insights from frontier Japan

The new skateboard category generated multiple teenage medalists in the Tokyo Olympics. Even in Tokachi, skateboarders are practicing hard towards future medalist dreams. And Obihiro City skateboard shop "40 Champ" opened up a weekend "Skateboard School" to broaden the ranks of skateboard enthusiasts.

As table-tennis players won Japan’s first ever gold medals in the sport at the Tokyo Olympic Games, attention is now being focused on the SAN-EI Hokkaido Factory in the town of Ashoro in eastern Hokkaido, where the Games’ official table-tennis tables were produced.

The Canada women’s goalball team arrived in Sapporo – the host town of their advance training camp – on August 11, ahead of the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Athletes will base their training around the Minami-ku Gymnasium, to prepare before the competition begins.

The Tokyo Olympics women's and men's marathons were held in Sapporo on August 7 and 8. Though both marathons unfurled under intense heat, top runners from around the world still put their hearts into inspiring running performances. Also, Sapporo residents and people involved in the marathon helped out in many different ways. This article takes a photographic journey looking back on the two days.

In the Women’s Basketball Final on the last day of the Tokyo Olympic Games on August 8, Japan were beaten 75-90 by USA – who were aiming for their 7th consecutive title – to take the silver medal. Three athletes from Hokkaido, who were the driving force behind the team’s advancement into the final, shed tears as they smiled with joy at their achievement.

The Tokyo Olympics closed Sunday night after more than two weeks of competition held amid extraordinary restrictions and mostly behind closed doors, with athletic feats performed for a world still struggling against the coronavirus.

The Women’s Marathon was held on August 7, the third day of the Tokyo Olympic Games athletics Marathon and Race Walk events being held in Sapporo. Temperatures in Sapporo were extremely hot, with a maximum of 31.9 degrees recorded just before noon. This was the 18th consecutive day on which temperatures of at least 30 degrees were recorded. Despite the games’ Organising Committee hastily changing the start time to one hour earlier at 6 a.m., the race proved tough, with 15 of the 88 starters withdrawing before the end of the race.

Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya masterfully defended his Olympic men's marathon gold at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday, while Japan's Suguru Osako finished sixth in the final competitive race of his career.

At the 5:30 a.m. start on August 6, the temperature was already 25 degrees Celsius. It reached 30 degrees with a 79% humidity for the end of the walk in the 9:00 a.m. time slot. It was such a brutal environment, it was hard to feel any actual effect in shifting the venue to Sapporo to escape the intense heat of Tokyo.