due to the aforementioned measures in addition to the efforts made by the Japanese Olympic Committee and competitive sports organizations.

People in Japan are looking forward to watching even more outstanding performances from Japanese athletes in future international competitions, including the 20th Winter Olympic Games to be held in Turin in 2006, Italy, and the 15th Asian Games to be held in Doha, Qatar.

MEXT will foster measures to further improve Japan’s competitiveness in international athletics, building on the results of the Athens Olympic Games.

## 2 Training and Supporting Top-Level Competitors

## (1) Utilizing the Japan Institute of Sports Sciences

The Japan Institute of Sports Sciences (JISS; http://www.jiss.naash.go.jp) was opened in October 2001 to support organizational and planned approaches to improving the country’s competitiveness in international athletics from the aspects of sports medicine, sports science, and information and thereby to contribute to improving competitiveness. These approaches include training Japan’s top-level competitors, identifying junior athletes who have great potential, and a consistent instruction system for developing top-level competitors.

Towards the achievement of these objectives, JISS develops effective training methods based on scientific

▲Training at the Japan Institute of Sports Sciences

▲Outside view of the Japan Institute of Sports Sciences

analysis, gives medical support for sports disorders, and collects, analyzes, stores, and provides sports-related information in an integrated manner, with the aim of contributing to an increase in Japan’s medal award rate at international athletic competitions including the Olympic Games. (For support extended by JISS at the Athens Olympic Games, see the beginning of this document.)

## (2) Creating a National Training Center

In order to train and strengthen the abilities of top-level competitors, it is vital to establish a training center equipped with training and living facilities for all of the athletic events, where intensive and continuous training can be provided. Most countries who ranked high in the number of medals won at the Olympic Games, such as the United States, Russia, China, Australia, Germany, France, and South Korea, have such national training centers, and these functional centers contribute greatly to improving the athletic competitiveness of those countries (see Chapter 3, Part 1). In view of these situations, the establishment of a national training center has long been demanded also in Japan (Figures 1-2-8 and 1-2-9).

MEXT announced that it would establish a national, full-scale training center in the near future under the Basic Plan for the Promotion of Sports. Also, MEXT launched a study survey on the actual situation in Japanese competitive sports organizations in July 2001. The survey was conducted by external experts in the field. The survey team examined how to establish a national training center in cooperation with JISS, issued an interim report in April 2003, and submitted their final report in June 2004.

In the final report, the basic ideas of training and strengthening top-level competitors were laid out, making use of the functions of JISS, and stating that effective training should be provided based on the results of research in the areas of sports medicine and science, and making use of the latest information technology. Specifically, the report presented the following basic ideas:

(1) To establish a center equipped with indoor and outdoor training facilities and living facilities in the Nishigaoka District (Kita-ku, Tokyo) where JISS is located

(2) To utilize existing facilities for those athletic events for which sufficient training facilities cannot be