Sports
Japan's Olympic chiefs skip prince's funeral
Picture dated
29 May 2002 shows Japanese Prince Takamado (R) and his wife Princess
Hisako at Incheon airport in South Korea. Prince Takamado, 47,
a cousin of Japanese Emperor Akihito, collapsed at the Canadian
Embassy in Tokyo, 21 November 2002. AFP PHOTO/KIM JAE HWAN
By Shigemi Sato
TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese Olympic chiefs have changed their plans at the last minute and decided to skip the funeral of a sports-loving prince to attend a crucial vote for the survival of baseball in the Olympic program.
Shinichiro Okano and Chiharu Igaya, the two Japanese members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), were booked to fly out later in the day to attend an IOC general meeting in Mexico City, Japanese officials said Thursday.
The IOC was due to vote on Friday on a proposal to drop baseball, softball and modern pentathlon from the 2008 Beijing Games. Japan has been a traditional powerhouse in the two ball games.
As late as last Tuesday Okano and Igaya had been scheduled to attend Friday's funeral of Prince Takamado, a cousin of Emperor Akihito and one of Japan's most prominent patrons of sport.
Takamado, who was honorary president of national associations for various sports including football, died of heart failure a week ago after collapsing during a squash lesson at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo. He was 47.
Okano, who headed the national football association until the end of the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea in June, had been appointed as one of the pallbearers at the funeral.
The late prince attended the May 31 World Cup opening ceremony in Seoul, the first official Japanese royal visit to South Korea since the end of World War II.
"We understand that Mr. Okano has gone to great pains to rearrange his schedule. As a matter of course, he is also anxious about the survival of baseball and softball," as an Olympic sport, said Katsuma Takahashi, the public relations director for the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC).
He said that JOC president Tsunekazu Takeda personally persuaded Okano late Wednesday to go to Mexico City and vote against the Olympic axe.
"Votes from two of them will be important as it appears still uncertain if baseball and softball will be retained," Takahashi said.
According to Japanese press reports from Mexico City, the total attendance at the IOC meeting will be 119 members, including Okano and Igaya, and the International Baseball Federation expects some 60 members to support baseball's future in the Olympics.
Professional baseball is one of Japan's top crowd-pulling sports, along with sumo, way ahead of J-League football, even after the boost to its popularity from Japan's joint hosting of the World Cup.
Baseball is popular in North and South America, the Caribbean and pockets of Asia. But it has never generated much interest in Europe and Africa.