Major international sporting events bring together people from different cultural backgrounds, offering a chance for world peace and economic and cultural empowerment. Over the next several years Japan has an excellent opportunity to lead the world as it hosts major sporting events and cultural festivals.

The World Forum on Sport and Culture, to be held in Kyoto on Wednesday and Thursday and in Tokyo from Thursday through Saturday, will offer people both inside and outside Japan to discuss the importance of culture and sports. The forum expects to draw 4,000 people, including domestic and international government officials in charge of sports and culture, the heads of international promotional groups, top management of global companies, leading journalists and others.

In Tokyo, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games President Yoshiro Mori, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, International Paralympic Committee President Philip Craven, World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont and World Economic Forum (WEF) Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab will each deliver greetings or speeches. The forum will see sports ministers, Olympians and Paralympians and business executives discuss the social and economic contributions of sport.