A comprehensive community sports club is about much more than just sports. It actively participates in environmental work and community events and is now regarded as a leader in developing neighborhoods and revitalizing communities.

Environment-Creation Workshop
Maru Club (Kanagawa-ku)

Tree care by workshop participants

Maru Club provides environment-creation workshops where participants can learn social awareness through experiences with nature and multi-generational interactions. Various nature-preservation programs are offered—tree climbing, tree harvesting, and soil making, just to name a few. In addition to the workshops, other activities include community clean-up projects. Maru Club’s slogans are “a heart-to-heart connection from the community” and “kizuna.”

Nutrition Class
Ryokuen Sports & Culture Club (Izumi-ku)

Nutrition class by a dietitian

Ryokuen Sports & Culture Club, founded in April, 2009, is the first club in Izumi-ku. The nutrition class includes lectures and cooking lessons with a focus on children’s diet and health. Ryokuen Sports & Culture Club collaborated with the Yokohama Sports Medical Center to develop nutritionally balanced menus. Participants have commented that the class is easy to understand for children, and gives a good opportunity for parent-child communication.

In-clothes Swimming Class
Tsurumi Sports & Culture Club (Tsurumi-ku)

It’s difficult to float with clothes on!

Waterside leisure activities have always had its safety risks. Learning how to respond to water immersion in street clothes can avert the potential for drowning and help keep outdoor activities safer. Tsurumi Sports & Culture Club provides an in-clothes swimming class that is held every year before summer at the Green Wood Culture School pool facility in Tsurumi-ku.

Art Festival of The Sky
Wakabadai Sports & Culture Club, NPO (Asahi-ku)

Houses and sky, the whole town
became one big canvas

Wakabadai Sports & Culture Club aims to enhance the lives of people of all ages with sports and cultural activities. This year, the Art Festival of The Sky was held in collaboration with Yokohama Triennale. Prime Minister Thinley of the Kingdom of Bhutan was present and was the main attraction of the festival. The festival, in the landscape of Wakabadai’s symbolic high-rise residences and abundant greenery, complimented the autumn, our best season for the arts.

Kakegawa General Sports Club
(Kakegawa-shi, Shizuoka)

Harvesting sweet potatoes
at Kake Farm

Kakegawa General Sports Club, known as Kakesupo, offering more than 150 classes, leads the nation in promoting sports activities. They drive the revitalization of the community through a variety of programs with community collaboration such as agricultural experience and environmental tourism.

 

Comprehensive Sports Club Revitalizes the Community

Junko Matsuzawa, Adjunct Instructor, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University

Since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, I feel strongly about the power of comprehensive sports clubs. Clubs in various regions took the initiative and leadership in resolving problems for the community and society, and demonstrated speedy results, reliable networking, and appropriate responses to the community needs. Folder, an NPO-operated club in inland Iwate, delivered relief supplies to coastal areas on a daily basis during the aftermath of the earthquake. The social networking service, Twitter, served a useful role during this ordeal. People tweeted what they needed in real time, and relief supplies were delivered to them from various locations. Gas and automobiles were supplied, and even helicopters were dispatched through communication by Twitter.
The Club’s strengths are thinking resourcefully, challenging existing assumptions, and taking action. I trust that they continue to be a driving force for community development.

About the author A lecturer at the university and an independent sports researcher, Junko Matsuzawa is actively engaged in research projects for the national and local governments, and conducts management classes for comprehensive sports clubs.

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