Big firms own pro-sports team ④

EKIDEN : Long distance running team

Marathon , EKIDEN are very popular in Japan.From Dec to Mar, we have many big and size of race every weekend.

I enjoy watching a race on weekend for 2 or 3 hours on live on TV.

Many firms have a race team. Maybe there are 20 or 30 major teams.

Each team may have 10 to 20 runners. And they have 1 or 2 foreign runners from Africa.Some of them are world class runners.

I am not sure but I assume 10% are professional runners.

And 90% are hired as a employee and could keep working same company after sports-retirement. 

Running for PR

People watch a race on TV on live. It is big good contents for TV in winter.

It is also good for the firms who own a race team to advertise their company name on TV. If they have good team, people watch their company logo on runners clothes for 2 to 3 hours.That is why, they hire top class African runners.

But at a EKIDEN race, only one or two foreigners could run.Because they are too fast

compare to Japanese runners.