The "Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2022" was held in Ariake. Not only was it the first time in three years, but this Rakuten Open Tennis 2022 was also a high-grade tournament (ATP500), attracting top players from around the world, including No. 2 player Casper Ruud and Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios, who engaged in fierce matches.

The Ariake Tennis Forest Park, the venue for this tournament, has become one of the world's leading court facilities after being renovated for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Moreover, as its name suggests, it can be described as a venue with a rare environment surrounded by forests.

Rakuten, the main sponsor of this event, promoted its 25th-anniversary corporate message, "Let's Create the Future of Sports Together," seeking new forms of sports events and implementing various environmentally conscious initiatives in the tournament's operations.

Messages of support for the tournament's concept were also heard from the participating top players. They kindly agreed to brief interviews at the reception venue.

Casper Ruud, the number one seed, hailing from environmentally conscious Norway, said, "This tournament is wonderful for its operations that consider the future of our planet, and I am happy to participate. The tennis world is also nurturing young talent, and I believe the future of tennis is bright."

Top seeded players, including Borna Coric, Denis Shapovalov, and Alex de Minaur, also expressed their support for environmental initiatives. They collectively painted a bright future for sports, stating, "Especially in tennis, the performance of young players is becoming increasingly prominent, and we believe it will continue to develop further, including for ourselves."

Alongside the intense matches on the center court, I experienced firsthand the future connected by participating in this tournament and its environmental initiatives in various scenes.

Amidst the intense matches on the center court, various tennis-related exhibits and booths appeared within the Ariake Coliseum.

Among them, a striking sight was the giant message board installed next to the entrance. This was the "FOREST of WISH by Rakuten," utilizing 3D technology, allowing visitors to send messages of support for players, thoughts on sports, and ideas for the environment, among other things, onto a 3D animation. Their messages appeared alongside trees and animals within the entire coliseum and the surrounding forest. It created a sense of connection and new communication, where various feelings and thoughts converged in one space.

Messages such as "A Better Future as Seen by Athletes" from players like Shingo Kunieda and Kei Nishikori also appeared.

The operation was simple, and it was heartwarming to see people of all ages and genders at the venue sending their messages, providing a real sense of the growing interest in the environment and sustainability.

In several locations next to the rest areas in the venue, there were booths named "ECO STATION by Rakuten." At first glance, they appeared to be simple trash disposal areas, but they were lined with finely sorted waste collection boxes. While the boxes were colorful, the "ECO STATION by Rakuten" was not just a request for waste sorting. The waste collected here was transported to a collection point behind the venue, weighed according to its category, and the information was gathered on the cloud.

What does this mean? It is a system that can directly convey the volume of waste as a resource for recycling, rather than from the perspective of disposal.

For example, PET bottles are easily recycled by recycling companies. What is groundbreaking is the handling of food waste, which is used as material for biogas, and the remaining residue is repurposed into fertilizer, realizing an almost complete recycling model. Even the bento boxes used at the venue are made from "POOL resin," born from such initiatives.

In essence, even the waste generated at the venue becomes an important resource from the perspective of reuse. This system is a resource circulation platform called "POOL" provided by Recytech, which Rakuten adopted to create sustainable resource circulation at new events.

Rakuten sponsors (or rather, organizes) a wide range of events, not just tennis, but also baseball, soccer, and music events. Their new mission appears to be aiming for resource circulation across these various event platforms. In addition to the reuse of waste utilizing POOL, Rakuten Energy offsets electricity usage for the entire venue (an initiative aiming for zero CO2 emissions through carbon offsetting).

An initiative is also underway to visualize all requirements related to waste, electricity, and venue construction—specifically, the extraction of recyclable resources from materials procured for events—through "Circularity Assessment," aiming to minimize waste.

This is, in a sense, a groundbreaking concept, as it signifies that even the future of resources used in events, which have been neglected until now, becomes part of the event's flow.

How Rakuten will utilize the globally recognized Circularity Assessment may change the way events are held in Japan going forward.

Furthermore, the Rakuten Open 2022 features an initiative called "Green Ticket." This ticket supports Rakuten's goal of sustainable tournament operations and is used to back the various initiatives mentioned above. It is an extremely simple way to become part of an SDGs-oriented tournament for a mere 500 yen.

These were the escort kids selected to guide the players onto the court at the start of the men's singles semifinals and the wheelchair tennis finals at the Rakuten Open Tennis. They are courageous children who have experienced treatment for childhood cancer. Furthermore, in the men's singles semifinals, children who have also experienced cancer performed the crucial coin toss to decide serve or receive. These children took on this important role as guests of "Rakuten Medical," another key business of Rakuten.

This event was held with the aim of sharing Rakuten's and Rakuten Medical's wish for cancer recovery with attendees through the appearance of the escort kids. Rakuten Medical engages in various disease awareness activities at Rakuten-involved soccer and baseball games.

Rakuten Medical provides and researches treatment methods combining light and medication for head and neck cancers such as pharyngeal cancer, laryngeal cancer, and oral cancer. The appearance of children who have experienced childhood cancer as escort kids on this grand stage sent a message of hope for a future where everyone can enjoy sports.

"I was very nervous, but it was fun!" The sight of the children saying this might serve as encouragement and support for children currently undergoing treatment.

Material provided by: Rakuten