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Objectives

The overall goal of the center program is to study, teach, and promote all the factors that contribute to an active, vital lifestyle. Important circumstances include not just the individual health of mind and body, but also the conditions present in regions and societies that facilitate a sound, vigorous lifestyle.

While life expectancy in Japan is the longest in the world, large scale societal changes here, as well as elsewhere, have led to an increase in problems stemming from decreases in activity and physical fitness. In the aging population there has been a deterioration of overall health, much of which can be attributed to inactivity and excess body weight. Similar problems among children are also increasing, and often lead to severe physical and mental disabilities.

Encouraging participation in sports, exercise programs, and outdoor activities can contribute to the solution of many of the above problems, and efforts made in this regard will produce large scale individual and societal benefits. Together with partner institutions, the center is involved in creating and facilitating the development of students, research centers, and programs that emphasize individual expertise, human relations skills, and broad knowledge and utilization of sport sciences. The center`s efforts concentrate on three specific areas, which have been chosen for their critical importance as well as, due to their saliency, their ability to initiate change and awareness in society at large. These areas are:

(1) Active Children Project

Efforts to increase the physical fitness levels among children are focused on promoting sports activities, increasing the quality and availability of information on coaching, studying physical activities from a scientific perspective, investigating how to establish an environment that promotes physical activity in children.

(2) Active Elderly Project

Many health problems in the elderly can be reversed or minimized by increased levels of activity and exercise. Optimal methods of providing health guidance and social structures supportive of an active lifestyle are being similarly pursued.

(3) Elite Athlete Project

Elite athletes, like all top performers, generate intense interest and can be viewed as a sociocultural resource. We continue to develop systems for training top level athletes, and are investigating ways of translating the interest and success that these efforts generate into methods for invigorating interest in sports, activity, and exercise at all levels.

The three project areas have broad objectives, and rather than solely focusing on specific goals. Such objectives are difficult to address within a specific academic field, and both research and training within the center emphasizes interdisciplinary integration. Our system encourages the participation of not only those desiring an advanced degree but also of adults requiring individual courses and of specialists needing to further develop in a particular area.

«Encouraging an Active Life»

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