Golfer Shigeki Murayama is just one of many Japanese sportsmen and sportswomen to have flown the coop and set up base overseas in recent years. Like his counterparts in baseball, soccer and rugby, the "Smiling Assassin" realized he could only do so much on the professional golf circuit in Japan, and that he needed fresh challenges and a change of environment to truly fulfill his potential.
Unfortunately, the same could be said of many young Japanese sports competitors, who are often overcoached and burned out by the time they should be peaking as athletes. Which is where the Australian International Sports Academy hopes to step in.
Scheduled to open in May in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast of southeast Queensland, the academy is setting out to provide "a physical and mental environment where young males and females can gain, firstly, the ability to perform at an elite level in sport, and secondly, academic qualifications to support their sporting career." It aims to attract athletes looking to pursue careers as players or educators in the fields of rugby, cricket, tennis and golf.