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On April 1, 2025, the JPF Scholarship Award Ceremony was held, and three athletes were selected as the first batch of recipients. The scholarship aims to support students who are dedicated to cycling, so that they can balance their studies and sports and build their future careers. We look forward to the scholarship recipients' continued success. At the award ceremony, the scholarship recipients shared their goals and resolve.

Representative Director Shuntaro Watanabe

I would like to explain why I started this scholarship. "Sports" originally comes from the Latin word deportare, which means "play." However, in Japan, the term "physical education" was born during the prewar militarist era, and it came to be seen as education that involves physical activity. In reality, sports come from unproductive "play," and even if you excel in competitions, if there are no people cheering you on, there will be no economic value. It is merely self-satisfaction. Winning is important, but I think it is important to consider how much you can move society, attract interest, and inspire people. I personally feel strongly that athletes have the potential to become leaders in Japan. I established this JPF scholarship program because I wanted to support athletes who can lead society, rather than simply cheering for the results of competitions. For now, you can focus on your sport. That is the top priority. However, in order to become leaders of Japan in the future, I would like you to start studying leadership little by little while you are playing your sport. Keep your antenna up in areas of interest, such as politics, social issues, and environmental issues, and enrich your sporting life. Do your best.

　Managing Director Yuhei Kuroe

I hope that you will use this scholarship program with the intention of gaining the opportunity to take on challenges that you could not take on due to financial difficulties, in order to gain more experience and knowledge that you will need for your long life. The number of challenges you take is overwhelmingly important, not just in terms of your time as an athlete, but also in terms of how you can continue to live a good (highly happy) life and become a person who is likely to achieve this. People who are successful in the world simply take on more challenges. People who take on challenges fail more, but they also succeed more. This leads to the idea that "it is definitely better to fail more." Also, failure is much less risky at a young age, and it is easier to start over. These experiences and challenges are likely to eventually lead to money again, and I believe that turning that money into human capital again will lead to social trust and enrich your life. Again, I would like you to take this scholarship as an investment in yourself, in the experience of trying various things and failing. I would also like you to report to us the experiences you have gained.

Scholarship student introduction