Profile

Specialty/Content

• DE&I (Diversity,Equity&Inclusiveness), understanding of people with disabilities, human rights education
• Coaching, Introduction to Parasports, Sports Wellness
• Wellbeing, flow mind, life skills lecture
• Inclusive design, space business, accessibility consulting

Para athlete’s message

Para-athletes have a lot of things cannot do because of our disabilities. However, we live so lively that we make people around us forget the fact. How is this possible? Because we focus on what we can do and what we like, instead of getting bogged down in what we can’t do or what we don’t like, and we live our lives by taking on challenges and growing every day.
Para sports are competitions within subdivided categories. I’m a swimmer, however I can’t swim like Kosuke Kitajima. It’s just that I can swim despite being blind. In the past, I focused on numbers and results, and compared myself to what others could do and what I couldn’t do. however no matter how much I achieved results or received praise, I was still in pain and was always mentally exhausted. Then, when I started parasports, I learned firsthand that focusing on individual growth and working towards individual goals will improve the quality of our life and bring out our abilities.
“In order for all people to work their full potential, it is important to focus on whether they have been able to grow as themselves, rather than evaluating relative results.” It is an indispensable way of thinking for everyone in recently difficult economic situation, and it overlaps with the way of thinking that is considered important as non-cognitive education in educationally advanced countries. I would like to embody this idea as a para-athlete and spread it in Japan, where more and more people are finding life difficult.

being is more important than doing to Understand diversity
When we talk about understanding minorities, I often hear guidelines such as “Don’t use the word…” or “Don’t do something to…”. The types of knowledge is certainly necessary, however will this alone lead to “removing social barriers”? People who hear the guideline will input a lot of negative things such as “Must not to do…” and prepare for an encounter with the person with minority. However, in reality, even people who are close to one another have a wide variety of ways of thinking. Even if you act according to the guidelines, something happens that makes you uncomfortable someone.
That’s why I believe that “how to be” is more important than “what to do.” Being able to smile and kindly interact with anyone at any time, with imagination and leeway. If you can do this, even if you act rudely out of ignorance, you won’t hurt the other person deeply. And on the other hand, even when you are on the other side, you can easily forgive the other person without getting upset.
In applied sports psychology, this supple psychological state is called a “flow mind.” I arrived at this mindset through various studies, and training to face my disability and sport. As I get closer to my natural condition with best performance, I feel a strong desire to share this skill with everyone, not just athletes.
A true understanding of diversity is built by becoming able to maintain a healthy state of Being, rather than by memorizing endless cases of doing. Let’s train together.

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Career

Awards