This year from September 4th (Friday) to the 6th (Sunday), the 13th AKF Senior Championship will be held at the Yohokama Cultural Gymnasium. This is Japan’s first time to hold this tournament, and with the hope that karate will be included as a formal event of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, it will be viewed as a Preliminary Olympic Match.
In conjunction with the tournament being held in Yokohama, President Chang, Kuang-Huei of the ASIAN KARATEDO FEDERATION (Chinese Taipei), Director Xu-Hui Wang (China), Judge and Referee Chairman Lim Chee Jin (Malaysia), Vice President Shigeo Kurihara of the JAPAN KARATEDO FEDERATION, and Director Toshihisa Nagura of the WORLD KARATE FEDERATION paid a courtesy call to Yokohama City Mayor Hayashi Fumiko on Martch 19th in order to thank her for holding the event.
Mayor Hayashi commented, “The city of Yokohama has a partnership city agreement with the cities of Taipei and Beijing, and I believe it will provide an opportunity for cultural exchange between our Asian guests and the residents of Yokohama. Additionally, if karate is accepted as a formal event for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it will have a significant impact on the karate world. I hope that it will be accepted as a formal event. I give it my full support.”
