A leadership change has been announced within the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF).
After an executive board meeting on Wednesday, November 6th, Toshiaki Kurazawa has been named Acting Swimming Committee Chairman within the JASF. The move was made as current chairman Takayuki Umehara retired as of September 30th of this year.
Acting Chairman Kurazawa will lead the planning of swimming training programs for next year and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Upon his appointment, Kurazawa, a two-time Olympic swimmer, spoke of the state of Japanese swimming via social media.
“At this stage, I cannot comment on personnel changes after July 2025, but given the poor performance of the Japan Swimming Team in recent years, including the Paris Olympics, there is no doubt that it is urgent to develop a strengthening plan to rebuild the team for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, and even beyond that to “revive swimming Japan.”
“In particular, three months have already passed since the end of the Paris Olympics this summer, and there are only three years and nine months until the main event, out of the four years until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“I will put the harmony between the veteran coaches who have created a strong era so far and the young coaches who are aiming for future success first, and gather the wisdom of Japan’s excellent coaches, and do my best to make all the people involved, including the chairman, the federation, the competitive swimming committee, the coaches and athletes on the ground, face the same direction and become a “fighting group.”
“Utilizing my experience as a two-time Olympic representative as an athlete and two-time coach, I will place importance on “dialogue” with coaches from various strong countries not only in Japan but also around the world, and with “strengthening the Japanese national team,” “strengthening juniors,” and “developing the next generation of coaches” as the pillars of the strengthening system,
“I would like to first put together the swimming committee with the aim of creating a national team that will make Japan’s representative athletes think, “I want to compete with that team again next year.”
Speaking to SwimSwam directly, Kurazawa told us, “I would like to exchange information between the Pan-Pac charter nations.
“In recent years, I feel that the appeal of Japanese competitive swimming, especially Japanese university teams, is declining as some university students from Japan go on to study at the NCAA in the United States.
I hope that many swimmers from overseas will participate in Japanese competitions in the future.”
He further said, “The junior representatives from Japan, the US, Australia and Canada can improve themselves by not only racing, but also by having training camps where they can interact with each other after the race. I want to cherish such exchanges.”
