The government will give citations and silver gifts to Japanese athletes who participated in last month's Athens Paralympics for winning a record number of medals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters: "I saw them on TV and they were doing very well. They won 52 medals, the largest number ever. We are encouraged by that kind of great success."
An awards ceremony will be held Oct. 27 for 119 invitees -- 106 prize winners, including 13 gold medalists, six athletes who broke their own records and seven escort runners, Hosoda said.
The planned gifts are silver cups for gold medalists and silver photo frames for all those invited, while the government also plans to later give replicas of the citation to all 271 members of the Japanese team, the top government spokesman said.