Photo source: Yahoo News
This is not exactly breaking news, but since I haven’t seen any other English websites cover this news, I thought I would share. The Japanese coaching staff will undergo a significant change in personnel starting in November, the most significant being the appointment of Jun Konno as the head of the athlete development committee. This committee is currently headed by Yasuhiro Yamashita, who took the post as the interim chairman due to the untimely passing of the former chairman, Hitoshi Saito. Japanese news reports have been quick to point out that Konno has no experience as a competitor in a world championship or at the olympics. His era and weight class was dominated by Naoya Ogawa and so Konno’s representation on the world stage was limited. However, he is a two-time All-Japan Champion, and is well remembered for his brutal clash with Hidehiko Yoshida at the All-Japan Championships.
He is the current head coach at Nihon University, the alma mater of Hisayoshi Harasawa (2016 Olympic Silver Medalist). He is also an alumni of Kosei Inoue’s former trade team, ALSOK.
On the men’s side, Kosei Inoue will stay on as the head coach, though changes in the staff have not been announced as of yet. On the women’s side, Mitsutoshi Nanjo will be replaced by the current head coach of Tsukuba University’s judo team, Katsuyuki Masuchi. Nanjo took over the women’s team three years ago in the midst of the scandal involving physical abuse by the coaches. Though the changeover took place in the middle of the quadrennium, the women’s side still had a phenomenal showing at the olympics. It is being reported that the plan was always for Nanjo to serve until the conclusion of the olympics and no more, but it also seems that health problems may have factored into the decision.
Masuchi’s star player at the moment is Takanori Nagase (2016 Olympic Bronze Medalist). He also holds the distinction of having competed in the All-Japan Championships 13 times. I couldn’t find any competition footage of him, but here he is performing a beautiful itsutsu no kata at the 2014 All-Japan Championships.
The Japanese, as in every olympics will be the favorites in nearly every weight category on both the men’s and women’s sides. The question will be if they can cope with the pressure to perform on home soil, where everyone will expect no less than a gold medal. The choices are interesting, and I am sure there were other, more famous candidates gunning for those positions, but both Konno and Masuchi seem to be very good overall picks based on their success in developing their university athletes. Will their teams be able to live up to the expectations of the Japanese public? Only time will tell.
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