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Heads of major sports club in Japan visit Marianas
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Posted on Mar 05 2006
The Mariana Islands recently welcomed Central Sports Co., LTD president Tadaharu Goto and staff member Keiki Saegusa, who is in charge of abroad travel for their members.
The two executives traveled to Saipan as part of a tour to include 300 of their members visiting in segments this month.
While on island, the executives paid a courtesy visit to Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez and Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Charles Cepeda.
Goto expressed much interest in sporting events in the Mariana Islands.
“We sent some of our swimming members for training at the Mariana Resort & Spa earlier this month. We’re also planning on creating tours for divers in June of this year,” he said.
Central Sports has more than 410,000 members nationwide in Japan and is very active with various on and off island sports events to include the Honolulu Marathon.
Central Sports has a variety of sports classes, however, their swimming and gymnastics program are the two sports that have garnered much attention in Japan. In the past, several members to represented Japan in the Olympics and few have won medals.
The executives also discussed the potential of the senior market due in part by the average age of its members visiting the island is 57 years old.
“There will be seven million people in Japan retiring in the next three years. We have many senior members and it is a growing market. There is a potential for Saipan being only three hours away with beautiful beaches which we don’t have in Japan,” said Goto.
The Marianas Visitors Authority is looking forward to a new full marathon event entitled “Island Pride Marathon” to take place on June 17, 2006. The MVA, through the KFC Triathlon Club, has contacted Central Sports to promote the event for their members’ participation. (PR)
