An injured runner forced to continue in the Hakone Ekiden became a “moving story” in Japan. This essay criticizes the culture that glorifies endurance over rational judgment and questions the lack of responsible decision-making in Japanese sports and institutions.

January 2, 2019
Do university officials, whose primary duty is the pursuit of scholarship, lack even the intelligence to devise a way to deal with situations like this.
It may have been the first time for me, but I began watching the Hakone Ekiden shortly after the first leg started.
A runner from Daito Bunka University, one of the pre-race favorites, suffered an accident immediately after the start, twisting his leg and continuing to run with a limp.
He handed the sash to the second runner more than eight minutes behind.
Do university officials, whose main responsibility is academic pursuit, truly lack the ability to think of a way to deal with such circumstances.
Pseudo-moralists even fabricate heroic tales out of such events.
It would not be an exaggeration to call this the height of foolishness.
The moment a serious injury occurred, it would have been only natural to create a two- or three-minute gap and send in a substitute runner.
Is that not precisely why there are so many team members.
This does not even qualify as “spirit theory” — it is nothing less than the very militarism that they themselves have long criticized.
So-called “grit” exists only in the daily discipline of true champions striving to become the best in the world.