Athletes vow to make Tokyo Deaflympics a success in 2025

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, September 28, 2022

Athletes vowed to make the Tokyo Deaflympic Games a success in 2025, during a recent visit to the office of the capital’s Gov. Yuriko Koike.

Koike received athletes with hearing difficulties and a delegation from the Japanese Federation of the Deaf on Monday at the Tokyo metropolitan government building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. Among them was swimmer Satoi Fujiwara, who won two gold medals at the Summer Deaflympics in Brazil in May, and Fujisaburo Ishino, the chairman of the federation, which put a great deal of effort into the bidding process for the 2025 event.

“I hope the Japan team will work hard and win more than 30 gold medals,” Fujiwara said.

Ishino used sign language to ask Koike for her continued backing.

The metropolitan government expressed its support for the bidding activities in June and worked with the federation on such matters as securing venues.

“I hope [the event] will help people understand more about deaf athletes,” Koike said. “We want to make it a wonderful event.”