Koga with sons. From L-R: Hayato, Toshihiko, Genki.
This past summer, I served as a staff member for the All-Japan Inter-high School Championships. There are 3 major tournaments for high school students in Japan, but I think the Inter-high School Championships is the most prestigious because it is the final major competition students compete in before going off to university or work. This year, I was really eager to watch Genki Koga, Koga’s youngest son in live competition. In 2015, at the age of 16, he was put on Japan’s SENIOR national team, making him the youngest current member of the senior squad. He has won virtually every major competition there is to win at his age, including the cadet worlds, All-Japan Championships as a junior high school as well as high school student, and the Asian U21 Championships. As a senior, he finished 7th at the Kodokan Cup, which was the tournament that earned him a spot on the senior national team. In the past year however, he has not matched his past successes.
I had the best luck in that I watched Genki Koga’s match at the tournament while sitting directly next to his father, Toshihiko Koga. In the video below, the voice you hear giving instructions to Genki, is none other than the legend himself. I was very tempted to turn my camera towards him to film his reactions, but chickened out every time I contemplated it. He did seem genuinely excited and happy to be watching his son compete.
Genki Koga and his brother, Hayato (currently a junior national team member) have been quite the hyped duo over the past 2-3 years, appearing on various Japanese entertainment programs and print publications. Of course everyone is asking whether they can repeat their father’s success as olympic champions. I can only imagine how much pressure they must feel. It can’t be an easy life.
If there was one thing that this particular tournament taught me was that at this age, no matter how good the athletes may be, inconsistency is something that plagues all but a select few of them. Genki Koga was no exception and lost his first round match to a relatively unknown player named Tatsuya Kato. The match reinforced to me just how much depth Japan has. Kato ended up losing in the following round. It also highlights just how difficult it is to win week in and week out. With the way the schedule is set up in Japan, it makes it extremely difficult to stay in peak form year-round. For the top schools, it is major tournament after major tournament from October until August, with very little chance to rest in between. It’s easy to see why there are so many promising young judoka in Japan who end up burning out by the time they reach the senior level.
It will be interesting to see how the two Koga brothers’ careers will pan out over the next few years. Both will be slightly young, but at near-prime ages for the Tokyo Olympics. As of yet, neither has been able to set themselves apart from the rest of their peers the way some athletes like Hifumi Abe and Kentaro Iida have but both are without a doubt, incredibly talented and while they may never reach the pedigree of their father, they have proven that they can go toe-to-toe with the best in the world.
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Last weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to the Kodokan to watch the East Japan Businessmen’s Team Tournament (第53回東日本実業柔道団体対抗大会). This tournament featured the top club teams in the eastern part of Japan and several olympians, world team members and national team members competed. This is one of the most competitive leagues in Japan, if not the world. Though many of the current national team members took a rest after the olympics, Naohisa Takato, Masashi Ebinuma, Misato Nakamura and Ami Kondo were in attendance to cheer on their company teams.