1

August 2nd, 2021: Visit by the Minister of Sports in Ecuador and theAmbassador, Embassy of Ecuador in Tokyo to TIAS 2.0, Tsukuba

Tsukuba International Academy for Sport Studies-TIAS 2.0, Faculty of Health andSport Sciences (https://www.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/), University of Tsukuba (UT)
welcomed the honorable Minister of Sports of Ecuador : Mr. Sebastian Palacios(https://lalp.georgetown.edu/news/sebastian-palacios-ilg-2019-named-new-ministerof-sports-in-ecuador) and H.E. Mr. Jaime Barberis Martínez, the Ambassador of theEmbassy of Ecuador in Tokyo on August 2nd, at the Global Sport Innovation (GSI)
building (TAIIKU area).
Welcoming the distinguished guests, Prof. Randeep RAKWAL escorted them throughthe GSI building to the GSI 414 meeting room where they were welcomed by theDean of the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Prof. Takeshi NISHIYASU. TIAS
2.0 (http://tias.tsukuba.ac.jp/tias2/), Chair Prof. Koyo FUKASAWA, and theprevious TIAS program (which is the academic LEGACY of the Tokyo 2020 Games)
Chair Prof. Hisashi SANADA (now specially appointed Professor, UT) also joined towelcome the Sports Minister and the Ecuadorian Ambassador. Prof. Satoshi SHIMIZU,Director of OPOP and Advisor to the President also joined the meeting. The Area
Commons Staff Ms. Mina Onuma was also present at the meeting.
Following the introductions to all, Prof. Nishiyasu gave a welcome speech and thehighlight of the SPORT and HEALTH Faculty at Tsukuba campus and welcomed theMinister of Sports to Tsukuba, and Prof. Shimizu gave an overview of the University ofTsukuba role and position as a premier educational and research institute inTsukuba Science City. The next agenda was a background on the TAIS program withProf. Sanada providing a summary of TIAS creation as part of SFT, its 7-year
history, achievements and future vision (for details see the General Project Report～ Support
forFormationofInternationalSportAcademies ～http://tias.tsukuba.ac.jp/wpcontent/uploads/2021/03/7d37343dba9279f0c2487e0371434a29.pdf).
Prof.
Sanada also showed and explained about the Torch Relay for the Tokyo 2020 which
passed through Tsukuba where he had the honor of being a relay runner. This wasfollowed by Prof. Fukasawa giving a brief overview of the newly started TIAS 2.0
program (October 2020), and its modules (Olympic & Paralympic Education,
Sport Management (SM) (Sport Business, Policy & Governance), Sport Science &Medicine (SSM), and Teaching, Coaching & Japanese Culture), current 1st batch
students from across the globe, and the 2 nd batch (where 3 students from
Ecuador have qualified and hope to join the program in fall of 2021), teaching andresearch areas, and challenges ahead.

The Minister of Sports Mr. Palacios was deeply interested in the holistic nature of
the sports program and enquired about the program including showing a greatinterest in sport science and medicine, to be a key future area of development inEcuador. The Minister further mentioned about the uniqueness of the tropicalclimate of Ecuador which varies with altitude and region, and this provides
differences in the population characteristics due to differences in elevation. In
other words, variations in elevation can be used to train sportspersons/athletes, andwhich is an important research area in sport science and medicine (Rakwal). How tocooperate with TIAS2.0 was
a key comment and theMinister mentioned about
initiating a program whereTIAS 2.0 expertise can besharedwith
sportadministrators,manager,scientists back in Ecuador,through lectures (online fornow) and seminars, etc.
Following the initial meetingand knowing the programand meeting the Faculty, theMinister was taken on a
Facility tour touching somekey points of the SPORTS
facilities in the campus
starting by walking to theTIAS 2.0 STUDENTS RESEARCH ROOM on the 3rd floor (GSI), and meeting 2students (Eric (SSM) from USA and Christian (SM) from Nigeria); other students

2were away working/supporting at various levels for the Tokyo 2020 Games). Impressedby the research room and facilities for graduate students, the Minister enquired about
their topics and interests and wished them well for their journey. Both the students
accompanied us on the facility tour and talking about their experiences, researchand reasons for being at TIAS 2.0 with the Minister and the Ambassador.

The MARTIAL ARTS Gymnasium was one of the highlights of the facilities visited,
stopping by at the KENDO Hall (seeing a Kendo class session being recorded) andthe BUDO Hall (observing the JUDO practice of the University Students). The
second highlight was the Wind Tunnel Laboratory, where Dr. Sungchan HONG
(Assistant Prof.) showed the state-of-the-art wind tunnel-bases experiments insports, such as cycling, football, etc. The Minister was impressed by the high-level ofexperiments and took a great interest in the wind tunnel operations and its use ofaerodynamics and new materials, utilized in various sports.

3

Finally, we made our way back to the GSI 414 meeting room, and sat down for an
exchange of views and discussions on topics of mutual interest; agreements witheach other institution’s starting with preliminary exchanges leading to the MoU,
identifying joint areas of cooperation, exchange of faculty and students, exchange
programs and the role of SCIENCE in the sport as a whole. Academic investment isa key area for sharing and developing sport knowledge, and TIAS 2.0 has the expertiseto cooperate with Ecuador was the general idea of the Faculty and we discussed taking
the visit forward by exchanging ‘point of contact’ person in the Embassy under theAmbassador and supported by the Ministry of Sports. In all, a well-timed 2-hour
visit was concluded and we bid farewell to the Minister of Sports of Ecuador Mr.
Sebastian Palacios and H.E. Ambassador Jaime Barberis Martínez. The
distinguished guests were escorted to the outside of the GSI building by Prof. Rakwal
and seen off by Profs. Fukasawa and Sanada, and Staffs.

4

The support of TIAS 2.0 Office Staffs (Mr. Sugaya and Ms. Tateda) and various
other Staff members of the Sports and Arts area Administrative Office are greatly
appreciated. Thank you,2021.08.03
Randeep RAKWAL, Ph.D.
Professor,
Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Tsukuba International Academy for Sport
Studies (TIAS 2.0),
Global Sport Innovation Bldg., Room 403, UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA,
1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8574, Japan
Email - plantproteomics@gmail.com - rakwal.randeep.fu@u.tsukuba.ac.jp (office)
Mobile – (+81) 090-1853-7875 / Office phone – (+81)029-853-2681
Website: http://tias.tsukuba.ac.jp/tias2/, http://www.trios.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/res
earcher/0000003045
LINKS:
1. https://embassies.info/EcuadorianEmbassyinTokyoJapan
2. https://www.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/
3. http://www.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/
4. https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/08/2e461e8cfc57-pandemic-hitolympics-significant-in-uniting-world-ecuador-minister.html
5. https://www.sport4tomorrow.jpnsport.go.jp/

5