Challenge regional revitalization

Join in an independent baseball league for challenge regional revitalization

A young man who moved to Hamamatsu city in Shizuoka prefecture began to walk on a unprecedented path. He plans to establish a professional baseball team in Hamamatsu to join the independent professional baseball league. He wishes to invent and promote a new model from a rural region, leveraging the social nature of sports.

It was the Great East Japan Earthquake that sparked Takehito Akima, who worked for a global consulting firm at the time, to aspire for founding professional baseball team in Hamamatsu.

While visiting Tohoku region as a volunteer, he kept questioning himself “what is the unique thing that can only be accomplished by me?” He eventually came up with the idea to make a platform for disaster protection/reduction from the coming Great Nankai Trough Earthquake.

Preparations in peacetime are important for disaster protection/reduction. But it is difficult to engage people just by telling the necessity for the preparations. There, he focused on the power of sports.

“People tend to participate positively if there are enjoyable structures. I thought Baseball, nationally popular sport in Japan, has a power to make local people involve.”

Soon after, Akima made a big decision to pursue his aspiration, i.e. revitalizing the local community by sports and solve the social problem.

Emigrate to Hamamatsu and Challenge

Akima is originally from Yokohama city. The reason why he chose Hamamatsu city as the place to start the business was the “People.”

“To establish a business in a region where he has no relation with, people with passion is mandatory. Such people with passion is the potential of the Hamamatsu region.”

He continued grass-roots activities and acquired supporters from local administrations and companies. People in Hamamatsu have a strong emotional attachment to baseball as Hamamatsu city is home of Yamaha Baseball Club, a famous amateur baseball team, and many other amateur baseball teams. However, the fact that Shizuoka prefecture has no professional baseball club makes the region full of opportunities.

In addition, there are ten thousand Brazilians in Hamamatsu. “Japan and Brazil have strong relationships historically. Baseball is also very popular in Japanese Brazilian community in Brazil. I believe that increasing the communication opportunities through baseball would align with one of Hamamatsu City’s goals.”

From 2013, Akima went back and forth between Tokyo and Hamamatsu repeatedly for field studies. He got good responses that supports his business plan, and finally decided to relocate in Hamamatsu on April 2015. Together with those people who are passionated, he set up a general incorporated association called “Shizuoka Kenmin Kyudan (The Shizuoka Baseball Fan Club)” as the foundation of his business.

Collaboration with companies through sports

He aims to join the independent professional baseball league,“BC league”, which started with 4 teams in 2006. Since then, the number of member teams has increased, and now consists of 10 member teams in 2017. “Professional baseball league” generally refers to Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB),which consists of two leagues (The Central League and The Pacific League). But there is an increasing trend where experienced players from NPB become directors or coaches in BC league and vice versa, raising the BC league’s presence.

He expects about 140 million – 200 million yen annually to run the new baseball team. He plans to promote sponsorships in small amounts from multiple local companies.

“Recently, the number of companies focusing on CSR or CSV is increasing. But I feel that many companies have difficulties in practicing CSR/CSV by themselves. I think community-based sports fit their needs. ”

He strongly believes two functions of sports, amplification and bonding, are important. Sports are entertainment that many people are familiar with and interested in, and function as a media that spreads and bonds community. This function can’t be replicated or reproduced by a single company.

It is good that a company contributes to society on its own, but it becomes a lot more effective if companies leverage amplification and bonding function of sports. Contributing to the society with local companies or on behalf of them is the role of new baseball team. Sports in business can be considered “Social Enterprise (business that generate revenue by solving social problems.)”

Towards the goal of “No one will be left behind”

Before moving to Hamamatsu, Akima set “SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)” as one of his goals. SDGs are the common goals adopted by United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 to achieve sustainable society by 2030. Countries, companies and regions are questioned what they can do to achieve the goals. SDGs have several categories, such as poverty, education, health, gender, environment, energy, but of those United Nations General Assembly cites sports as the key. Sports are considered a cost effective and flexible tool to realize the goals for peace and development.

“SDGs aim to make the society where no one left behind. Sports can be enjoyed by anyone and it has the power to realize the goal. Professional basketball, B League, already made a clear statement to focus on SDGs. This movement will spread among the sport community in Japan in the future.”

Establishing a professional baseball team in Hamamatsu and leveraging the power of sports Akima is committed to solve the social problems. Akima talks about future “I want to join the BC league by 2018.” The dream, creating a professional baseball team, has steadily begun to move towards realization.

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【Global trends】Source:OFFICE ON SPORT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE

After fifteen years of progress in the unprecedented Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the world turned its attention to the successor Sustainable Development Goals in a period of transition to the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In a time of recapitulation of achievements and pending business around the eight MDGs (poverty eradication, universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality reduction, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, environment sustainability, and global partnership for development), the international community, led by the United Nations, undertook a thorough consultation process with all spheres of society and agreed on the following 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be pursued in the next 15 years. With the overarching aspiration of getting people and planet closer together and leave no one behind, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a unique opportunity to inspire global action for development worldwide, including the field of Sport for Development and Peace.

Sport has proven to be a cost-effective and flexible tool in promoting peace and development objectives. Since the inception of the MDGs in 2000, sport has played a vital role in enhancing each of the eight goals, a fact which has been recognized in numerous Resolutions of the General Assembly. In the Declaration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sport’s role for social progress is further acknowledged:

"Sport is also an important enabler of sustainable development. We recognize the growing contribution of sport to the realization of development and peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect and the contributions it makes to the empowerment of women and of young people, individuals and communities as well as to health, education and social inclusion objectives."

Driven by this milestone recognition and based on the past success of Sport for Development and Peace activities and programmes across multiple sectors, sport will continue to advance global development assisting in the work towards, and the realization of, the SDGs. The United Nations envisages sport to do so as an important and powerful tool with the potential to tackle challenges entailed in each of the 17 SDGs. #####