Tsukuba City (2021 Host Town)

Kanto | Tsukuba City

2021 Tokyo Olympics & Paralympics

Switzerland’s fifth Host Town is increasingly becoming a central element of many Swiss Olympians’ pre-Games training ahead of the summer of 2021.

Torii gates and space rockets

From ancient mountains to futuristic robots, Tsukuba perfectly embodies Japan’s fascinating contrasts. Located only a few kilometers west from Kasumigaura Bay (northeastern Tokyo), the city of 200,000 souls is dominated by Mount Tsukuba. Some legends have it that the mountain humbly hosted a deity for a night a long time ago, and that it was granted its luxuriant vegetation as a token of gratitude. The centuries-old Tsukuba-san Shrine and many other cultural heritage sites naturally followed.

Most recently, however, the city has been widely known for its Tsukuba Science City, a vast complex of research laboratories and educational facilities built in the 1960s to foster collaboration within the Japanese scientific community. It has since become the country’s largest science and technology hub. Nowadays, approximately 150 public and private institutions, 4 Nobel Prize recipients, and over 10 thousand researchers and exchange students from all over the world are established in Tsukuba! And very soon, Swiss athletes will be among them.

A magnet to Swiss athletes

On April 11, 2018, in Lausanne, the Swiss Olympic Association, the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture and Tsukuba City signed a basic agreement on pre-Olympic camp activities which paved the way for the organization of camps for track and field, judo and gymnastics at the University of Tsukuba ahead of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

According to the agreement, University of Tsukuba notably pledged to open the doors of its gymnasium, Japanese martial arts hall, athletics field and other facilities to Swiss Olympians. Graduate students of University of Tsukuba will also join and support the athletes by handling their physical rehabilitation and the measurement of their physical functions. In parallels, prefectural and municipal officials have announced their intention to hold a welcoming ceremony for the Swiss athletes, as well as social events to facilitate interaction with the local community!

Swiss Olympic Association official Ralph Stöckli spoke of the high hopes he has for the four-way partnership: "As I experienced Japanese culture, met the local people, and tried Japanese food at that time, I became fond of Japan. This time, we believe that the University of Tsukuba provides an ideal location for the pre-Olympic camp that will support the athletes on a day-to-day basis, helping them prepare for impending competition in the run-up to Tokyo 2020 Games".

In the midst of such exciting news, Tsukuba officials rapidly decided to take another step by applying as Switzerland’s fifth 2021 Host Town! The application was officially selected by the Japanese government on February 28, 2019. Only two weeks later, a "Swiss Welcome Fair" was already held at University of Tsukuba! A Swiss raclette booth at the Tsukuba Festival, as well as upcoming visits from other Swiss federations representatives (track and field), were announced shortly afterwards by the newly-appointed Host Town.

Switzerland is coming to town

The Host Town Initiative was designed by the Japanese government in 2016 to promote educational and sports exchanges between the population living outside Tokyo, foreign countries and visiting Olympic teams before and during the 2021 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. In other words, pre-game training camps, showcases, lectures, workshops and festivals will be held all over the City of Tsukuba, providing Swiss athletes and Japanese locals with unique opportunities to meet, exchange and create new ties that will outlast 2021.

The same events will simultaneously take place in four other Japanese cities: Oyamazaki (Kyoto Prefecture), Fukushima, Oita, and Fuji. Thanks to these special partnerships, the Swiss-Japanese friendship is set to enter the post-2021 period with a renewed vitality and creative power!