On January 28th, we organized the 4th time of BreakTalks. The theme for this Break-Talks was “Mental Disorder.” Ms. Asuka Fujii, who writes lead paragraphs for S.C.P Japan mail magazine and is a person with mental disorder grade three, spoke about her tough and encouraging experiences of having a mental disorder. 

In the first half of the talk, Ms. Asuka Fujii talked about her personal story. Specifically, she taught us when she was diagnosed with depression, how she has tackled the disorder, what exactly bipolar disorder is, and why she decided to get a disability certificate, a special notebook that ensures handicapped people’s well-being. In the other half of the talk, Ms. Asuka Fujii answered a variety of questions from the participants.

Ms. Asuka Fujii’s Personal Story

Since the age of nine when she joined a local soccer club, Ms. Asuka Fujii always enjoyed playing soccer. However, from a certain point, she became less enthusiastic to play soccer. She, being described as diligent by a lot of people, was diagnosed with a mental disorder when she was seventeen. At the same time, she was interested in teaching soccer instead of playing it. Although she studied coaching in university and continued teaching soccer after graduation, she is now looking for a working life that suits her mental state.

While she went to school for a few days in the 12th grade, she quit her school and took a test that grants her a high school diploma. However, she experienced depression in her university and working life, so she was constantly out of her university and job. Later, she was diagnosed with recurrent depressive disorder and was hospitalized for once. In that mental condition, she obtained a grade three of mental disability certificate. 

In 2019, she quit her job again. After one week of examination at a hospital, her diagnosis changed from the recurrent depressive disorder to bipolar disorder.  Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that repeats mood shifts ranging from emotional highs to lows. In manic high periods, she becomes talkative and causes overwork. Immediately after the periods, she suffers from depressive periods. This kind of mood shift occurs once a year, but she can now control an intense mood shift with medicines. 

Present and the Future Life

She is not fully confident about working, and she is still on a journey of finding a way to embrace herself. According to her, as others’ support has helped her a lot, good relationships with family, hospitals, and counselors are indispensable. 

She also puts forward the use of social services. Welfare services let people fully rely on a variety of experts, which eliminates the need to complete everything by oneself. This is one of the reasons she decided to acquire a disability certificate. She also takes the advantage of rework services, transition support for handicapped people, and working day-care service. She is striving for the future in which she finds something she can grow as a person.

”It’s just a disorder”

In the last half of the BreakTalks, Ms. Asuka Fuji answered questions from participants. One of them asked how to explain depression to children. She shared her experience to answer the question. When she was diagnosed with depression, her parents said, “Depression is just a disorder. It is curable.” This simple response definitely made her feel better.

After the event, a lot of participants said that they are happy to learn about bipolar disorder, as it is rather a minor topic to talk about. Everyone expressed gratitude to her for sharing experiences.

S.C.P Japan continues to introduce people with a variety of  information and experiences through BreakTalks, which certainly brings an occasion to explore diversity and inclusive society.

Thank you for each participant with a unique background. We appreciate the time and dedication they offered.

Thank you also for Ms. Asuka Fujii, volunteers, and sign language interpreters, who all made this event special. We hope to work together in the near future.

On December 28, 2021, we held a program called “Let’s Move! Run! Enjoy!” at Kanazawa, Japan. This program belongs to “Special Event in Kanazawa,” executed on December 26 and December 28, 2021.

*The program is one of BreakTalks offline events. Please check out this link for more information about “BreakTalks.” 

＜Time to Move!＞

Children from kindergarten and elementary school exercised together before lunch. Though some of them were nervous at first, everyone enjoyed the time as soon as they started activities.
All children understood others’ backgrounds and ages, which led them to further help each other and be respectful.

＜Lunch Time＞

After the recreations, everyone had lunch. Okuwa-Kodomo Shokudo served an amazing lunch made with local food for everyone, including children, their parents, and staff. We, S.C. P Japan, learned that such an environment full of cooperation is indispensable to nurture children within a community. 

＜Walking-Football Gathering＞

After lunch time, we conducted “Walking-Football Gathering.”  “Walking-Football” has been known as an universal sport that all people, regardless of age, gender, physical disabilities, can engage themselves in. With approximately 30 people participating in this sports event, the program finished successfully.

Thank you to every participant, Okuwa-kodomo Shokudo, and volunteers who all contributed to bring such a great experience.

On August 25th, S.C.P.Japan hosted its second Break Talks event. We invited Mr. Yuhei Doi as a speaker, who runs “Okuwa Kodomo Shokudo”, (a Kodomo-Shokudo is “a place to eat where children can go even by themselves for free or low-cost meals.”) in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. While working at a children’s home (run by social care services), Mr. Doi started “Okuwa Kodomo Shokudo” two years ago and is currently the Volunteer Representative of the service.

The first half of the event was themed “Inclusive Society – from a viewpoint of a children’s cafeteria,” Mr. Doi introduced the service and talked about the issues he has faced through managing and operating. 

What is “Okuwa Kodomo Shokudo”?

Since January 2019, “Okuwa Kodomo Shokudo,” has been in operation for the residents in Okuwamachi, Kanazawa City. It is held once a month and about 50 children and adults get together. At the beginning, the community center was rented out to host the meals, but since March 2020 because of the pandemic, adjustments had been made to serve with lunch boxes.

“Okuwa Kodomo Shokudo” is not just about providing meals. There are various events and activities for children to enjoy, such as a latte art workshop. One event had a chiropractor visit to perform treatment and give parents some opportunities to relax. Children-friendly outdoor events are also planned, such as potato harvesting and camping – in order to involve the wider community and families.

“Okuwa Kodomo Shokudo” operates on the fee from the participants. It is free for children and 300 yen for adults. Therfore, participation of certain numbers of adults is needed in order to earn operating costs. At the moment, these fees are not enough to cover the expenses such as food, venue, insurance etc., and the deficit is being covered by donations. The biggest challenge is to secure funding and stabilize the management of the service.

What are the issues you find by running “Okuwa Kodomo Shokudo”?

Okuwamachi is a place where a large number of apartment blocks are and there are many single parent households living there, as well as others with various needs – like elderly people and people with disabilities. Due to a relatively rapid turnover of residents and isolation of certain households, the anonymity makes it difficult to see who needs help and where they are.

My own experience of growing up with a father with a mental health problem is one of the reasons why I tried to get involved in this movement. My day job is working at a children’s home, where I work with socially vulnerable young people. I know that there are also families who are facing difficult challenges right now, who are still in the community, but their lives are on the verge of collapsing – a mere step away from their children being placed in social care. Through the children’s cafeteria, I feel there must be something we can do to help these people, to prevent them from falling further.

As we run the cafeteria for a longer period, I feel the bond between the families who use the service is getting stronger. A lady noticed a child who hadn’t attended the cafeteria for a while, and she visited the child’s home to see what was going on. On another occasion, a family had been going through a hard time with their child struggling to go to school, so one of the participants recommended our cafeteria to the mother. After they joined, the child made friends with other children in the cafeteria and subsequently managed to go back to school. 

I am very much conscious that the children’s cafeteria is not just a place to provide meals. I would like it to be a place where we can give children an opportunity to experience a variety of things, a place for children to come to – if they are having difficulties going to school. It also makes me so happy to hear from our volunteers – whose children have already grown up, that they really enjoy cooking for and interacting with the families who come here.

As for our future activities, we are thinking of an outdoor workshop as well as opening a traditional styled candy store, as a way to have more direct contact with children. In addition, we would like to create a “food bank,” a free food distribution service for those who are in need, with food that would have otherwise been wasted.

In the second half, Ms. Shigenami – the Director of S.C.P. Japan, facilitated a discussion for Mr. Doi and the participants. Someone suggested Mr. Doi to work closely with schools and City Hall to advertise the service to a wider community. Mr. Doi responded that in Ishikawa Prefecture, the current regulation is that schools are unable to make an independent decision whether they should inform the community of the children’s cafeteria or not. The Prefectural Board of Education is responsible for this decision. They then discussed the importance of building a good relationship between schools and the service. Mr. Doi also explained that the family support section of City Hall distributes pamphlets that include information on the children’s cafeteria, but it has not reached all of those who are in need. They also discussed how to maximize “word of mouth” reviews from the participants and volunteers in order to promote the service further. They also talked about the possibility of asking for help from those who have direct contacts with the target households, such as the people who regularly collect money from them for services, etc.

Finally, Mr. Doi emphasized that the future of the socially vulnerable children can change for the better – with the right support. It is extremely important to keep believing in them, and never stop supporting them as we continue to pursue new initiatives.

Through these Break Talks, S.C.P.Japan will continue to introduce inspirational guests and their activities to create a place where people from diverse backgrounds can get together and learn. Our aim is to encourage discussions about achieving a more diverse and inclusive society.

We would like to thank all 22 participants and everyone who helped us organize this event. 

Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Doi for participating as our special guest speaker. We would also like to thank the volunteer staff and sign language interpreters who worked very hard to make this happen.

We are pleased to announce that we renewed the collaboration agreement with Barça Foundation for 2021 season. Since 2020, we are working with Barça Foundation to promote the FutbolNet methodology developed by Barça Foundation that uses sports and physical activities as educational tools to foster the sense of values necessary for an inclusive society. Through this collaboration, we continue to commit to promoting Diversity and Inclusion and creating more inclusive society in Japan.

April 6 is the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace: IDSDP, set by the United Nations. As we, S.C.P. Japan, aim to build more inclusive societies through sport, we hosted a special webinar to celebrate this occasion.

We held a panel discussion on “Sport for Development and Peace:  Demand and Potential for Specialists in the Field”. We welcomed our distinguished panelists; Mr. Taku Yamaguchi, Assistant Professor of the University of Tsukuba, who runs the International Development and Peace through Sport (IDS) course from the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Ms. Mai Sakaguchi and Ms. Kaho Shinohara, a graduate and faculty staff of the IDS course at the University of Tsukuba who are now working as Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) specialists tackling social issues through sport. Ms. Inoue, who is a co-director and founder of S.C.P. Japan, also working as a methodological coordinator of the Barca Foundation Japan project, joined the panel, while Ms. Noguchi, another co-director and founder of S.C.P. Japan facilitated the discussion.
Discussion topics included case studies of SDP, its potential for further development and the importance of nurturing the next generation of SDP specialists.

【Comments from the Panelists on SDP Specialist】

“I think a SDP specialist is someone who understands both strengths and weaknesses of sport. They know the limit of sport when they use it as a practical tool to solve social issues. Many people are involved in SDP by different capacities, such as volunteers, project workers, people working with funding etc. In future, what we need is people with leadership skills, who can lead these various members working in various roles as a team.
In Japan, we have traditions that are very much in line with the concept of SDP. For example, Kendo has historically been used as an educational system for youth development. Or local festivals have always been the social occasion to bond the community. We don’t necessarily need to invent something new. We can redefine and add a new meaning to existing activities. We can also bring good practices from overseas.”
(Mr. Taku Yamaguchi, Assistant Professor of the University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences)

“Sport can be useful to tackle various social issues such as gender and health. But we need to bear in mind that the same issue can be interpreted very differently, depending on where you are, which countries, geopolitical areas and so on. Therefore, sport should be applied accordingly based on the specific social context. At the University of Tsukuba, I had an opportunity to learn the systematic framework of how sport can contribute to solving social issues by analysing numerous cases, as well as valuable lessons from the past SDP programmes. I think that if professionals, armed with the systematic knowledge of SDP, can expand their careers into other fields, bringing their expertise with them, it would be truly beneficial for the society. We must first recognise the challenges that Japan is facing now, then critically think how sport can be applied to solve them and then take an action based on the analysis. These steps are very important.”
(Ms. Mai Sakaguchi, Program Officer, Department of Information & International Relations, Japan Sport Council)

“Think globally, act locally” That was my thinking when I changed my job, from previously working for an international sporting organisation based in Germany to my current role in Laureus Sport for Good. I am overseeing funding for domestic social projects through sport and we measure and analyse Japanese sport policy and needs, as well as the effectiveness of these projects. For me, a SDP specialist is someone who can spot the societal value of sport, who can create the link between the society and sport. Internationally, the West has been the dominant force in the world of sport but we need the next generation of talent who can understand and globally communicate the unique edge of the East and Japan.”
(Ms. Kaho Shinohara, Programmes and Grants Manager, Laureus Sport for Good)

“Through my postgraduate study at the University of Tsukuba, I have learnt the importance of understanding the weakness of sport with an eye for objectivity. I am currently working on the issue of social inclusion of Japanese youth through S.C.P. Japan. It is very important to first understand that all communities are unique and there are many definitions of social inclusion. Then we can start thinking about and discussing how we can create an environment where children can feel safe and comfortable.”
(Ms. Yuiko Inoue, Co-Director of S.C.P.Japan, Barça Foundation Local Coordinator of Japan Project)

After the panel discussion, we had a Q&A session with the participants and we also discussed a relationship between sport and foreign diplomacy, coaching, environment etc.
At the end of the webinar, we participated in #WhiteCard, an initiative to show one’s commitment for peace effort around the world through sport, started by an SDP organisation Peace and Sport who are based in Monaco.  All participants held up a white card for a photo shoot, in a gesture to demonstrate our support for the peace through sport movement.

We didn’t have enough time to cover everything and it was clear that there was much more to discuss. Please be assured that we will be planning a following session on the subject soon.

One of S.C.P. Japan’s missions is to develop young practitioners who can use sport for social inclusion. Therefore, we are very pleased to have had this opportunity to invite professionals who are already involved in SDP in academia and hands-on projects. We sincerely hope that more discussions like this will be held and create further opportunities to build a bridge between the society and sport.

We would like to thank all 51 participants who are working in the field of sport, studying in the sport and development courses, coaches, teachers and other professionals from diverse backgrounds.
Finally, we would like to give our special thanks to all panelists who have kindly accepted our invitation, all volunteer staff as well as sign language translators who made this webinar possible. We could not have done this without you!