Female Empowerment in Japan: the Case of Motorboat Racers
There are 24 Kyotei (motorboat racing) stadiums across Japan. Of about 1,600 professional motorboat racers, some 200 are women and many of them are excelling.
A unique aspect of Kyotei is that it is one of the few professional sports in the world in which women compete as equals with men. The average annual prize money won by male racers stands at 19.67 million yen (about $131,000), compared with 12.85 million yen (about $86,000) for female racers.
Major tournaments are sometimes clinched by female racers. You can become a professional power boat racer if you undergo a one-year training course.
In the boat racing community, it is customary for all racers－young and old, men and women－to work together after races to bring their boats ashore and store them.
Female racers, like their male counterparts, are also active in volunteering to support those hit by natural disasters. When I visited Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan days after it was hit by a strong earthquake in April 2016, I was impressed by a group of female racers who had already started to help with the cleanup and recovery work in quake-stricken areas and had pitched a tent to sleep in.
At the age of 62, Ms. Itsuko Hidaka is still active as one of Japan’s top-ranked racers. Although she is a fierce competitor in hydroplane racing, known as “water martial arts,” she has a nice character and is well respected by young racers.
She is married and has two children. In order to let her focus on boat racing, her husband Kunihiro has acted as “full-time househusband,” staying at home and taking care of their two daughters especially when they were small girls.
In her book titled “Watashi wa mayowanai” (which can be translated as “I Will Not Hesitate”) published in 2008, Ms. Hidaka dwelt on the hardships she had endured before becoming a boat racer－domestic violence at the hands of her father since early childhood, her parents’ divorce, separation from her mother, a poor life with her grandparents, part-time work delivering newspapers since junior high, and a series of setbacks in finding employment.
But tempted by an ad: “Get on a boat and you will earn 10 million yen (about $67,000) a year,” she became a boat racer and her career prize money exceeded 600 million yen (about $4 million) as of 2008 when her book came out. Her career earnings further ballooned to hit the 1 billion yen (about $6.7 million) mark in 2020.
What motivates her has been the warmth of her husband and her love for their children, she writes in the book.
While on the topic of motorboat racing, let me relate a major decision I took in March 2002 concerning a transgender competitor. In my capacity as chairman of the Japan Motor Boat Racing Association, I announced that the association would allow Chinatsu Ando, who had raced as a woman, to be registered as a man to compete in boat races under the name Hiromasa Ando.
Initially, I had been inclined to turn down Ando’s request to register a gender change. But reversing the association’s long-held stance, I decided to approve his plea with a view to respecting his human rights. Back then, it was quite unusual for sporting authorities in Japan to accept an athlete’s request to change gender.
The March 29, 2002, issue of the Yomiuri Shimbun, a major national daily, quoted Dr. Toyoji Nakashima, then chairman of a special committee on gender identity disorder of the Japan Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, as commenting: “I have never heard of any case like this in competitive sport. This was an admirable decision considering the slow progress in societal understanding and recognition of gender identity disorder, with transgender people still unable to change their gender in their family registry.”
Note: Under the 1951 Motorboat Racing Law, The Nippon Foundation draws the funds needed to support its philanthropic and other projects from the proceeds of motorboat racing events held at 24 Kyotei stadiums across Japan.
