The Tokyo World Athletics Foundation announced on the 5th that actor Yuji Oda (56) will be appointed as the “special ambassador” for the Tokyo 2025 World Championships in Athletics, which will be held in September next year.

On this day, a special race event was held at the National Stadium as part of the “Relay Festival” sponsored by the Japan Athletics Federation, and Oda appeared as the starter.

Amidst the roar of the venue, he greeted the audience by saying, “Hello. I’m back.” He continued, “I was disappointed at the Tokyo Olympics,” and added, “I wasn’t able to see you at that time (at the national games). You can watch the World Championships in Athletics here in a packed National Stadium. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Let’s all support.”

Mr. Oda served as the main caster for 13 consecutive tournaments, spanning a quarter of a century or 25 years, from the 1997 Athens Games, when TBS started broadcasting the World Athletics Championships, to the 2022 Oregon Games.

The Tokyo World Athletics Championships will be held from September 13th to 21st, 2025, mainly at the National Stadium. Tickets for the men’s 100m final and the women’s javelin throw final, in which Paris Olympics™ gold medalist Haruka Kitaguchi (26, JAL) will be participating, are already sold out, and additional sales are planned in the future.

◆Comments from Yuji Oda as “Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Special Ambassador”

I am very happy to be involved as an ambassador for the World Championships in Athletics, an irreplaceable event that I have been involved in as the main broadcaster for 25 years since 1997, and for the first time in 34 years in my hometown, Tokyo! It’s less than a year until the opening, and I’m already excited. As a caster, I would like to draw on my experience of seeing, feeling, being excited, and surprised at stadiums around the world, and liven up the excitement with everyone from a packed National Stadium. Above all, we hope that this tournament will remain in the hearts of future children as a legacy.