports events.
We now offer these sports opportunities to over 600,000 children.
Among these activities,
our main focus is the sports camp for primary school students.
They spend two nights and three days without parental supervision.
We invite former Japanese representatives and pro-athletes in various sports
to directly coach them during the day,
and in the evening, we run events like meetups in English.
The children have all kinds of experiences at the camp.
At the camp, a couple of incidents occur almost every time.
Children are very nervous on their first day,
become more comfortable on the second day,
then start fighting each other the next moment.
Eventually, they get angry since things didn't go as planned,
then they go berserk ...
and finally break out!
(Laughter)
For our staff and volunteers,
it feels like being in the trenches dealing with all those hassles.
But we get feedback from children on what they did at the camp like,
"Now I know that I can complete in a lot of sports, not just one sport."
Another kid said,
"At this camp, I learned how to talk with people I haven't met before."
Two nights and three days is such a short amount of time,
but this camp has had a huge effect on the children's growth and well-being,
and I feel so happy that it does.
Now I have come to believe firmly
that the philosophy I hold dear in my heart,
that people are adaptable and grow by progressing in response to change,
is closely linked to the power of sports.
The other day, I flew to Buenos Aires
and participated in the first "Olympism in Action Forum" held there.
There were over 1,500 people from 150 countries across 5 continents.
The theme was to make a peaceful society with the power of sports,
and we held discussions with all kinds of topics.
For sports to help the international society
to continuously grow and expand in the right direction,
I think Japan has to play a big role
even after hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
Not being afraid to take on challenges,
advancing by doing on all sorts of things.
and growing together with friends by influencing each other.
These are the kinds of experiences we want children to have through sports.
I want to go out there and make this kind of safe space for them.
I have been through many changes my whole life since I was very little.
From inheriting my family business after my father passed away
to losing so much from the Tohoku Earthquake,
I rose above the depths of my own despair.
Today, I'm standing here, talking to you.
That is solely because I was willing to accepting these changes,
taught myself to become stronger,
and adapted and grew during these times.
I believe that everyone who came here today
is changing, adapting, and growing every single day.
There are times where it can get really tough,
and you'll have those days when you want to stop and not take another single step.
However, there is nothing more precious
than the joy of being able to do things that you couldn't do before.
That way, you can live a happy life in your own ways.
I've learned that with my own experiences.
Change, adaptability, and growth.
I invite everyone who's listening to me
to take that first step for the better.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)