World Skate Signs Multi-Year Deal To Bring Global Action Sports Culture To Japan!
Sakai, Japan
Thursday 13th February 2024
Following on from the huge success of 2024's World Skate Games Italia, Japan becomes the newest nation to welcome World Skate's giant action sports events!
World Skate, the International Governing Body for all Sports performed on skating wheels, today unveil a six-years agreement to bring blockbuster events such as the Urban World Cup, World Skateboarding Tour Park and World Skate Games to the historic town of Sakai-machi, in Japan!
Located in the Ibaraki prefecture less than ninety-five kilometres from Tokyo, Sakai Town will become an Urban Sports Hub for the Asian continent in conjunction with World Skate.
On top of annual events, Sakai Town and neighbouring population centres will develop Training Facilities, Continental Practice Camps and Judging Academies to develop not just participation within, but professionalism in organising international and national events for, activities such as Skateboarding, Roller Freestyle, Scootering, Skate Marathon and more.
“Japan shows once again its forward-thinking vision by investing in sports that represent the future, and capturing young people's attention," said Mr. Sabatino Aracu, President of World Skate.
"Roller Sports, with Skateboarding being the sport that ranked among the top 4 most followed sports on the web during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - perfectly embody the values of inclusivity and urban spirit that characterize the new generation of sports disciplines. Japan has already made Olympic history in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, with the youngest gold medalist in Olympic Games history, without forgetting the great success of its athletes in the recent World Skate Games Italia 2024 winning 13 medals.
Sakai is now preparing to become a reference point for urban sports in Japan. Roller freestyle, scootering, skate marathon and skateboarding transform the urban context into a natural stage for competitions, offering an incredible international showcase through television channels and social media, where our athletes boast an extraordinary following.
This agreement represents an important legacy for the future of sports on skating wheels and a unique opportunity for the Ibaraki region and the city of Sakai."
The Sakai Mayor Mr Hashimoto Masahiro said “Town of Sakai has been promoting ‘Urban Development Through Sport’ as one of its measures and showing our attractiveness by activating 2 facilities- Urban Sports Park 1st and Urban Sports Park 2nd, which were constructed in 2021 and 2024 respectively so that we can achieve the goal of development within our region.
Especially, Urban Sports such as Skateboarding, Inline Skating, Roller Freestyle, or BMX have been supported by younger generations.
Therefore, Urban Sports are not only existing as competitive sports but are very important tool for us to vitalise the region, increasing non-residential visitors, promoting immigration and settlement – actually we have top athletes already migrating here through the construction of the parks and we expect more.
From now on, through the collaboration with World Skate and hosting its international events, we expect the events will stimulate our local economy and make our citizens proud of living in Town of Sakai.
We will try our best together with our leaders of various organisations to deliver the events and promote urban sports so that the Town of Sakai will become a base of Urban Sports which we proudly open up to the world.”
This agreement not only represents a step-change in the Action Sports landscape within Japan over the next half-decade, but also a huge sustainable tourism boost for the Town of Sakai, Ibaraki prefecture and Japan itself.
