“CENTERPOLE’s Vision for the Future of Children”
Through its social contribution activities, Chugai Pharmaceutical aims to realize an inclusive society in which everyone can play an active role with vigor.
We would like to share the thoughts of Representative Director Tanaka who expresses a desire to “create an environment where everyone can participate equally and spontaneously”.
Profile of Tokinori Tanaka
Born in 1987 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. As representative director of CENTERPOLE, he provides sports-based exercise opportunities and diversity and inclusion education in the fields of parasports and well-being for people with disabilities. In 2022, he also opened the Brazilian jiu-jitsu school “CARPEDIEM Setagaya” with Wataru Horie, an athlete with a prosthetic leg and CENTERPOLE trustee, and they run a community-based jiu-jitsu school.
In 2020, he received the HEROsAWARD 2020, which recognizes the social contributions of athletes and sports.
A gymnasium in Tokyo. The inside of the building was shrouded in silence as the dry, air-conditioned air drifted about. Light music echoes through the silence, as if time had stopped. Suddenly, the air became lively, and children in wheelchairs launched across the room, grinning ear to ear. Like figure skaters, they glide smoothly across the floor, full of vitality.
When a cheerful voice echoed through the gymnasium shouting, “Let’s begin!” the children all gathered around the source of that voice and formed a semicircle. Standing at the center of it all was CENTERPOLE representative director Tokinori Tanaka. Mr. Tanaka visits schools and plans events through parasports, aiming for a society where everyone can shine, regardless of any disabilities they may or may not have. The CP Adaptive Sports Class is part of this effort, which aims to deepen understanding of disabilities and create an inclusive society while everyone enjoys wheelchair sports together.
Why wheelchair sports classes are required
CENTERPOLE began holding wheelchair sports classes in 2020, the year of the Olympics. Previously, the group had been active in parasports classes and corporate training, but in response to frequent requests for a place where people could continue exercising, this class was conceived. Nowadays, sports experience sessions where anyone can participate regardless of age, gender, or whether they have a disability, are held on a regular basis.
The children who participate are also diverse. Children with lower limb functional disabilities, developmental disabilities, and intellectual disabilities work up a sweat alongside able-bodied children, their eyes shining with excitement. Hirono Masakazu, a fourth-grader who wants to become a wheelchair basketball player in the future, says with a smile, “I enjoy the moment when I bump into my opponent and obstruct them!”
The value that parasports classes bring
What Mr. Tanaka values most about this activity is creating an environment where everyone can participate equally and freely.
“We on the operations staff want to be like friendly older siblings. Children with disabilities tend to feel inferior and shy away from things they cannot do. That’s why we value a level environment here. We ask people to do what they can, and we strive for equality over kindness. This helps children grow up confident and fearless.”
CENTERPOLE offers more than just opportunities for exercise. There are three values that the program creates:
- Experiencing many different sports allows one to develop adaptability and have more options for the future
- A level environment encourages self-assertion and self-expression, and fosters social skills
- Interactions with adults and able-bodied people allow participants to gain confidence that “I can do it myself” and become less timid
Toma Kagawa, who has been a participant in this class for many years, has been playing wheelchair rugby since he was in his fourth year of elementary school. Although he was unfamiliar with it at first, he gradually gained confidence in using his wheelchair and has now become interested in swimming and chair skiing.
The future depicted by CENTERPOLE
Although Mr. Tanaka feels that the activities are going well, he looks a little sad when talking about the children who have moved on to the next step. But then his eyes lit up and he said:
“In the future, I would like to reach out to children with visual impairments as well.”
CENTERPOLE’s activities cannot reach all children directly. However, through these efforts, many children are able to find new options, grow socially, and move on to the next step. Many children have improved their ability to express themselves and feel a stronger connection to society through wheelchair sports.
The future that CENTERPOLE aims for is a society where everyone can live true to themselves. It is their sincere hope that this activity will spread further and move us toward realizing a symbiotic society in which many different people support each other.
You are now moving to an external website.