With Karate's First Olympics, Japan Made a Film to Reinvigorate Its National Image

The film, from Wieden+Kennedy Japan, features singer Miliyah Kato

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The art of Karate is at a crossroads in its home country of Japan.

With Tokyo playing host to the Olympic Games and Karate featuring as one of the sports for the first time, there was added pressure for the national athletes to perform strongly in this field, however, the gold medals were picked up by three European countries—Spain, France and Bulgaria.

Japan did, however, win a silver medal through Kiyou Shimizu and already there are questions over whether the sport should feature again.

The result doesn’t seem to be a surprise to the host nation, though, and earlier this year the Japan Karate Federation released a film featuring its six best athletes to promote more people taking it up.

Alongside

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