Junko Aoi
Director, Yokohama Yuru Sports Association/ affiliated with Yokohama Sport Association

Do you know the sports called “yuru sports”? Just as you might imagine from hearing the word yurui (“laid-back, relaxed, loose”), they are very laid-back sports. However, the word yurui is a uniquely Japanese expression with many layers of meaning. I think that the word gives the impression of softness, freedom, and an indescribable warmth which enfolds anything and everything within it.

Introducing the Yuru Sports Association

The World Yuru Sports Association was set up in 2015, aiming for “no more sports-disadvantaged in the world”, and was established as a general incorporated association last year. The Association develops and offers yuru sports as “new sports which anyone can enjoy”, irrespective of age, gender, athletic ability, or disability. We define yuru sports as “making you happy if you win, fun even if you lose” and, more than anything, “sports which make everyone burst out laughing”, whether players or spectators.
The Yokohama Yuru Sports Association was established in 2017 as the first branch of the World Yuru Sports Association. As a community-based group, we value the creation of new cultures and connections as we collaborate with various Yokohama companies, human resources, and groups. We basically carry out our activities centred on the Yokohama Sport Association, to which I belong, and in collaboration with community groups such as the NPO Hama no Todai. The collaboration of diverse groups means the intersection of different fields, and we turn the community born out of this into the driving force behind the development of new sports.
We also espouse the concept of “making Yokohama a more interesting city”. Yokohama has many distinctive characteristics and contents, such as original techniques, industries, and history, which are not found in other communities. At the Yokohama Yuru Sports Association, we develop yuru sports typical of Yokohama, making use of these materials. In addition to events at which people can experience the original yuru sports which we came up with, we currently also offer the creation of sports itself as one of our areas of work. Working in particular with elementary school students and school personnel or people from various groups active in Yokohama to bounce ideas off one another and create sports has now become one of our principal areas of work.

Try Train original event

I would like to introduce Try Train, an original sporting event which we developed. Japan’s first railway ran between Yokohama and Shinbashi. Also, the first rugby club active in Japan is said to have been Yokohama Football Club. We developed this event by crossing these two cultures originating in Yokohama with sport.
This sport is a real eye-opener in that it aims to make everyone’s wish to score a try, the real thrill of rugby, come true, even if they are not the burly rugby players whom you imagine when you hear the word “rugby”. It does this by riding on a train to allow you to feel good as you score a try. The rules are simple: you ride face down on a trolley made to look like a train, and depart from Shinbashi. You push the trolley along with your arms and pick up the ball in front of Yokohama station, then just score a try in the goal. The basic rules employ the points system used in rugby, such as getting five points if you score a try, but we have made it so that everyone can obtain points: you get points even if you stop at one of the intermediary stations. Moreover, it is a rule that everyone shouts “Nice try!” when you score a try, so supporters can also participate in this event.
Many people have tried out this sport since it was invented; its most distinctive characteristic is that trying it is fun, and gives you a sense of achievement. Whichever venue we visit, it is always a popular event where the laughter never stops. What I particularly remember is people in wheelchairs who find themselves saying that they want to have a go. I feel that the power of this sport lies in the way it leads people to experience it for the first time and then, once they have tasted the excitement of achievement, to try it over and over. It is difficult to communicate this through photographs alone, so I hope that you will try this event for yourself.

Sport with kelp?!

In partnership with a group cultivating kelp in Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama, we created new sports using kelp which can no longer be eaten. We experimented as hard as we could to see what we could do using the slippery texture which is kelp’s distinguishing feature, and developed six events.
The most popular one is Art With Kelp, a sport with an artistic element. Participants choose their kelp from a kelp pool filled with a lot of the seaweed, and use it to create a picture on a given theme within a time limit. The artistic quality is what is of primary importance here. The works are evaluated and scored from various perspectives, including beauty of appearance, degree of novelty, and the ways in which the kelp is used.
Since most of the themes set are off the wall, this is a sport which particularly tests your powers of inventiveness. Moreover, because it demands artistic ability and the degree of novelty is important, this is a sport in which children, who tend to have more flexible imaginations than adults, and people with original ideas have a good chance of winning.
We offer this sport as one in which victory does not depend on physical ability, and people can compete on an even playing field. Furthermore, it allows you to experience the pleasantly slippery sensation of the kelp to the full, and people find themselves laughing during the competition. Many people take photos of their artworks, which can only be made once, to preserve the memory. I take pride in the fact that this is a great sport in which all the participants want to take photos to record their artworks, whether or not they win. So much wonderful art is being created that I would like to collect the photographs of the pieces together as a book in future.
We have also created many other interesting yuru sports the nature of which it is a little difficult to imagine from the names, such as Matchmaking With Kelp, Kelp Newspaper, and Kelp Roly Poly.

The Future of the Yokohama Yuru Sports Association

These events were born out of a process of repeated trial and error in which various people took part in the project of “creating sports”, which is one of the distinctive characteristics of yuru sports. We value the new perspectives and observations obtained through feedback from people who are not good at sports or people with disabilities. In addition, when developing the sports, we do not merely think about them in our heads but instead place great importance on experimenting and trying them out. The fact that we do not stop laughing while creating the sports, too, is perhaps another particular feature of yuru sports.
Since the number of different sporting events is still small, we at Yokohama Yuru Sports Association hope to go on developing many yuru sports together with the people in the local community. In particular, we intend to prioritise time for creating sports, making new sports through a process of trial and error with many people in which we never stop laughing.
Yokohama has 18 wards, so we would like to develop original yuru sports for each ward and, in the future, roll out sports days in each ward making use of these yuru sports. However, first of all, we would be glad if many people experienced yuru sports and became collaborators in their development.

Edited and Published by the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities.

Published on July 25th, 2023.