Aussie Rules Football Enlists First Ever Japanese-Born Player

G’day! This is Nunnster, long term subscriber of loneleeplanet. Having always enjoyed the articles on this site about the lighter side of Japanese culture, it is indeed an honour to be invited to provide the following guest article, reporting from Australia.

Sean Yoshiura created history by being the first ever Japanese-born player to be signed by an Australian Rules Football League (AFL) club. The 18 year-old Tokyo-born wingman was signed as a rookie by the AFL club Brisbane Lions. A world-class schoolboy cross country runner, he moved to Australia with his Japanese father and Tasmanian mother when he was seven.

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Australia at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

In a recent guest post on jamaipanese.com I discussed Tokyo’s contribution to the Olympic Movement when they played host in 1964 to the Games of the XVIII Olympiad. As an accompaniment to that article, this post explores Australia’s participation at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Australia sent a squad of 243 athletes to Tokyo securing 18 medals (6 gold, 2 silver and 10 bronze) finishing 8th overall. Fencer Ivan Lund was Australia’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony, however, a new tradition was added to the Games finale making champion swimmer Dawn Fraser the first person to carry the nation’s flag at a closing ceremony.

Dawn Fraser was unquestionably the star of the Australian team when she won gold in the 100m freestyle becoming the first swimmer to win a gold medal in the same event at three consecutive Olympic Games. She also set a world record with a time of 59.5 seconds that was not broken until 1972.

Fraser’s appearance at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was, however, marred with controversy. Amongst a number of misdemeanours, the Australian Swimming Union basically ended her career when they suspended her for 10 years after she stole an Olympic flag from a flagpole outside Emperor Hirohito’s imperial palace. She was arrested but released without charge. The Emperor subsequently gave her the flag as a souvenir.

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Castrol Ichi-Go Progress Report

Last month I wrote about The Castrol Ichi-Go Project, the project to create the world’s fastest kicking machine.

Castrol, an official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa, is developing a kicking machine known as Castrol Ichi-Go that will be the world’s first engine-driven free kick machine that will deliver a free kick in excess of 200 km/h per hour.

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