Sports provide the joy of play whilst promoting physical and mental development. However, for over eight hundred Japanese child athletes, their experiences are of pain, fear, and distress, as documented in Human Rights Watch’s recent report. Detailing physical, verbal, and sexual abuse at the hands of coaches, the report gains its title, “I was hit so many times I can’t count,” from a baseball player’s experiences of physical assault by his coach in front of his high school team.
PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: THE COACHING NORM
The types of abuse inflicted on athletes include hitting them with bats and bamboo kendo sticks, forced drowning simulations, and acts of verbal and sexual abuse. In the highly-publicised case in 2012, a 17-year-old basketball player ended his own life after prolonged physical abuse by his coach. In response to this, and eager to improve their odds in the Tokyo 2020 bid, Japan introduced several policies to address the issues, including the 2013 Declaration of the Elimination of Violence in Sports. However, more athletes have suffered since these reforms were introduced. 17-year-old Tsubasa Araya wrote “volleyball is the hardest” in his suicide note, and a 15-year-old table tennis player noted that her coach constantly threatened to “punch” or “kill” her before taking her own life.
APPEAL FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
“A culture of impunity” exists for abusive coaches, since all but one athlete reported that there were no known consequences for coaches. In Japan, national sports organisations bear the sole responsibility of establishing a reporting system for abuse. The lack of a national law codifying these responsibilities has resulted in a fragmented system. The absence of absolute standards is further complicated by the non-athlete players in the game. Multiple national federations are managed by former athletes, who are also reluctant to speak out against established coaches.
The preamble of Japan's 2011 Basic Act on Sport confirms participation in sports as a human right. However, the act neither codifies the rights of the athletes nor include measures to protect them from abuse. Within international law, children are guaranteed the right to play and the right to be free from all forms of violence. Japan is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which explicitly bans violence against children.
Despite this, there is repeated criticism of Japan’s failure to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment of children in all settings. Although Japan accepted recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council Members in 2008 to “prohibit all forms of corporal punishment of children and promote positive and non-violent forms of discipline,” the lack of progress made in meeting these recommendations is at the cost of child athletes’ mental and physical wellbeing.
ATHLETE A—INTERNATIONAL FIGURES
For the child athlete survivors of abuse, the pseudonyms used to hide their identities while testifying are now echoed in the international sporting arena, as an increasing number of “Athlete A” voices are beginning to be heard. Athlete A was the name used for Maggie Nichols, the first gymnast to report abuse by USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison following testimonies of sexual abuse by more than 156 women. British gymnastics is currently under investigation for its abusive culture, as well, with Olympic sisters Ellie and Becky Downie stating, “cruel behaviour was so ingrained in our daily lives it became completely normalised”. Just last month, South Korean triathlete Choi Suk-hyeon took her own life following years of habitual physical and verbal abuse endured behind closed doors as told by her teammates.
Child athlete abuse is a global issue, and countries are struggling with ill-equipped reporting systems that are opaque and unresponsive at best, and simply non-existent at worst. In response to the HRW Report, Japan Sports Agency stated that “violence in sports instruction is not permissible” and that they were taking steps to provide coaches with education to prevent harassment. With the rescheduled 2021 Olympics placing Japanese sporting culture in the global spotlight, it is imperative that Japan use the Olympics as a catalyst to improve athletes' experiences. Japan must not only deal justly with all abuse allegations but move towards Japanese sports providing the joy of play once more.
Rosie is currently attending The London School of Economics and Political Science, studying the MSc Human Rights and holds a BA in Human Geography from Newcastle University. Her research interests include International Humanitarian Law, Children’s Rights and promoting gender equality. A keen activist for mental health, she is a trained crisis response volunteer and aspires to pursue a career at the bar.