Dear Branch Chiefs and Contacts,
On September 7, Tokyo was chosen to be the host city for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For the campaign to decide the host city, Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid announced their candidacy and competed for the honor. I would like to express my sincere respect and appreciation to the unimaginable hard work of all members who were involved in the campaign for the 3 cities. When this decision was announced, as a member of the host nation, I felt great excitement, and at the same, a slight nervousness, to the responsibility of welcoming the whole world to Tokyo in 2020.
Japan, which faced a national crisis due to the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, has steadily worked towards reconstruction, with the whole nation coming together to achieve this goal. The disaster areas are still under reconstruction, there are still many who remain missing, and a large number of people are still forced to live under uncomfortable conditions. I very much appreciate this decision of the Tokyo Olympics, for this gives hopes and dreams to Japan, which aims to fully recover from the earthquake disaster. The officials of the Tokyo campaign mentioned that teamwork was the driving force behind this success, and I strongly believe this was the case. We must do our best to connect this power of dreams to the reconstruction of the Tohoku Region and Japan. 2020 is only 7 years away. Although this may seem long, it is actually very short. In order to welcome everyone from around the world and provide them excellent hospitality, I will do my best as a citizen of Japan to take part in the preparation for this event, and I would like for many overseas citizens to visit us in 2020.
Due to this recent decision to hold the Olympics in Tokyo, our Karate has been shown a new light of hope towards 2020. I strongly believe that the energy of Karate is very much necessary for Japan, the mother country of Karate. We must work hard with the vision to have Karate involved as an exhibition event, or perhaps as a demonstration, even if it is not an official category. We must waste no time in uniting Fullcontact Karate, and make preparations to pursue such possibility. It is important to speed up the promotion of the “WFKO (World Fullcontact Karate Organization) Idea”, which was approved by the WKO General Assembly held this April in Lithuania. I would like to ask again for the cooperation and understanding of the WKO Branch Chiefs and Contacts, for their efforts to create such national federations/organizations in their own country. In Japan, the incorporator of the WFKO Idea, we have decided to hold a unified competition next May. This will be a large step forward, for the inclusion of Fullcontact Karate in the Olympic Games. The WKO Japan Region, the main manager of the tournament, will sincerely accept this heavy responsibility, will listen to the various situations of the affiliated organizations, their opinions and thoughts, and will move forward hand in hand.
While pursuing this inclusion in the Olympic Games, we must keep in mind our Shinkyokushinkai identity, and further pursue the way of Budo. The All Japan Championship (open weight), with a history and tradition of 45 times, will be held this month on the 19th and 20th. The true charm of Budo, “small can beat big”, and the principal of Budo, to always start and end with Rei (etiquette). We would like to further materialize this origin of Kyokushin, our foundation, at this tournament. While strongly keeping in mind the succession of the Budo Spirit, which our WKO must never lose, let us join our hands and keep moving forward.
OSU
Kenji Midori
WKO President