Chapter 3: Becoming Minister of the Reinforcement Group
-Abroad from Novice
I used to spend days and nights trying to think out highlights for Nobeyama Camp.
I tried to figure out what we could do for the hard-working skaters, not as families or coaches, but as the Reinforcement Group of Japan Skating Federation. In order to send as many skaters as possible to the world stage and grant them results, what was necessary for us was all I thought of.
I knew it was a question whose answer could not be found in a day or two. So I carried on with the days full of problems at hand and kept looking for a solution in a corner of my head.
When I worked as Minister of the Reinforcement Group, every day I felt myself flying around like an arrow.
I usually show up at the Federation office in Kishi Memorial Sports Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo after three thirty in the afternoon. It seemed ridiculously luxurious for an office worker, but I had my reasons. Speaking of the centre of figure skating, it is Europe. The International Skating Union located in Lausanne, Switzerland. There are eight hours of time difference (seven in summer) , so 9am in Japan is midnight in Switzerland. So counting the time to arrive at the office after 3pm means I could get in touch with those Europeans related to skating when they just start to operate.
Some staff had jobs in universities, so when everyone gathered together, it was often past 4pm. Then we began to have meetings, write and hand in reports to related departments, refer to foreign organizations and entre discussions with them, and before we knew it, it got dark already. Because I often remain at the office until past nine thirty, sometimes I would receive warnings from the parking lot, “We are closing, so could you please move your car?” I always misestimated that work would be done soon enough and replied, “I’m sorry. Could you just wait one moment?” Such a scene repeated itself over and over again. I felt really apologetic towards my family for returning home after the date had changed in those days.
Does this mean I could spend the morning relaxed? No. There were contacts from the federations of each province, and sometimes skaters’ coaches or families would come and seek advice. I often found it past noon while answering all kinds of consultations. When the season began, there would be no stop between trips to international competitions. Mostly I had no time to stay at home beside changing luggage before heading for the airport for the next destination. Because of flying without enough sleep too often, I had a fever on the plane more than once or twice.
However, busy as I was, those days were very rich for me.
We called it “the age of winter”, but winter would not last forever. I believed after so many trials and errors, we were getting close to an answer. I started to have such a feeling. The light was faint, but sensible.
Every year, the number of participants of Nobeyama Camp kept growing. “I wish I could become a skater who gets invited to Nobayama Camp.” It gradually became a place young skaters longed to.
In figure skating, we put children between the age of nine and twelve into the “Novice” category. However, in Japan, skaters belonged to this category had only provincial competitions or competitions held by ice rinks to participate. That’s why I thought if Nobeyama Camp went on smoothly and selected and brought up enough young skaters, one day we could hold novice competitions on the national level.
With a national novice competition, we would be able to offer skaters chances to polish their skills from a very young age, which means Japan’s figure skating would step up from the bottom. “Please let us hold such a competition!” I visited various people while working as Minister of the Reinforcement Group, and finally, after two and a half years, the first novice class competition of JOC Cup was held in January, 1997. In October of the same year, the first Japan Novice Nationals was held in Nagano.
To entre the Nationals, the country was divided into six blocks. Beside the top skaters of each block, three to five skaters deemed promising in Nobeyama Camp will also be sent to Nationals. It represented the hope of the Reinforcement Group, or shall we say, my hope for the skaters who were “not completed, but was judged and believed by the federation would be great in the future, and allowed to skip several block competitions.”
In the beginning, only skaters who had good results in Novice Nationals got sent to international competitions, but soon we made the rule that three skaters selected by Nobeyama Camp would be sent abroad as well as an award. To make this possible, I took advantage of the time I spent at international competitions, asking European coworkers whether there were novice competitions that Japanese skaters could attend. That was a time when the internet hadn’t become popular. There were a lot of small competitions in Europe which the ISU did not control. The only way to gather information was to go there in person. Meanwhile, I begged the representatives of the competitions that were likely to receive Japanese skaters to provide details later. This was how we started to send novice skaters to international competitions, through repeated bargain.
During those years, I had sent a number of skaters to novice competitions abroad. To young skaters, including Mao Asada, Miki Ando and Yuzuru Hanyu, being able to participate in international competitions was a huge motivation. After setting such a rule, even more children made attending Nobeyama Camp their goal and trained harder than ever. As a result, we had skaters on the podium in almost all of the novice competitions held in autumn or the time around New Year’s Day in North and East Europe. We even occupied first to third in a few competitions, and some foreign staff called us “medal thieves” with forced smiles.
Going to international competitions means skaters could get to see foreign faces. The foreign skaters they met would be their rivals in juniors later on. Being chosen once wouldn’t guarantee the spot for the following year. The Camp welcomed skaters from nine to twelve, which meant it was possible for a skater to get sent abroad four times at most, but being called every year was never an easy thing. If a skater had his or her name called each time, to me it was already a proof that he or she had grown into an athlete who was capable of fighting on the world stage.
To compete with skaters within the country and receive good results, one could open his eyes to look at the greater scene overseas. At the same time, to compete with foreign rivals of the same age, one could have the faith to “win next time” and polish his skills beyond boarders. Nobeyama Camp was not only created to improve a single skater’s abilities, but also to prepare multiple skaters the capabilities and experience to face domestic and foreign athletes. The Camp is a system based on such a consideration.
After I became Minister of the Reinforcement Group, I made Vice Minister Nobuhiko Yoshioka (now professor at Chiba University, International Education Department) the producer. As for myself, even though I still went to watch the Camp, I gradually distanced myself from the skaters. Moreover, staff from the provincial branches came to join us in the Reinforcement Group, I therefore entrusted more and more work to them.
Speaking of the reason why I chose to distance myself from the skaters, I felt I could see their skating and performance more clearly and objectively if I didn’t have much contact with them. Once I get to know a skater, I will reflect my own judgement and preference on him. So I deliberately avoided to know the skaters’ names. When I came to watch from the side of the rink and found a good skater, I would tell Yoshioka “the child in blue” or “the kid skating on the other side” and refrain myself from getting to know their names.
There were different kinds of programs in the Camp during that time, including inviting foreign instructors to direct on-ice training and Russian ballet teams to give dance lessons. Compared with picking out the skater who had the best overall evaluation, I was often attracted by the skater who exhibited amazing charm in a particular discipline. I was right most of the times. I have been asked plenty of times in interviews, “What’s the difference between the skaters selected from the Camp and those did not? Can you explain in details?” To answer those questions, I had asked myself and tried my best to put what I feel into words other people could understand, but even until now, I didn’t find the precise description.
Some shine. Some don’t.
That’s all I could say. If you stand by the side of the rink and watch over twenty children skate and jump, you can see some children had light around them. Skating that’s full of strength, spins around a tight axis, natural jumps with a flow, combined with a little hand gesture, the line of the neck and a good way to place the sight … When these complicated elements are joined together in one skater, beauty would be born and make him or her shine on the outside. I never let a shining moment slip. Only in this I had confidence, and such a vision I believe was worked out in Nobeyama Camp.
-Being Supported by a Wonderful Staff
I am very lucky to receive support from a wonderful staff. Everyone were competent enough that even if I suddenly come up with an unexpected proposal, they would follow me without a word of complaint. I am sorry to say that I couldn’t have done anything if I was alone. From time to time I would be too focused on the matter in front of me to forget even to eat. When I was on the competition scene, I was often drowned in the skaters’ performances and skipped meals unintentionally. When I returned to the hotel in the middle of the night I would fall straight to sleep like a pool of mud, and as soon as I woke up the next morning, I would rush to the rink again without breakfast. Before I knew it, noon had passed, and then the sun set, and when I finally got back after room service had ended at midnight, I found a memo in my room. As I opened the fridge I discovered that a sandwich and juice had been prepared. They were prepared by the staff who worried about my health. Thanks to their care the kindness, I managed to not fall ill in those crazily busy days.
The staff each had their specialty and worked different jobs.
Vice Minister Nobuhiko Yoshioka was in charge of “analyses”. He analyzed the skaters’ programs and calculated how many more points they needed to win. He then went on to work out what elements were necessary for the skaters to include in their programs to get the extra points. He would present several options for me to choose from and put forward suggestions that would make it easier for me to make a decision.
Haruto Shirai (currently associate professor at the Department of Foreign Languages of Daito Bunka University), who is incredibly good at languages, was in charge of the “procedures”. He was made vice minister of transactions and managed the routes to international competitions and schedules for domestic ones. He also took over the negotiations involved with foreign languages. He kept close communications with foreign officials and was the reason why we could establish a tactful relationship with the skating world.
They are like Joo san (助さん) and Kaku san (格さん) in Mito Koomon (水戸黄門) and always supported me. By the way, skaters would be given a journal on the last day of Nobeyama Camp, and those were handwritten page by page and full of the hopes and encouragement of Yoshioka and Shirai. They observed the skaters from a closer distance than me, the actual Minister of the Reinforcement Group, and I fully appreciate their support to the skaters, physically and mentally, that they contributed a great deal to the connection between the federation and the skaters.
There were a lot more amazing staff beside Yoshioka and Shirai. Whenever I burst out anything ridiculous and had to apologize to relevant personnel home and abroad, they would step up before me and explain in detail about what happened and even lower their heads for me. Moreover, there was a staff in charge of “gifts”. To live up to his position, he would arrange comfortable residence and commuting vehicles for officials and judges who came to Japan from across the world, and would also select suitable gifts for them carefully. You may think that gifts were always the same, but in fact they were not. Let’s take a trip to a remote city as an example. One would wish to bring back famous local desserts, but finding they had been sold out or being unable to do so due to time restrictions were not rare. If this was the case, how would you feel if someone handed you the desserts you wanted and told you they were “gifts for you”? Such “happy” or “How did he know what I want? What an attentive person!” emotions were priceless. The staff in charge of “gifts” was an expert at finding out what others “might want to get” and would queue from early morning outside the store or look everywhere for remaining storage of popular items. He was also responsible for bring the guests who were in Japan for the first time to Kabuki (歌舞伎) and Noo (能) shows to make them familiar with the country’s culture.
My staff were incredibly reliable. I could tell them anything like: “I want to change the hotel for the camp. This one is more affordable for the skaters.” “It’s a bit late but tell them it looks like I can’t attend tomorrow’s meeting.” Or “I heard the wife of that foreign coach has her birthday on the next day after her return from Japan.” And I would get their reply, “Got it. Leave it to me.” This was why I could look forward and proceed with my work. I couldn’t have done anything without them.
At that time, I remember exchanging ideas freely with the staff every day.
On the wall of the sportsmen’s club on the first floor of Kishi Memorial Sports Hall where we stayed was the photos of past Olympic gold medalists. However, of course at that time, there was not a single figure skater. “Here. One day . . .”
We were partners sharing the same uplifting dream, and because of this I believed spring would come by sometime in the future and could continue with our path. If the staff around me were satisfied with such status as “we are weak but we tried our best” or “it’s memorable enough to participate in the Olympics”, I certainly would have resigned from my job.
-Improving Competition Arrangements
Even until now, Makuhari Event Hall in Chiba holds various ice shows including Fantasy on Ice every summer. Each time I step into this arena, I sense memories and a warm feeling come to life inside me. Here in Makuhari, I worked for the first time as vice director of the Operation Office.
It was the World Championships in 1994. At that time, I had a strong will that “I want to appeal Japan’s figure skating to the world. I want to be acknowledged by the fellows who also supports figure skating.” Such a will grew stronger day by day.
Makuhari Event Hall was chosen to hold the competition before I became Minister of the Reinforcement Group. Kobe was once considered as an alternate but was given up since the lighting was not ideal. However, even in Makuhari not everything was going smoothly, and there were several difficult problems that needed to be solved before the competition.
First was the practice rink. When the World Championships were being held, it was necessary to have a practice rink beside the competition rink. Of course, we could not find another rink nearby so building one from scratch was necessary.
We borrowed a warehouse with a tin roof near the arena and spread a waterproof sheet. Sands were lay out with ice frozen above it and finally built a rink that could be skated upon. Unfortunately, it was still too dark for practices. Although we rented and brought in lighting facilities, there was not enough electricity and it didn’t get a little brighter. We had no choice but to prepare a separate power source. In order to light up the ice it would cost tens of million yen, and for it to provide enough electricity it would cost another tens of million. I remembered complaining to myself that, “Since it’s for the practice rink there is nothing I could do about it. But it really is a bit expensive … ” We received funding from local organizations, but still had to pay a lot of money.
Another problem was that Olaf Poulsen, then ISU President had a complicated expression when inspecting the arena. When being shown around the event hall, he criticized by saying, “The Championships cannot be held in such a concrete jungle.” He had complaints about the facilities as well, but more importantly he thought it was inappropriate for the competition based on his impressions on the surrounding environment. I murmured, “There will be green plants at the time of the competition. Please don’t worry.” I guaranteed to him bitterly. As a result, in order to prevent him from having such an impression as “there’s little green”, we arranged for him to stay in a suite room from whose window a beautiful garden can be seen in the hotel, and finally was allowed to keep holding the competition.
We also put much efforts into decorating the arena. The funding of the federation was not sufficient, but we wished we could make the guests think “The arena is great. We want to come again.” And thus we believed it was for the good of Japan. We hang up royal-blue curtains across the arena that would be shown on television screens, and to make a contrast, decorated the judges’ seats in yellow phalaenopses. In addition, we put pine bonsais in the “Kiss and Cry” where skaters and their coaches wait for their scores to exhibit Japanese culture. The staff told me, “Shirota san, even the cheap ones will cost five hundred thousand yen.” “It’s not about money.” I said to him, “If the best skaters in the world are satisfied with this World Championships held in Japan and replay such comments to those who didn’t come, people will know Japan did its best in holding the competition.” That was why I was pretty luxurious in preparation. I also received comments from officials of the federation, “The curtains look like ten thousand yen notes.” I accepted the small advice but insisted, “It is for the world to see how great the arena is so please pretend the decorations were cheap!”
I found a new viewpoint by standing on the spot where the audience would be. For example, now it has become a tradition for audience to throw flower bouquets onto the ice. To find out how we should wrap the flowers so they won’t break up in the air, or how heavy the bouquets should be so they can be thrown into the rink easily, I devoted a lot of efforts into discussing with a flower shop owner in Tokyo. At that time, after the performance of man’s single skater Philippe Candeloro (France) who was very popular even in Japan, hundreds of bouquets would fall onto the ice. Such a scene was the highlight at the competition.
During the preparations, the staff were too busy thus they made a mistake in ordering buttons for ID cards. Buttons of 600 thousand yen had been bought. As a result, we were forced to use them for the following ten years. Although there were failures such as the above, this was the competition where Yuka Sato first won over her strongest opponent, Surya Bonaly (France) in ladies’ singles! We also received praise from related personnel and the competition concluded in great success.
Various ideas emerged in Makuhari have been kept in other international competitions until now. For example, thanks to Makuhari, the royal blue curtains hung around the arena of NHK Trophy and Japan Nationals were adopted by more international competitions. Later, it seems that ISU chose blue as the image colour of international competitions as well. Speaking of figure skating, the colour is royal blue. Such an image started in Japan. It was unbelievable for me who grew up used to seeing things imported from foreign countries.
In a word, the one thing that is most important for running a competition is the environment.
After I became Minister of the Reinforcement Group, in 1996 and five years since 2001, I had been working as manager of NHK Trophy, and during the time I found out all about the details of “ice” “audio effects” and “indoor environment”.
The logo of NHK Trophy is a beautiful piece of ice drawn in the centre. It is unfortunate that sometimes when we travel abroad to participate in competitions we would find the ice in the corners had melted. But during NHK Trophy, we try our best to freeze the ice in the most careful way to ensure the skaters could skate easily. There were cases when the arena was located in a place where tap water was not accessible, so we even used water wagons to transport water. By communicating with related experts again and again, we spent days building the ice with ideal thickness so it wouldn’t hinder the edge of the blade. Skaters were happy about it, too.
Then I’ll talk about audio effects. When I visited a rink with its audio equipment functioning, I would first stand in the middle of the rink, and then walk around the arena to make sure whether the sounds could be heard in equal volume. Now in most places there are high quality speakers hung in the centre of the ceiling that are able to carry music to the entire arena, but in the past, the speakers were located not overhead, but in the corners of the arena or around the rink. Therefore in some places it was difficult to avoid the sound being twisted to a certain degree. Because music is connected to the timing of the jumps, it was a “live or die” question for skaters who moved all across the rink. I double-checked with the staff from Yamaha, who was in charge of audio equipment, asking him, “Is this place OK” or “Here you can hear the sound is twisted”. We spent time adjusting the equipment every time there was a competition. Genichi Kawakami , former CEO of Yamaha helped me a lot on this. From the era when not even the slightest light shone on Japan’s figure skating, Mr. Kawakami had been providing music for free or at the lowest possible price and assisting us in operating audio equipment. The staff from Yamaha knew clearly that in figure skating, “the sound is life”. Nowadays, music is recorded in digital form, but at that time, we used records, open reels and cassette tapes with which it was very difficult to guarantee the quality of the music, and we had to continue adjusting over and over again. Even until now, I still think Yamaha is best in the world regarding management of music and audio devices. It is not an overstatement to say Japan’s figure skating will not be what it is today without Yamaha.
Finally I would like to talk about indoor environment. In order to allow the skaters who came from around the globe to have their best performances, we needed to pay attention to things that wouldn’t be shown on televisions, and even the things that wouldn’t be seen by the audience. It was necessary to have a control room providing comfortable temperature and humidity to let the skaters relax, clean bathrooms, and a beautifully decorated arena with seasonal features.
By not ignoring the smallest detail, NHK Trophy, a competition to which we devoted all our spirits, later became a competition that foreign skaters “want to attend”. The past where we had to run around to give out tickets seemed far enough already. Foreign skaters who gathered happily and Japanese skaters who started to spread their wings here became the attraction that bought numerous fans to the rink we created.
-Judging Experience Existed for Reinforcements
I am one of the judges of the highest level and I am qualified as an ISU referee. I judge at singles, ice dance and pairs competitions, all categories of figure skating. During the time I worked for Japan Skating Federation, the qualifications to judge at Senior B competition were given to those who had experience as skaters. From then on, they would first earn qualifications to judge at Senior A, Level N (I don’t exactly know what a “Level N”(N級) competition is so please correct me if someone does.) competitions and to be a national referee. They would then try to accumulate experience on larger competitions and step up to become an international judge, international referee, ISU judge or ISU referee. In order to earn the qualifications, besides written examinations and practical tests, one also needed to attend seminars. I remember the exhausted feeling finding pieces of time during actual work to take part in those studies.
The reasons why I fought to step up in levels were as follows.
Earning the judging qualifications is very beneficial to grasp hints leading to the skaters’ victories. For instance, during the judges’ seminars held by the ISU, we were not only taught which elements among spins, steps, jumps and others would be viewed as the most important, which of them could not be overlooked, but also we were informed “which side of skating should be reinforced to earn more points”, as I look back from now.
Moreover, as I got more chances to judge at international competitions, I had the advantage of building a stronger pipe connecting the foreign skating world. It’s natural to become familiar with more and more people when you meet them several times at the same competition. If you invite them to meals after the competition ended, you would certainly come closer. “About her performance last time, why did you give her that score?” The result was that the chances for me to ask such questions increased as well. I grew to understand which kind of performance different judges prefer and which part of rival skaters’ performances were highly valued.
Figure skating is a sport where the scores given by the judges decide whether you win or lose. It is different from sports like soccer and tennis where athletes directly confront each other. That is to say, one has to consider how to appeal his or herself to the judges. However hard a skater trains, if he or she mistakes on the direction, all the hard work would be useless. That was why I always watch a skater from the sight of a judge, and think about what score I would give him or her and how I would comment on his or her performance as a judge.
I believe it is an entirely different sight from those of the skaters and the coaches. “The program component is not enough. Ask the choreographer to change it.” “If you continue to follow this coach, it will be difficult for you to further improve. So prepare to find a coach who can fix your problems.” The motivation behind my decisions such as the above probably lies in this as well.
However, I am the kind of person who acts along my thoughts. I can’t hesitate and explain my suggestions to skaters between swallows. And because of this, although most of time the skaters would quietly comply with me, they are bewildered deep in their hearts.
I can say from the bottom of my heart now that “I cannot help a skater grow by just being strict.” But at the time I thought the opposite, “I have to be strict to help a skater grow.”
For example, I once watched Nobunari Oda practice spins and it was said I shouted out to him, “How can you be so bad at spins?” (I don’t really remember it myself.) Saying harsh words to skaters must have been a daily routine for me during those years. It had nothing to do any particular skater. Oda is a skater who has soft knees and can jump well, so what I really thought was “you can definitely spin more beautifully”, but when put into words it became criticism. I can’t imagine how hurt Oda must have felt.
I had thought about explaining the situation afterwards but fortunately, Oda seemed to took my words as something provoking and started training spins repeatedly. But there must be skaters who were discouraged by my words as Minister of the Reinforcement Group. If I had treated the skaters according to their personalities, like “criticism is stimulating to this kid so it’s OK” “this kid is a bit soft mentally so I have to cheer him up”, I might be able to apply certain attitudes and certain words to various skaters. It is a shame I didn’t have the sense at the time.
At the Olympic Games, a country can earn at most three quotas for one discipline. As the Minister of the Reinforcement Group for Japan Skating Federation, I wanted “Japan’s figure skating to stand side by side with the rivals around the world.” I took the top three skaters who could compete internationally as my responsibility. I thought of them as my obligation. However, among the enormous skaters aiming to be the best, I wasn’t sure who would fight his or her way out. Even one with the most ideal qualities can have his or her condition break down before a competition, and all hard work would be in vain. On the contrary, those who don’t match the others regarding talents could have a tough mind and received good results. Such was the most difficult situation faced by the Reinforcement Group.
How to distribute the limited budget and personnel to the right skater—I realized this is a long term problem. I felt it might be reasonable to divide the resources evenly to all the athletes, but the truth was, from the standpoint of the Reinforcement Group, “I wanted to send the skater who was most likely to win in an international competition.” “I wanted to give the chance to the skater who was incomplete at the moment but had the potential to shoulder the next generation.” It may sound cruel, but it simply wasn’t practical to provide all hard-working skaters with the same budget and personnel because we had our goal. For a skater’s family and coach, there’s only one skater to care about, one skater to support, which is why they can feel genuinely happy or sad for that skater depending on the result of competitions. It is right for them to help the skater get back to the right condition if he or she performs badly.
However, as the Minister of the Reinforcement Group, if skater A is not at his best, and it is confirmed compared to waiting for A to get out of his slump, supporting skater B is more likely to lead to good results, then B will be supported. If both A and B have problems, then it is time to put our expectations on C and D. When considering things on the grand basis of competing on the world stage, the factor that influences the line-up will be how to ensure Japan’s victory. I thought about things in this way day and night during my days as Minister. Brutally speaking, if I cared too much about “the skater’s emotions”, I wouldn’t be able to come to the correct decision. As a person I felt sorry, thinking “he had been trying so hard, is there really nothing I can do?” Or “we have devoted so much effort to her, and we can’t let them be wasted.” But in the end I had to give up such a constricted point of view to improve Japan’s status in the world.
Sometimes I heard complaints, “she treats you so well when you are good, but dumps you even if you made just a small mistake.” “Why does she always give the best to that skater?”
But no matter what those around me think, when it comes to the competition, the result means everything.
Even until now, I still consider it as what I had to do, what I was supposed to do.
(Note: Unfortunately, this part up to Ch 5 were never completed by OP. If anyone can provide me with the text, I'll be happy to help with the translation)
By
yuzurujenn ·
