Japan Martial Arts Federation Start! Aiming At All-Japan MMA Championship
The new Japan Martial Arts Federation, which is under the umbrella of the Japan Wrestling Federation, held their inaugural press conference today. Figures such as WVR PR Kokuho, Sumo wrestler Asashoryu, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai were present.
The president of this new Federation, Tomiaki Fukuda, said that MMA and the like has spread around the world, so Japan must not fall behind. That’s the reason for this new Federation.
As mentioned previously, pro organizations WVR, Shooto, Pancrase, ZST, and 9 internal amateur organizations (Combat Wrestling, Muay Thai, BJJ, etc.) are participating in this.
The first action that the Federation will take is to send 8 fighters to the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Hanoi in Vietnam at the end of this month (for Muay Thai, Belt Wrestling, and Kurash). After that is the World Grappling Championship in Florida in December and of course the Martial Arts Games in Beijing in 2010.
Also, this federation, while clearing questions such as weight classes and rules, is aiming at an All-Japan MMA Championship.
I think that this All-Japan Championship will have a limited rule-set if it happens (since All-Japan tournaments usually don’t last more than a day) but with an annual championship it could definitely make MMA look more like a real sport in Japan. Especially with Shooto and Pancrase involved and the Federation saying that they will be strict on drug testing. Of course a weeked of MMA tournaments also sounds like a good watch and future Japanese stars could emerge.
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Nightmare Of Battle 
Good for Japan. BTW, I just realized Kokuho looks real young for a man with such a high position in a company.
will they start drug testing in japan?
they always did drug testing, no? it just wasn’t publicized. that’s what i always thought
They do blood testing, but never any testing for performance enhancing drugs.
this is amateur right? Basically what shooto has been doing forever, seems kind of pointless
SENGOKU does. They say that they do at least.
Nope, WVR, Shooto, Pancrase and ZST are all participating. It also states in the third paragraph that nine amateur Organizations will participate.
Japan Martial Arts Federation seems to be like Athletic Commissions in America, which is what Japan needed with all the speculation on most fighters in Japan juicing.
I don’t know if it’s for amateur fighters or pro fighters. Either way, just having an All-Japan for MMA is definitely not pointless. The aim is to legitimize MMA, maybe the only way for it to survive in Japan.
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GEORGIA kickboxing federation
Minombre es pepe craviotto me gustaria participar en la federacion y si no hay en España Delegacion aceptaria delegacion
entreno Artes Marciales Japonesas mas de 40 años Karate,kobudo,goshin
actualmente e creado mi propio estilo soy Soke y me gustaria pertenecer a una federacion japonesa
gracias reciaban un saludo